Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I, too, congratulate Deputy Curran on his election as Chairman, even though he may only hold that position for a short time. This committee has been established to deal with what is a very important issue. It behoves us all to dedicate ourselves to ensuring that we identify priorities and resolve to deal in a non-political way with a problem currently affecting thousands of families in this country, particularly those living in the greater Dublin area. Those of us who represent the greater Dublin area know well the serious issue that the lack of housing and homelessness is there.

There are two issues that I would like to see dealt with, namely, homelessness among people who ordinarily would not be homeless but, through no fault of their own, find themselves homeless, including for demographic reasons and, the provision into the future of a good solid basis for identification of the problem prior to its becoming an emergency, including the putting in place of the necessary structures to do so. We must try to ensure that whatever happens following publication of this committee's report, we will never again have peaks and valleys in this area. Housing is an ongoing requirement regardless of economic situations.