Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill introduced by Deputy Ellis because it is part of the process of discussing and teasing out exactly what is happening on the ground. It is not an accident that today is the anniversary of the death of Jonathan Corrie on the doorstep across the road. We in this House should all remember that tragedy. The people who supported the demonstration tonight outside this House include Help 4 the Homeless, Ballyfermot, North Dublin Bay Housing Crisis Community, the Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland, the Dublin Simon Community, Brother Kevin Crowley from the Capuchin Day Centre, Housing Action Now, Merchant’s Quay, the Young Workers' Network, Dublin Council of Trade Unions, SIPTU, Right 2 Change unions, and the Migrant Rights Centre. They are all people who are experienced on the ground and they say that one year on the situation is getting worse rather than getting better. If that does not register with the Government then there is something desperately wrong. The point was made tonight that in 2013 approximately 20 families were presenting as homeless. In 2014, the number increased to 40 families per month and in 2015 it increased to 80 families per month. There is something desperately wrong. There are 3,500 people homeless.

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Many families are couch-surfing. I have families attend my constituency office every day of the week with their children when they find themselves homeless. One particular family from Walkinstown was offered a place in Clontarf. Their children go to school in Walkinstown, meaning the cost of travelling across from Clontarf to the children’s school on social welfare payments would be impossible. The family in question ended up staying with their parents, which is causing untold problems in the home.

The demands are simple: house the homeless, introduce rent controls, and build social and affordable housing. The Minister said that it takes time to build housing. Only yesterday, at the housing committee in Dublin City Council, we were told the modular housing proposed for Drimnagh will not be built until June of next year. In 2007, a covenant on the land in question in Drimnagh stated it should provide housing for the elderly. In the time that has elapsed, officials could have had services and housing for the elderly built there. There is something strategically wrong with the way the Minister is going about providing social and affordable housing. Fr. Peter McVerry said tonight that the Government will not go to Europe to call for a national emergency in housing because it is too busy trying to present Ireland in a different image to Europe and not the reality on the ground where people are suffering homelessness.

See this speech in context