Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I also express my condolences to the family of Jonathan Corrie, my solidarity with all of those who face the human tragedy of homelessness and my support for those who are currently holding a vigil to highlight this issue.

There has been an explosion in homelessness. There has always been homelessness in our society, but it has multiplied massively over the past year. Focus Ireland said it would normally deal with about eight families a month; last month it dealt with 45. All of those cases involve individual human tragedies. Every person who contacts me in a housing crisis has a horrific tale about the experience of ending up in that situation and trying to get out of it. We have seen cases such as that of Shane and Ciara Dwyer, who were living in their car in Jobstown, Fiona O'Connor, who has to leave her house by Christmas Day, and Helen Lynch, who has been homeless for the best part of a year and has to find permanent accommodation in order for her son to get on a transplant list. Every single one of the numbers has a human case underneath it. We cannot wash our hands of the situation and say it is a tragedy and some unexplained natural disaster. It is a tragedy which is a result of Government policy. It is obviously not the intention of the Government for this to happen to anybody, but it flows from Government policy. Father Peter McVerry put his finger on it earlier today when he said:

Unfortunately cattle and sheep are more important to our economy than homeless people. We have a homeless crisis which is not being addressed.

That is the reality.

The long-term solution, including rent caps, rent controls and the building of significant amounts of social housing, and the short-term need to provide emergency homeless accommodation are not being addressed. NAMA owns 12% of all the hotels in the State. Homeless people are living in very difficult emergency accommodation where there are curfews and security personnel end up in their homes without forewarning. People who are in desperate situations are treated as prisoners. We need to refurbish the hotels and allow people to stay in them while homes are being built.

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