Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Role of Chairperson of Housing Agency and Related Matters: Discussion

1:30 pm

Mr. Conor Skehan:

Fine. In that case, I will synopsise it because we do not have a huge amount of time. Essentially they say that there are three case studies that would be of assistance on the basis of the personal experience of the councillor. To be really clear, I went back and checked this with the county manager afterwards and the county manager confirmed that these are cases.

Case 1

A young woman who had been living with her father in Council accommodation contacted me in the latter half of last year. A problem arose, as her father had no permission to allow people stay with him. She found herself becoming homeless and contacted myself and other Councillors in our electoral area. The problem was resolved and the Council advised she could remain living with her father.

She was most disappointed at this... because of the difficulty with her father he would no longer allow her to live with him. The council agreed to provide emergency accommodation in a nearby hotel.

She only stayed in the Hotel room for one week and then moved back to her family home and now uses the hotel room to meet her partner a few nights a week, but as far as she is concerned she is now living in emergency accommodation... This lady is counted in our homeless figures and nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the information I am being sent. I would be remiss in my role if I did not challenge my executive to find out if this is true.

Case 2

A young lady approached me two years ago who told me she was homeless and sleeping in her car with her three children under the age of 7. She had been living in a council house with her father and claimed that he was being physically abusive to her and her partner and they had to leave the home. I asked if she could stay with her mother who was in another council house close by and she told me she had not spoken to her mother in years and that there was no chance of her mother agreeing to this.

I attended the Council offices with her, her partner and her children. It was impossible for the meeting to be held, as the children were [very noisy]...

[I arranged a meeting the following day] To my surprise she called her mother who arrived in her car and took the children home and arranged with her daughter to see her at the house later, when I questioned her about what she had told me in relation to her mother she said [that]... this was the best way for her to enter emergency accommodation. She had a council house six months later.

This is what I am being told. This is what I am being asked to draw to the committee's attention.

Case 3

Some months back at the launch of yet another fundraising drive by the homeless charities I watched a video... of a young child struggle with the steps of a B&B because he was in temporary accommodation. It was an appalling site [sic], and one that was viewed over 500,000 times on you tube.

When I realised that this child was a member of a homeless family from Fingal I approached our executive and sought an explanation as to how this was happening on our watch.

It was only then I learned that this family had been offered alternative accommodation, including a brand new 3 bed specially [adapted] home in a new development and refused it as it was a ten minute bus journey from where they had hoped to secure a home.

The same family also refused a transfer to a hotel nearby where they could have had a room [adapted] for people with special needs, as it was not close enough to the mother’s family home.

This next piece comes to the heart of looking harder for evidence.

When the facts in this case were brought by me to RTE and Independent Newspapers they both investigated and confirmed the story, both indicating they were anxious to run it and both then reverting and advising me that it was too dangerous legally to deal with the story.

I will not deal with the rest of it.

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