Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has given me the theory but the reality is different. Part of the reality is that there is a serious housing crisis, particularly in Dublin, and that the local authorities do not have the housing that is needed.

My question came from the fact that I am involved with a counselling organisation that counsels women in crisis pregnancies. Some of the women whom we are counselling are homeless at the moment. When their babies are born they will continue in homelessness. That is what they are facing. They will have to look for foster care for their babies.

This work, in turn, put me in touch with an organisation that provides housing for women in crisis pregnancies. It has three bedrooms but a waiting list of 29 women who are pregnant. The majority are Irish but some are foreign national women who cannot go back to their country of origin. We know of 29 people who are pregnant and about to give birth in the coming weeks and months. They do not have anywhere to live apart from this one house with three bedrooms provided by one organisation. That is the reality.

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