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

There is a weather warning for snow throughout the country today. This morning, I walked in Le Fanu Park in Ballyfermot, as I always do, and the Brent geese were back. There were not enough of them, which is probably a sign of climate change, something we will discuss later, but clearly the cold snap is on the way. The woman to whose family the Minister has given his condolences, and I offer the same, as Members throughout the House really feel for these people who die on the streets, is the third to die in the past eight days and the eighth to die on our streets since August. I do not know how the Minister feels about this, but I feel ashamed of this country to have that knowledge.

On Monday in my clinic, three middle-aged men, not together and not all at once but separately, visited me. All of them are working and each of them is about to be made homeless. They do not have a problem with drugs or drink, they are not chaotic and they did not make bad choices, but they are about to be made homeless for different reasons. One of them is being divorced and cannot afford to move into an apartment or flat at the current rate of rent available in the city, another is being put out of his home because the banks have repossessed it, and another is being made homeless because the landlord is selling the property he is renting. There are myriad reasons homelessness is on the increase and the Government is failing to deal with it. It is failing to deal with the long-term consequences and it is utterly failing to deal with the short-term hardship. Not all homeless people are chaotic or make bad choices. People are being made homeless because of housing policies.

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