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

A number of weekends ago, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, speaking on "The Week in Politics" said that the homelessness crisis would get worse before it got better. I do not think even he realised how prophetic his words would be. As Deputy Cowen said, we have had two more deaths of people forced to sleep rough as a result of homelessness. That is seven deaths in a matter of weeks. I also offer my deepest condolences to the families and friends of those who tragically - and unnecessarily in my view - lost their lives.

This comes in the context of a significant increase in the number of rough sleepers - 184 according to the last count. As 50 people availed of the night café on that same night, obviously the number is significantly higher. We also have the highest recorded number of people in emergency accommodation at 8,000, including 3,000 children. As we know, many of those children spend several years in emergency accommodation before getting a permanent home. This does not include adults and children in domestic violence refuges and step-down accommodation. It does not include people given leave to remain who are trapped in direct provision and using direct provision as emergency accommodation or that even wider category of people who have no home of their own, but are sofa-surfing and in imminent risk of homelessness.

As I have said a number of times previously, nobody chooses to sleep rough. People sleep rough because of the absence of emergency accommodation or appropriate, safe and secure accommodation. I understand that the 58-year-old man who tragically died in the Minister's constituency was on a priority list for the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive for Housing First tenancy. The problem was that the executive did not have any properties to offer him. At the same time 1,800 turnkey projects have been offered to the Government for purchase in the last 12 months. Less than 600 are being pursued and even fewer have been purchased or tenanted.

I fully agree with Deputy Cowen that this is not a matter of party politics. However, I appeal to the Minister to review that list of 1,800 turnkey projects and ensure that as many of them as possible are purchased by the State as soon as possible to ensure that the people in emergency housing need or who are being forced to sleep rough are given the opportunity to have a safe and secure home in which to live. I ask the Minister to come back to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government with that full list of 1,800 properties that the housing agency and others have and tell us what is happening with them - what properties will be bought and when they will be tenanted - so that no more people end up dying on our streets as a result of rough sleeping and the homelessness crisis.

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