John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, contacted me earlier to say he was unable to take this Topical Issue and I am grateful to the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Doyle, for standing in for him. I ask the Minister of State to bring the points I make to the attention of the Minister. I appreciate that Ministers often find it difficult to appear in the House on Thursdays.

There has been much discussion of the topic this week. I am anxious to raise it because there is still a stigma and stereotype around homelessness and a belief that it only happens to marginalised people. That was evidenced by some views expressed this week. The first time I became aware of a homelessness issue involving a family in my constituency was three years ago when a school principal contacted me to say a family who had lived in a middle class area of my local electoral ward of Rathfarnham had been given notice to quit. That was long before the introduction of the new rules and regulations governing notices to quit. The family had spent the previous night sleeping in a car. All Members have heard of such experiences. That was my first time to encounter it. It was an ordinary working family who had been given notice to quit by their landlord, who wished to sell. They tried to rent a home in close proximity to where they were living and where their children were going to school. They were not marginalised people. Another constituent of mine, who I previously assisted to find a home, has been given notice that he will have to leave his apartment by 11 February. Although support services are available, those examples show how a person, if he or she does not get accommodation, can become homeless overnight. These are not people who were traditionally on the street and they do not have any mental or behavioural issues. It can happen to anybody.

Schools are often the first point of contact for families who face homelessness. I had an hour-long conversation about the issue with a constituent of mine who is the principal of a school in the constituency of my colleague, Deputy Curran. She pointed out the difficulty in accessing services experienced by people who have never had to interact with services, their complete ignorance of the system and unawareness of where to go or who the first point of contact ought to be. She said that advocates are needed to assist people. She discovered that through trial and error. She missed a cumulative almost two weeks of school through trying to find safe spaces for some families to stay. She used an interesting phrase: when a family does not know what to do, what do they do? She discussed the need for the system to help mentor people. She had to find such help for families who came to her for assistance. In one instance, she rang 55 hotels in one day, seeking accommodation for a Dublin-based family. She finally got a place for them in a hotel in Mullingar. Dublin City Council was not willing to accept that as accommodation for the family because it was not in Dublin but she finally persuaded them to do so. At one stage, she was thirty-fifth on a list of callers holding with Dublin City Council. She was advocating for a family.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Doyle, to ask the Minister, Deputy Murphy, and the Minister of State, Deputy English, what a family should do when they become homeless and do not know what to do. Public representatives know that the local council should be contacted, such as South Dublin County Council for those in my constituency, and that people should go to the council's housing desk. However, although Members know that, many people threatened by homelessness may not be computer literate. How do such people access a hotel room or find out what hotels are available? We make many assumptions that need to be challenged. An information campaign is needed at a minimum. I wish to highlight the need for advocacy for those who do not have a voice.

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