Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I will briefly address a number of points. Deputy Casey asked whether schools with a DEIS status could cater better for children experiencing homelessness. I attended an Irish Primary Principals Network conference in January. It had surveyed its membership of 3,000 primary school principals and 39% of them had had interaction with homelessness. That is a feature of every area of the country. Teachers are all doing a fantastic job as best they can. They are the unsung heroes who are catering for many of these children, whether it is bringing in food to help the children at breakfast time or staying on after the school day to help them with their homework. The education sector is doing a phenomenal job in circumstances where there is not the support that is needed in other areas on the ground, whether it be a childcare support worker or a home, school, community liaison officer. A great deal of work needs to be done to support these children. This does not only involve schools with DEIS status. We need to recognise that is one of the elements that clearly emerged from the report published yesterday. Dr. Nowicki said it is scary how close we all are to homelessness. We need to move from thinking that it is only happens in disadvantaged areas. It happens to people experiencing economic crisis. Family disruptions are causing people to fall into homelessness in a way that has not happened previously. Tipperary and Clare are now considering establishing family hubs and there is homelessness in those areas which we would not have associated with them previously.

Deputy Casey asked is there anything else that could be done that has not been done. I am concerned we will go through this crisis and somewhere along the line there will be enough houses but we will not have changed the system. Therefore, when the next crash comes, children and families will still not be protected. We must also examine the rental system to ensure there is more security. In that way, people can consider themselves as lifetime renters if they need to be. They can stay in the areas in which they want to be. They would have some level of security in the way that people in every other country in Europe and America have where they can sustain their lifetime living as a family. That is why I am worried about accommodation not being one of the priorities in housing. We need to show there is another way to proceed. When we speak to the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, it says the only tool it has is HAP. We know in many other parts of the country rental accommodation is not coming on stream. Rental accommodation is not available in Limerick, Cork or Galway. There must be a wider sense of what housing options are available to people. In the short term it will be about providing accommodation but we must use this crisis to make sure this never happens again. That means widening the breadth of security for families not necessarily only the owners but for those who want to rent for life, whether it be in social housing or in the rental system. The rental system has not changed that much. The biggest change has been that we now provide six months' notice to people who are have been renting for five years. That is a step forward but it does not represent security. In any other country in Europe there are people who have rented all their lives and lived in the one house. We also need to provide that option in the future.