Mr. Lewis Mooney:

The committee will be acutely aware, as the ombudsman has already outlined, that there is no constitutional right to housing. However, as outlined in the statement that has been furnished to the committee, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affords the right to an adequate standard of living for children within the jurisdiction. The courts in recent times have demonstrated a willingness to interpret domestic and constitutional obligations in light of public international law obligations on the State. That has been seen in cases such as N.H.V. v.the Minister for Justice and Equality in respect of the right to work. There is also a debate going on about the impact of Article 42A in respect of the right to housing and children. The result of this remains to be seen through litigation. It is also outlined in our statement that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in its examination of Ireland in 2016 found that there were reports of major delays in respect of families living in emergency accommodation and inappropriate, temporary accommodation on a long-term basis. We must recognise in the political discourse that those families are also categorised, quite correctly, as homeless.

The Children's Rights Alliance is running a campaign called No Child 2020. The overarching principle behind it is for every child to be provided with secure and affordable housing. That is not the case now. Instead, we face an emergency in the homelessness crisis. That has been outlined in the Children's Rights Alliance report card. The Children's Rights Alliance is advocating for a best interests analysis to be inserted into the heart of legislation on the assessment of families who find themselves in homelessness. The evidence shows that the largest cohort of people in homelessness are lone parent families. As Ms Ward has outlined, children are being placed in accommodation far away from their schools and communities. This has long-term ramifications for their mental health, welfare and well-being and their interactions with their own communities. There is also a lack of suitable facilities within the emergency accommodation in which children are placed, and a lack of space, which is causing major problems for families. We are calling for a statutory obligation to be placed on the Government and local authorities to carry out a best interest analysis when placing children and families in accommodation and to ensure that the voice of the child is heard throughout that process and that children are consulted on placements. The other thing the Children's Rights Alliance is calling for through the No Child 2020 campaign is for a limit to be placed on the amount of time for which families can be placed in emergency accommodation. The politics of this is difficult but the evidence through the Home Works report has demonstrated that families in emergency accommodation are finding themselves becoming increasingly institutionalised and that is causing major difficulties as well. Those are the two immediate asks of the Children's Rights Alliance in order to be able to realise the much longer term solution of providing secure and stable accommodation for families across Ireland.