Mr. Ger Deering:

That is not acceptable and we never condone it. We do not expect public servants or officials to put up with bad behaviour. Parking that, we do expect that public servants treat everybody with respect and dignity. There is a lot of research in this area of human rights but I boil it down to the question of how people would like to be treated themselves and how they would like their family members to be treated. It is about respect and dignity. In the vast majority of cases, that is how people are treated.

In our annual report for 2023, I outline a case study involving a family in Cork and their application for housing. It was not about whether they got a house. It was about how they were dealt with by the local authority and the communications they received. I felt that treatment was inappropriate. I engaged with the council, I met the family members in their home and I met the chief executive of the local authority. The result was that we recommended an apology be made to the family. We featured that situation as a case study to highlight that people are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity. I am not so sure that the people who are finding themselves having to camp on the street at the moment are being treated with respect and dignity.

As a country, I do not think that is the treatment we should be giving to anybody. That is why we are looking at things through a human rights lens and seeing if we are treating people the way we want to be treated ourselves.