Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I will share time with Deputies Kenny and Boyd Barrett; we will take five minutes, three minutes and seven minutes, respectively.

I express solidarity with all those who are homeless and those who are facing the threat of homelessness. I also want to make my nomination this Christmas for Ireland's Scrooge of the year 2017. That dishonour must surely go to Lugus Capital, the new owners of the Leeside apartments in Cork city. This Christmas, the vulture fund is placing the threat of eviction over the heads of nearly 30 households, many with young children. It is a scandal. It is threatening to put young children out on the side of the road in order to maximise its profits. I send Christmas congratulations to the residents for choosing to fight these evictions and I look forward to joining them in marching in protest through the streets of Cork city tomorrow afternoon.

In early 2015 the number of homeless children first passed the 1,000 mark and there was a public outcry that such a situation should have been allowed to develop in this country. However, as we move towards the end of 2017, more than 3,000 children are homeless and living in emergency accommodation and the numbers continue to increase month by month. This does not even count the families living with friends or extended family. More than 3,000 homeless children are in living hotels, bed and breakfasts and increasingly they are being transferred to so-called family hub accommodation. That is over 3,000 childhoods blighted by homelessness and the anxieties and the stresses it inflicts on children and their parents. This is a time those children will never get back.

In September, Focus Ireland published a report based on research into the experiences of 25 homeless families. The authors commented that "The vast majority of the families interviewed reported being deeply negatively affected by becoming homeless." Negative implications for children's education is one of the most frequent and profound effects. Anxiety about their homelessness, and the lack of space and quiet for homework are widespread concerns. One parent surveyed for the Focus Ireland report commented:

Our 14 year-old didn't do well in school [when they were homeless]. He didn't study. There was no place quiet for him to study and he was too tired from all the travelling we had to do to get to school.

That is just one example of the thousands of children whose education is suffering.

Ireland used to have a large social housing sector that provided affordable housing for one in five households, but the policies of successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-led Governments to privatise the social housing stock and slash new social house building has destroyed the availability of social and affordable housing. Neoliberal policies have been designed to and have succeeded in turning housing in Ireland into just another asset class to be invested in by finance capital for profit and capital accumulation opportunities.

Only the highest earners can now afford to buy a home. However, from a property investor's perspective things could not be better. The Irish Timesrecently reported that a European buy-to-let league table found that "the average yield on an Irish property stood at 7.08 per cent in August 2017, up from 6.54 per cent in 2016, and far ahead of the rest of the EU-28." A society has been created where property investors are achieving some of the highest investment yields in the world while more families become homeless and renters desperately try to cling to expensive, precarious tenancies. We need to stop serving the needs of property investors and start meeting the housing needs of families and children.

I strongly welcome the initiative of the National Homeless and Housing Coalition to call a national day of action against homelessness and the housing crisis on 7 April. I hope this day of action will demonstrate the mass anger that exists about Government policies. Solidarity looks forward to preparing for and participating in this social movement of NGOs, trade unions, political parties of the left and the many others seeking a society transformed to meet the needs of the 99%.

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