Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I have permission from every one of these people to raise their cases. They asked me to do so. They are from Dún Laoghaire but also from Wicklow and Dublin city centre. That is how desperate people are. We have gone everywhere and they have gone everywhere, including Threshold, Focus, the local authority and welfare sections, but there are no council houses. Maura, who is in the Visitors' Gallery, has been on a housing list for 14 years and was told recently by the local authority that it would be three more years before she is housed. That is 17 years. Ilona and Donatus are facing eviction next week because the community welfare officer will not vary the cap by €100. Charlene is in a hotel with five children and does not even know if she will have that hotel room tomorrow. She could be sleeping in a car, and she has to bring those five children across to Shankill. How would the Minister feel if she were in that situation? I know that if it were me, I would not give a damn about reviews, meetings and discussions that have been going on for years or plans to get the construction industry going. I would just ask the person who has the power to do it to ring up community welfare officers and tell them to vary the caps to enable people to get a place to rent. Then, yes, let us have the social housing. We cannot wait for that now, however. We need emergency action to prevent people from being driven into homelessness. I beg the Minister to do this.

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