Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Acting Chairman for giving me the opportunity to speak about this very important issue which affects tens of thousands of families across the country. The figures released by the Department in the third quarterly progress report on housing and homelessness show clearly that the Government's plans are not working which comes as no surprise to me. My party has consistently called for a range of measures to be implemented to address the issue. We have called for an increase in social housing stock to 10,000 units per year. We have called for security of tenure and rent certainty to reduce the flow of families into homelessness. We have called for a Government-led affordable housing scheme. The piecemeal approach of the Government has done absolutely nothing to address the crisis that is spiralling out of control. It is almost as if it is trying to put out an inferno by sprinkling drops of petrol on it.

Families are paying the price for the Government's failure to tackle the issue. There are now 4,922 adults and 2,777 children in emergency accommodation, an increase of over 500 since December which I am sure Members will agree is unacceptable. There are 91,600 households on local authority waiting lists across the State. Five families a day are losing their homes, while 80,000 families are in mortgage arrears. Last week in my constituency office I dealt with a lady who was in mortgage arrears. She had fallen into arrears because she needed a serious, life-saving operation in London. She has done her utmost to work with the banks and meet their demands, but she ended up in my office last week in a very distressed state with a heavy-handed letter, of which I still have a copy. It has to stop immediately. The banks should be instructed to abandon their bully-boy tactics and treat people with fairness, empathy and dignity.

In my constituency of Offaly-North Tipperary over 2,500 people are on the social housing waiting list. My office is dealing with people who are living in overcrowded accommodation, being evicted from private rented accommodation, in mortgage arrears and, increasingly, families seeking emergency accommodation. County Offaly has the highest rate of homelessness in the midlands region, with 35 adults living in emergency accommodation in May. We need to use CPOs and look at using vacant shops which should be converted into residential accommodation in towns and villages. Twelve single parent families and a total of 54 children are living in emergency accommodation in the midlands region. This fact cannot be ignored. We talk all the time about mental health and building resilience in children. These kids will end up with serious problems and we will have more problems than we currently have. We need to deal with this issue head on and to protect the most vulnerable. If this is to be a true republic, we much cherish all of the children of the nation equally and give people fair play. It is about time we stopped caving into the banks.

Homelessness is not confined to large urban areas. It has spread to every region in the State. To add insult to injury, census figures show that there are 3,000 vacant dwellings in County Offaly. These dwellings should not be lying idle at a time when families have nowhere to call home. The majority on housing lists could be housed in these dwellings. The Minister needs to provide sufficient funding to bring them into use. We need urgent action; words will not do it for us. I urge the Government to be more ambitious in its vacant homes strategy by targeting a larger proportion of vacant stock over a shorter period. This would be a pragmatic approach which would be realistic and we should be taking. A properly funded vacant homes strategy could potentially transform the situation in a relatively short timeframe and at lower cost. I urge the Government and the Minister to prioritise it.

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