Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

So we will have another 1,000 families who are self-referring into bed and breakfasts or hotel accommodation and 75% of them are out of Dublin. That is becoming a norm for those 650 and, as Ms Ward said, an institutionalising effect is created because there is no clear pathway. I will be a little bit political for 30 seconds. Earlier this week, I saw a report which stated that 25,000 new units were being built by Government. If we want to cut to the chase and not insert anything in the Constitution and if we wanted to alleviate all child homelessness in the country, of those 25,000 units, we should allocate 1,750 for all the families who are experiencing child homelessness and just deal with it. That sounds very simple but it ends the problem. Despite all the long conversations we have had about children experiencing the fact that they cannot access education, do not have a front door, cannot be in their community and cannot play outside, among other effects and everything else we are doing to alleviate it, we can actually solve it because we only need 1,750 houses. That might sound very simplistic but it is much simpler than changing the Constitution, doing pre-legislative scrutiny and so on because at least we have a good base to start with. We would have removed the crisis and emergency. That is what I think we should focus on, lobby the Government for and ring-fence.

How will we use the allocation being built this year and next year? Houses are being built. They might not be built in the locations where everybody is but, then again, this is where there will be an onus on people to work with local authorities to ensure that if they are offered a property where there is adequate support through schools and communities, they avail of it and do not state it is not close enough to their families or X, Y or Z. This is what we should be looking at.

The Children's Rights Alliance, the Ombudsman for Children and the committee should seek the ring fencing of 1,750 houses. Then we could use the hubs for the next tier of people who need to avail of them. We would have a strategy and a system in place. This might be simplified but we need solutions as opposed to getting bogged down with what is in or outside the Constitution. We should work on that on the side. The Children's Rights Alliance displayed a card with an F but we need to display this card along with the solution. The solution is to ring-fence and we need to look for this. The committee would be supportive of this. We have to have solutions. We have to take children out of the crisis. Last week I was critical of the local authorities and I will continue to be so until we get the systems put in place for them. It does not need to be legislative; it is called best practice. We need to simplify this so there is a direction from somebody in a Department on best practices.

One of the reasons we have a housing crisis is the collapse of the economy and nobody can shy away from this. We have had five and ten-year fixed terms, which have all been maturing and now builders or whoever owns the properties are selling with a relative balance of equity. Some of the families who bought properties and fell on hard times also are within this. The HPL form that must be stamped is preventing families accessing social housing scheme faster. It is a Revenue document. If people received tax credits over the previous years, it cannot be stamped. If the form cannot be stamped people do not qualify for social housing. This is a huge barrier for many families trying to access the process. It is something that needs to be looked at. There has to be some way to support these families when they come forward. They are the people self-referring to bed and breakfast accommodation. They have had their own properties and feel the shame that has been spoken about. They do not want to tell anybody. The first time they look for support they are slapped straight back down because they do not qualify. These are middle income earners. They are middle Ireland. They get up and go to work and they are trying to balance everything. They could not hold on to their properties and they are struggling to pay the rent. They are being held back because of this form, which is something we need to look at.

What would the witnesses like from us? They have told us what they want in legislation but what are their quick fixes that we can push on the floor of the Dáil or Seanad to intervene? When the Minister, Deputy Zappone, intervened in the early years programme to help with buses it was a simple solution. How can we help with the meals? How can we ensure spare uniforms or an allowance? What is needed within the schools' capitation budgets if spare uniforms are required because they have not been washed? Is there is an allowance for lunches to be provided? Deputy Darragh O’Brien explained it very well when speaking about a particular school where every class brought in an extra lunch. There was responsibility within the class. People have lot of pride. Perhaps we should give some control back to the primary and secondary school principals so they have a budget to provide uniforms, books or lunches. Will the witnesses tell us exactly where they are at with regard to recommendations to the Government for support on this?