Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this debate and thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. We are in the middle of the worst housing crisis we have ever experienced. As Fr. Peter McVerry said, the social welfare system is one of the major causes of homelessness. I have seen working families forced into homelessness and I have also seen homelessness masked when family members take in other family members and families are divided. Some 90,000 families and individuals are on the housing waiting list and over 6,000 of them are in Kildare - this makes Kildare one of the worst affected counties in the country. There must be short, medium and long-term solutions to this problem. In the short term, councils will have to buy houses as, in future, children will pay the price for the difficulties we are creating. Children are living in houses where stress is rife as the occupants spend their waking hours searching for alternative accommodation rather than employment. This is unacceptable. Schools do not know whether some children will continue to attend as their families seek alternative accommodation. The situation is intolerable and is getting worse by the week in my constituency - I do not doubt that the same applies to other parts of the country. The Government must stop sitting on its hands and do something that will make a difference for people. There must be a short-term response, as well as medium and long-term responses.

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