Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

If we are to agree on anything today, we must accept that we are in the middle of a housing emergency. It is a housing crisis. We need to declare an emergency as that would necessitate an emergency response and appropriate emergency measures. It would be a good start if we were even to agree that much today. I agree with other speakers, as I think everyone would, that everyone has the right to a home and a roof over his or her head without discrimination. Everyone would accept this as a starting point of the debate.

Sinn Féin has proposed costed and detailed proposals which would impact immediately on the housing and homelessness crisis. However, I want to focus on one small area which does not require legislation. We need to tackle the current system under which homeless families and individuals have to self-accommodate. When an individual or family presents as homeless, they must contact their local authority. However, many are told that there is no accommodation available and that they should contact hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation. They cannot just make telephone calls but need to present in person. Many take buses and bring their children and life-long belongings with them to the accommodation which may be very far away. They are then told there is no accommodation and they must take the bus back and start again. If they are successful, they may obtain accommodation for two, three or four nights, but there is usually a difficulty coming up to the weekend. Once again, they have to restart the process. Children are somehow supposed to stay in accommodation during this whole process. Huge numbers of people could not find rooms last week because of St. Patrick's Day and Easter and some had to travel outside Dublin to find accommodation with their children. Homeless individuals and their families should not have to self-accommodate. We must urgently change that practice. The Minister is a caretaker Minister at this stage. He was talking about instructing local authorities at the stroke of a pen to adopt the position that they would take on the responsibility. It is not a huge task. It is something positive we can recommend today. The Minister might consider it.

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