Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the announcement of a commission of inquiry. That inquiry will be far-reaching. Fundamentally, it will go back to the origins of a state that was controlled by fear and where responsibility for services was often outsourced. This led to a real tragedy for those who lived in and, in some cases, died in mother and baby homes. I will obviously attend the briefing and comment on it later.

I wish to raise another issue, a contemporary example of the outsourcing of responsibility. Tomorrow we will pass the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill. This is a seminal moment in that we will officially abandon people on housing waiting lists to the markets. In the absence of dealing with anything on the supply side, housing authorities will now become housing support agencies. This represents a fundamental shift in how we deal with housing. The private sector will now become the sole supplier, or almost the sole supplier, of social housing. It is a figleaf that attempts to cover up the emergency that is evident. Recent announcements by the Minister responsible for housing are intended to give the impression that many things are being done. Those announcements, however, are superficial and inadequate, given the scale of what is needed. Much of this is being brushed under the carpet.

In many cases, there are children involved. We are back talking about children. The children can be sheltered only for so long from the fear they will pick up from their parents. Uncertainty as to where they will go to school next week and the question of whether they will have a home in a month's time will inevitably have an impact on their lives.

There appears to be no standard response to the treatment of families facing homelessness; it very much depends on the location of the family. Some local authorities provide short-term temporary accommodation, and others send the individuals away. Some of those presenting are very vulnerable. How, for example, can a young woman who delivered twins ten weeks prematurely just three weeks ago go house-hunting when she is caring for those babies in intensive care? How can a deaf woman caring for a child with special needs convince a landlord to take less than the market rent? The entire process is very much a hands-off one. People are left to their own devices with unrealistic rent supplement limits. It is an impossible task.

Does the Taoiseach agree that housing authorities are being turned into housing support agencies? If not, what is the Government's plan to deal with the supply-side shortage in the short and medium terms? Will he acknowledge the role of rent supplement limits in the current crisis and take immediate steps to relax the rent caps to allow families to secure housing?

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