Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have only been a TD for four years but I was a councillor before that, since 2009. Up until about three years ago, I had never seen an older person come to me for social housing. People had come to me to downsize or to rightsize to a single bedroom unit. I am dealing with a couple, a 62-year-old and a 64-year-old. He is 64. He said to me, "Tommy, I am going to be retired." He said the gap between HAP and the rent is too big and asked what he is going to do. His worry is that, in two years' time, he will face homelessness. I know that different groups touched on the gap and how people right across the State should be able to access the homeless HAP. I did not see the whole issue of older people in the past but it has really come to the fore now. The witnesses' statistics really show that.

I refer to the one-parent family.

Like the witnesses, I have serious concerns, which I raised earlier with the DRHE, Cork City Council and the Department. People are now coming to me. Two primary school teachers in Cork contacted me to say they are seriously worried about children who had been doing very well in school, but who are now not doing so well. Those children are not getting their homework done, the teachers are worried about what they are eating, and they are missing days in school. I have asked that if families have to go into emergency accommodation, where possible, they need to be close to their communities, schools and sporting clubs. We are seeing children who are embarrassed and ashamed. These children have done nothing wrong; it is the system that is failing them. Do the witnesses believe that as well? They mentioned something similar about schools in their own-----