Ms Louise Bayliss:

Absolutely. Our front-line workers will say that one of the biggest issues is children being placed in emergency accommodation that could be two commuter rides away from their support network and services. That leads to two things. One is if a parent is in employment, especially a lone parent, he or she has to give up his or her job, which makes it harder to exit homelessness. Second, the child has to commute two bus rides away, and is not able to have playdates with their friends or proper cooked meals. It is a massive issue.

Focus Ireland, and National One Parent Family Alliance also point to this, has been trying to have best interests of the child legislation introduced. The housing legislation that governs homelessness was devised in 1988. At that time, there was no such thing as family homelessness and child homelessness. The legislation governing homelessness has nothing to do with children. We need to urgently bring it to the reality of at least 4,000 children being in emergency accommodation at present. We need to recognise those needs and have child support workers available for every child. We see the difference that makes. Parents are often supported by key workers but it is important that children are as well.