Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I acknowledge the Minister's response to the recent tragedy and his announcement the other day certainly is welcome. All sides in this Chamber are willing to work with him as the Minister with responsibility to try to resolve this issue once and for all.

Homelessness is multifaceted. One is dealing with families who have lost their homes through the economic crash, people with mental health issues and people with drug addiction so no one solution will fit everyone. I want to focus on one cohort of people, namely, people who suffer from drug addiction, because it is very close to my heart. I know heroin addicts who have worked extremely hard to get their lives back on track, gone to rehab, left their families, made tough decisions on a personal level to get clean and to come off methadone or prescription drugs and spent three months in a rehab centre in Carlow with no contact with the outside world. I know a person who came out of that centre feeling energised and that he had got his life back. He wanted that helping hand to get back on the right track to try and make a positive contribution to society. The first issue he faced when he came out of that rehab centre clean after having been on heroin for a number of years was the fact that he had nowhere to live. He ended up going back into a homeless shelter - emergency accommodation - where the temptation of drugs was under his nose every day. Despite that, he battled on and was able to get rent allowance because he was registered as homeless. He went looking for a property to rent. We should remember that this is a man who is in a very fragile state of mind and has just kicked a very serious addiction. He needed those supports and persons to help him through that difficult period. He needed them to be close to him. He could not find accommodation to fit the rent allowance. It was impossible to find it so he had no choice but to stay in the homeless shelter. Eventually, he found accommodation that came under the rent allowance limits but this was 30 miles away from his case worker and the treatment centre he needed to attend daily so he was left with a decision. He either stays where he is and faces the temptation of drugs every day while trying to resist that temptation and regain the social skills he needs to get back on a normal footing or he moves 30 miles away from the very people he needs to support him. Those are the tough decisions that people who are coming out of addiction face.

While the €20 million and the extra emergency bends are very welcome, we need to go further in the longer term. We need to ensure that people who come out of rehab centres and who are trying to get their lives back on track have suitable and affordable accommodation available to them. That is not happening. Rents are running away from people. The rent allowance people get is not sufficient. Until we deal with that, which is the one glaring omission from the Minister's 20 point plan, people will face those tough choices - either take accommodation that they can afford 20 miles away from their key workers and the supports they need to help them stay off drugs or leave themselves in a position where they must remain in a homeless shelter where those temptations are there every day.

I ask the Minister to look at that. I know he cannot do everything at once and as I said, everything he has done is welcome but there are real challenges facing people. It is not just about putting a roof over their heads. We are talking about people who are very fragile, whether it is through mental health problems or drug addiction. As I said, it is an issue that is very close to my heart. My own sibling is one of those individuals and he faces that battle every day. Unless we deal with it, it will be a tragedy for my family and it is not something I want. I plead with the Minister to look at those issues in the longer term.

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