Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Governments should be judged by how they treat the most vulnerable in society. After six years in office, Enda Kenny's record speaks for itself. According to the Central Statistics Office, in 2011 there were 641 homeless children but, last month, 2,563 children slept in emergency accommodation funded by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. That is a 300% increase. These figures do not include children in Tusla-funded domestic violence emergency accommodation or the children of hundreds of families trapped in direct provision after getting their leave to remain or children in emergency accommodation funded by the new communities unit. In fact, the Government has no idea how many children will sleep in emergency accommodation tonight.

There are 183,000 vacant homes across the State, 40,000 in Dublin alone. That is 24 vacant homes for every single adult and child in emergency accommodation. That is Enda Kenny's legacy. He put the rights of the child into the Constitution and he put thousands of children into emergency accommodation. His would-be successor, Deputy Coveney, has been Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for a year and, contrary to what the Tánaiste said, since taking office child homelessness has increased by 20%. Every single month Deputy Coveney has held office, the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased. Also during his tenure, the length of time children are spending in emergency accommodation has grown ever longer. Last year, before he took office, the average time was 12 months but today it is 24 months. Can the Tánaiste imagine one of her own children or her grandchildren spending two long years in a hotel?

To make matters worse, people are now expected to find their own emergency accommodation and 200 families are being forced by Deputy Coveney to self-accommodate on a night-to-night basis, shunted from one end of the city to another and not knowing if, tomorrow night, they will be forced to sleep on the streets. We might have thought things could not get any worse but now it emerges that homeless families are being forced to sleep in Garda stations, and Deputy Cowen outlined what happened on Tuesday night in this respect. How can the Tánaiste stand over this? How can the Government stand over what is effectively the abuse of thousands of children?

Does the Tánaiste believe that the current situation is acceptable? Will she admit that the Government's response to the crisis of homeless families is failing? Will the Government release emergency funds to allow local authorities to acquire homes to ensure that no child is left in emergency accommodation for more than six months?

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