Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

What I find strange about the Government amendment is that it does not deal with the substance of the motion so it is hardly an amendment. As others have explained time and again tonight and especially last night, the central issue is the relationship between housing need and homelessness, work and the poverty trap.

Either those affected by the issue have decided to avoid contacting Deputies from the Government side or those Deputies understand the problem and have chosen not to deal with it. About three weeks ago I was contacted by a young couple who had become homeless because they could not pay their €1,000 a month rent. The young man earned just above the minimum wage and the family received family income supplement so their income was about €400 a week. Having got into arrears with their rent, they moved all their worldly goods into a room in a relative's house and all four of them had to share a double bed in another room in the same house.

I spoke to the council's homeless officer, community welfare officer and several other people, but I knew the stark choice the family were likely to face. They could either take up short-term hostel accommodation 35 miles away, which would have necessitated the man giving up his job, or they could continue staying in the room in which they currently lived. Alternatively, if the man gave up his job, they could receive rent assistance and welfare. The man told me that he did not even contemplate giving up the job. Three weeks later that family are still sharing the double bed in the same house.

Approximately 2,000 individuals and families are on Kildare County Council's waiting list, but from that source they can expect no resolution to their housing problem for about three years. With unemployment running at between 4 and 5%, the question is often asked "Who exactly are the people on the housing waiting list?" Many of them are people who want to work but cannot take up a low-paid job because they would lose their rent assistance. We keep hearing employers say that they cannot get people to work in low-paid jobs. I know many people who would love to work but who simply cannot afford to do so and every one of them is a housing applicant. The policies being pursued are anti-work and anti-family.

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