Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is unbelievable - can my microphone be switched on please - that, having just discussed a release free of charge of in the biggest robbery in history, and in a country with almost 200,000 empty properties and rents having soared by 66% since 2011, the Dáil voted against a measure that would put a stop to this. Last Saturday, I stood on the Ballyfermot Road to prevent a woman and her two children being illegally evicted. Last night, 30 homeless children were left in Garda stations and parks. What sort of society are we living in? The focus of the Government and media is on the beauty contest between two failed Ministers, one of whom failed us on health in the past and is now failing us in social welfare and the other who is utterly failing us on housing. The Government is disgraceful. I bet the Minister of State that people will be sleeping in parks again tonight.

I refer to the question I asked earlier on the housing assistance payment. I bet the Minister of State that if he were to examine the cases of the families who were left homeless last night, he would find that some of them have been failed by the HAP scheme. The scheme is not working because landlords will not take it. The Minister of State should tell Selina Hogan and families who are consistently being refused accommodation that the scheme works. While the Department will give them the money, landlords will not take HAP payments. The Minister of State cannot gloss over the reality and he should stop giving us pretend statistics. We know what is happening in the real world. The Minister of State probably knows what is happening but chooses to turn a blind eye because he gets well paid for doing so. He should wake up, smell the coffee and do something to support these families and give them a real possibility of securing housing.

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