Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The short term is the real problem. The Minister is right about rising rents and said he is dealing with this every day but I am dealing with this every day as well and from what I can see, it is not working. There is a county boundary which delineates my area from the Dublin area. The tenancy protection environment in the Dublin area is very different from what we experience. I see vulnerable groups finding it impossible to secure accommodation. I see families being broken up and cases where one person in a family is sleeping in the car while the children are being farmed out and do not get to school. Real damage is being done. If we are moving to a different model, we cannot have a situation where people have the entire responsibility to source the accommodation themselves, because some people will simply find it impossible.

We find that people are being moved away from resources, for example, children with special needs. When they have to move, very often the resources cannot move with them. What I am seeing in my area is pure chaos. There is an urgency about this issue and about extending what is available in Dublin to other areas.

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