Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The former Minister for Defence was not noted for his softly-softly approach to issues. Accordingly, I am disappointed the Minister of State seems to be adopting a more hard-line approach and rejecting some of the progress achieved by people such as Deputy Clare Daly in raising this matter.

In the course of the past month, I was struck by the plight of a family of a serving member of the Defence Forces whose wife approached me on such a matter. They had lived in Army accommodation for many years and he had over 20 years of service. They had cause to leave their Army accommodation because they had raised serious concerns with the Department of Defence about the quality of it. They had gone into private rented accommodation but it was then offered for sale, meaning they found themselves almost on the verge of homelessness with two young children about to undertake State examinations. When they went to their local authority, they were told there was nothing it could for them because they were not on its housing list. Instead, they were informed they were the responsibility of the Department of Defence.

The Department has allowed this family become homeless. It has failed to step in and come to their aid at a time when it had accommodation that could have been made available to them.

See this speech in context