Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Wallace. That was an amazing contribution from him. We all have responsibilities in this House. We all have responsibilities towards everyone we deal with, and so does Deputy Wallace. We all have responsibilities to ensure we do our utmost to make sure people do not get into poverty and are not left in difficult situations. It is imperative we all do that. I certainly will not be hiding behind anything. I am going to hide behind budgets or anything else in regard to an issue like this; it is far more serious than that. I have said already in the House, in committee and previously that if it is a question of looking for budgets, I will get budgets, but it is broader than that. It is a very complex issue. If the processes are not working, people will slip through the cracks no matter now much we put into this. That is a fact, and I know all of the Deputies have accepted it to some degree.

I have no issue whatsoever with NAMA coming in. It has supplied a serious number of units for social housing and there is a plan to supply thousands more, so there is no issue there.

I am more interested in Deputy Collins' second point on Fr. Scully House. I agree with the Deputy. Perhaps I should have been more vocal on this earlier but this cannot go on. We have a situation where 99 units are not in play. This is not in my control, as the House will appreciate, as it is a private organisation. I will be asking Archbishop Diarmuid Martin about this but I understand he has made comments previously that he does not have any role, so I will have to tease this out. By all accounts, the name as opposed to the orientation is the Catholic Housing Aid Society, but whatever role Archbishop Martin can have, I would welcome any help. The idea of a situation continuing where 99 units - fine units, by all accounts - are left standing idle is not acceptable and cannot continue. There may be other cases where work is taking place with other groups and there are similar issues.

I want to see solutions brought about that will intercept people who are in vulnerable situations. I have spoken previously about budgets but I absolutely believe that, collectively, there is a need for processes to be put in place to co-ordinate what we, the local authorities, all of the NGOs, State agencies like the HSE and others involved in addiction counselling are doing. It must cover everything. All of this needs a protocol that works clearly. My orientation on Thursday will be to deal with that in an intense way to put in place processes that will work. If it requires more funding, I will go to Government looking for that and I will get that, but it is not, I believe, confined to that issue. I need everyone to come to the table, to leave their organisational brand outside as regards what they want for themselves, to think collectively, as a society, working together in that room on how we are going to deal with this issue, because society let down Jonathan.

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