Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is by a long way the number one issue about which people come to me at the moment. It has really become a crisis. I probably could have written that response myself. It has been talked about as a short-term support. I know people who are seven and eight years on that support. There are 7,000 people on the waiting list, so one would want to be a 2003 to 2004 applicant to have a chance of the odd house that might come up.

The rent limits were revised on 17 June and they made a little bit of difference, but it is chaos now and we cannot wait until 31 December 2014 for the next review, as outlined in the reply. I am onto the officer for homeless persons on a daily basis. The crisis is really of that order. I know families who have had to take children out of school. I know a family with a number of people with disabilities who are currently in bed and breakfast accommodation, and the homeless officer is dealing with that.

It is all very well to talk about data on averages - we got that earlier this week - but there is somebody living in Leixlip who is indigenous to the area and somebody living in Athy and being indigenous to that area. We simply cannot shift a family from one area to the other. There are all sorts of things that go on with a family other than housing.

I do not know anybody of the 1,000 people who are able to secure accommodation in north Kildare who is not topping up. They are using their social welfare payments or their child benefit payments to pay the difference between what is being declared and what they are paying for accommodation.

This is happening to everyone. A person can only live on beans and toast for so long. That is what is happening. These people are turning up at the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, because something does not get paid.

I acknowledge the work of the homeless officers in the council. They are doing as much as they can in a tough environment. However, when we see the magnitude of the problem, which is turning up as the number one issue consistently, then there really is a problem that needs to be managed in a different way.

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