John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Bill. It is interesting that it speaks about the definition of homelessness. It is important for all of us that we would redefine what homelessness is. For instance, the normal definition of homelessness is having no home or permanent place of residence. However, we are way behind other countries in this regard. In Canada, having a home is defined as having a stable, permanent and appropriate housing. In Australia, the adequacy and security of tenure of the dwelling, as well as control of access to space to have social relationships, are what are seen as most important. The European Federation of the National Organisations Working with the Homeless has stated it is about living in secure housing, not inadequate accommodation.

When I was speaking on this issue a couple of weeks ago, I asked how often have we come across an individual who may have had to go back to the family home because he or she cannot get on the housing list or will be too long on it, or cannot afford rented accommodation. Such a person ends up sleeping in the family home, perhaps sleeping in the sitting room or a small bedroom with a young child. That is not security of tenure and it does not give people access to a space where they can have social relationships; in other words, they do not have privacy.

I have been told the Bill that Sinn Féin has put forward is based on what the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is defining as homelessness. I believe we need to redefine exactly how we see someone who is homeless. It has gone beyond the fact that someone is homeless because he or she sleeps rough on the streets. There are people living in the most woeful and horrendous accommodation. I have seen this myself in Waterford and I am sure it can be seen all over the country. People do not consider these places to be a home. I believe that, at some stage, we have to redefine exactly what homelessness is. The reason for that is simple, namely, so we can procure a quality of life for a person or persons who want to go on the housing list. We can define this so it will be unacceptable for them to have to live with their parents or in insecure or bad quality accommodation. I welcome the Bill. At some stage, we will need to redefine what is a homeless person.

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