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

During the term of this Government, there have been many examples of the Opposition bringing good motions and Bills to this House and the Government just voting them down without proper consideration simply because they originate from the Opposition. I am asking the Government to support this Bill because the people who are homeless in this State need it. The human suffering caused by high levels of rent and the current shortage of social housing is too much for people to bear and is too serious a matter to play politics with. The crisis is out of control.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, who is responsible for homelessness promised 1,000 social housing units this time last year when Jonathan Corrie's body was found outside this building. He delivered 20 in the first six months of this year. In Tralee, there are 1,500 people waiting for one and two bedroom houses or flats. There are more waiting for three and four bedroom houses in the town of Tralee. More than 5,000 people are on the waiting list in the county. Every one of these people is being disadvantaged by being homeless. Children who are homeless will suffer the consequences for years, in their schooling, social skills and their lack of familiarity with normal family life in a normal family home. The solution to this crisis is to build houses. It is not complicated. It is very simple.

More than 130,000 people are in need of housing in this State. That is a little less than the entire number now housed by local authorities. That figure represents families, couples, single people and children who are all in need of secure, adequate and affordable homes. The Taoiseach likes to shout about the €2 billion being invested in housing but he does not mention how the first €1.2 billion of that sum does not go to build houses, the proper and simple solution. It has been allocated to coax landlords into providing housing. It is earmarked for rent allowance, rental accommodation schemes and housing assistance programmes because the Government does not want to build social housing. It would prefer to subsidise landlords and allow its precious market rule over all even if that means people living in overpriced, badly constructed, damp, cramped, under-managed housing units or couch surfing with family and friends.

Real people are suffering from these policies. I know of one case in my constituency, a mother who lost her husband and one of her children tragically a few years ago. She lives in family accommodation with her four children, one being treated for cancer in Dublin. There are six children and two adults in that two and a half bedroom house. One child is prone to contagion from other illnesses as a result of the treatment for cancer. Nothing has been done despite the best efforts of Kerry County Council. Nothing has been made available to this woman or her children. It is an absolute disgrace. Some years ago I visited the homeless section of Kerry County Council maybe 18 months after it had been set up. It had separate offices. I was the first and the only elected representative from this House to visit it. It does tremendous work despite all the obstacles put in its way. Some months ago, during the festival of Kerry, there was an unprecedented number of people homeless in Tralee and surrounding areas. Kerry County Council told me it was getting no support or help from the Department. That is an indictment not just of the Department but of this Government because it has failed miserably to look after the people most in need.

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