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

I raised this issue in the Dáil yesterday. I am dealing with a lady who is 12 months in recovery and Cork County Council will not house her. She was in the throes of addiction because she was being abused by her partner at the time, both physically and mentally. She got away from her partner, got a barring order and got into recovery. She is a year into recovery and is trying to get her two children back but cannot get emergency accommodation because the attitude of some local authorities towards people in recovery is a disgrace.

I wrote to the new chief executive of Cork County Council and the person who was there before her. There is an attitude to people who are in addiction and to people who are in recovery. This lady wants to get her two children back. She is a year into recovery and when I spoke to her last week, she said she had gone through a very black phase a few weeks ago. She is on the edge and if we cannot get that woman accommodation, even temporary accommodation, she could relapse and her children will stay in foster care. We need more supports even around emergency accommodation. What we do know is that when people get into recovery, the contributions they make to society because of their lived experience and what they have gone through is brilliant.

I brought out a charter of rights for people in recovery as part of my portfolio two years ago. We met with over 20 groups and we did focus groups. I did not put housing as the number one issue because people will say Sinn Féin is always on about housing. When we met with the focus groups, however, they said to that the number one issue for people in recovery is housing. If people cannot get housing, they are put into centres where others are openly drinking, openly taking drugs and openly trying to sell drugs to them while they are trying to fight against it. The whole issue of recovery - and I think it was touched on - is that more needs to be done to support people who are going through this battle. It is a battle every day being in recovery.