Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Families are left in bed and breakfast accommodation or hotel rooms, some of them for years. They do not want to be there. They want proper accommodation. The thousands of people on housing lists want their own homes. They want that basic security. This is not just an issue of rough sleepers, although that is the sharpest end of the homeless crisis. I accept that parts of homelessness are complex issues for the person in question, but in policy terms all of this is quite simple. There is nothing complicated about a 200% increase in rough sleepers in 12 months. It should shout "Crisis" at the Taoiseach. The €233 million the Government has cut from the social housing budget since taking up office is not complex. It was a simple decision on the Government's part.

What the Taoiseach needs to resolve today with his colleagues is to tackle this issue and to recognise that one cannot solve a housing or homeless crisis without houses. One cannot end an accommodation crisis without accommodation. This requires the Government to invest. Tea and sympathy will not cut it. Yarns about meeting individuals on the streets, as enlightening as that clearly was for the Taoiseach, will not cut it. When will the Government invest? When will it release funds to local authorities in Dublin and elsewhere to ensure people in bed and breakfast accommodation or hotel rooms or sleeping on the streets will have a place to call home?

See this speech in context