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

I welcome the Bill. It is very simple and it is very reasonable because it is not looking to outlaw these devices; it is just placing a requirement on businesses or public bodies who would seek to put them on their premises to justify that through planning permission and to allow the rest of us to engage in that process. The Bill comes down to something very simple. If one thinks it is wrong for public or private property owners to put spikes on the ground or sprinklers under their doorways to stop homelessness, then one supports the Bill. If one in any thinks that it is justifiable, legitimate or appropriate, then one opposes the Bill. It really is that simple.

This is not an argument to support rough sleeping. Contrary to what the Minister said it is not an argument to normalise rough sleeping but it is an argument against the further stigmatisation of people who, because of the failure of the State to provide adequate emergency accommodation, have no choice but to sleep rough.

It is also an argument for common decency. I listened very carefully to my Fianna Fáil colleagues and I accept the sincerity of their remarks in terms of crime and the right of people to protect their property. However, there is nothing in the Bill that would prevent anybody anywhere from doing anything to protect his or her residential or commercial property because the specific devices we are talking about are spikes that go along the ground underneath a shelter at the front of a building or a sprinkler under such places. They are of no use to protect the properties the Deputies so rightly say are being affected by crime in rural and urban areas. I agree with Deputy Ó Cuív, in particular in respect of Galway County Council and Galway City Council and on Traveller accommodation generally.

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