Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

All over my constituency in County Kerry and all over this State, there are more people without a roof over their heads than ever. An unprecedented number of people are coming to my three constituency offices, in Kilorglin, Tralee and Listowel, for help because they have lost their homes, are in fear of losing their homes or are part of the hidden homeless, those who are sleeping on couches or living with relatives whose accommodation is inadequate to house them properly. Meanwhile, there are 136 vacant properties in the county.

Some of these people might not be suffering as visibly as those on the streets, but the suffering goes on in separated families, in the stress of overcrowding and of children being aware of their plight and being ashamed of it and not doing so well at school and not managing to turn up to school as well turned out as they used to be and would like to be. People refer to a housing crisis and some talk about a housing emergency but the truth is that if something has been going on for as long as this, then it is no longer a crisis or an emergency but a policy.

We all remember last year when poor Jonathan Corrie died across the road and the Taoiseach, having first notified the media, ventured out into the real world for an hour or so, to visit the homeless on the streets. He went out with the Lord Mayor of Dublin and cried, then the Minister for water charges and homelessness, Deputy Alan Kelly, called an emergency summit and opened some shelters providing temporary accommodation for some of those already on the streets. Providing temporary shelter for people so desperate that they sleep on the streets is better than nothing, it relieves suffering, it may even save lives. There are thousands of others, however. Even though anyone who walks out the door of this institution can see that there are more people than any of us have ever seen on the streets, they are in the minority. Most homeless people are hidden away in a friend’s house, in their mother’s house, in their cars and in rooms in hotels, where they are forced to sleep, eat, wash, mind their kids, do the homework, survive in one room, maintain some semblance of normality and try not to sink into hopelessness.

There are not enough houses. When that happens, when that is government policy, the people on the lowest wages end up homeless. No matter how hard they work, how hard they try, no matter how thrifty and responsible they are, how many pay related social insurance, PRSI, contributions they have made, they end up homeless. Landlords raise the rent, the Government pretends that it is nothing to do with it and rent allowance is cut. None of that is going to be resolved by providing temporary shelter for people living on the streets. None of that has anything to do with the Taoiseach in his woolly hat, traipsing around the city crying crocodile tears.

This week another man died outside the door here. He died in a laneway that many of us use as we pass from Dawson Street to Kildare Street. The media coverage was less and at least we have been spared the crocodile tears from the Government benches. There is cruelty and indifference on those benches and a failure to admit that if a problem persists year after year, it is not just a problem anymore, but a policy. It is a policy that comes from the right-wing political ideology that private property is paramount and that State intervention is some kind of lefty notion that must be fought against, so there is no rent control. Even on commercial property, there are upward-only rent reviews. The free market was being protected when the banks were bailed out at the expense of our public health, social protection, education and housing. That is the ideology that cannot see past a knee-jerk reaction of protection of the rich, the powerful, the people who do not need protection.

The Government cares about the market, property rights, the rich and powerful. That is its ideology. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government speaks about "reasonable measures", nothing that could be interpreted as anti-competitive, nothing too radical by the standards of those who see property and wealth as more important than the lives and well-being of vulnerable people. He is doing nothing about the people who are homeless. Nothing tangible has been done in the past year. It is the Minister's policy that people suffer on.

The Government has to change its policy and implement a programme of building social housing across this State, introduce rent controls and carry out a review of bank repossessions. That is what this Government has to do but it has no notion of doing it. Shamefully, the Labour Party Deputies can embrace and swallow the ideology of right-wing Fine Gaelism. Sinn Féin is tonight introducing a Private Member's motion which calls for housing and homelessness to be tackled. Sinn Féin has outlined a series of measures to tackle the crisis. In the interests of all those homeless or in danger of losing their homes, we hope all parties will support it.

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