Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Affordable housing is a key element of the medium to long term strategy to solve our housing crisis. Following the publication of the latest homeless figures yesterday, all of us in this Chamber must pause. The figures released yesterday deserve an emergency response by the Government, the Dáil, the media and every local authority. Where is the red alert?

I have served in this House for 24 months. During that time Members have stated many times that housing and homelessness was the No. 1 crisis facing our people. Our Government, Dáil, local authorities, civic society groups and our media have all claimed to be relentlessly focused on this issue during that time, yet month after month the number of people - individuals, families and children - declared homeless has increased each month of that 24 months.

In the last 12 months we have witnessed a new procedure for red alerts when it comes to severe weather events. We have seen two such red alerts in the last 12 months. We have all witnessed the national response, the co-ordinated response by national and local Government, the emergency service and the media. We have seen the live media broadcasts, the emergency Cabinet meetings and the sense that there is a response to what is, after all, a weather event.

What will it take for a similar approach to our homeless and housing crisis? We have nearly 10,000 people homeless in our republic of opportunity. Tonight there are 3,755 children in our Republic, an increase of over 500 children in one month. This is the largest monthly increase in our child homelessness since we started gathering data in 2014.

With a severe red alert weather event we have a forecast for, at best, seven days and specific criteria as to what constitutes a red alert. That is correct and welcome. Our Government was warned consistently as far back as 2014 by all the experts that our country was going to experience an epidemic of housing shortage and homelessness. It was forecast by all our experts four years ago. What will it take for a red alert response on housing and homelessness from this Government? Is there a figure that we have to reach? Is there a degree of media coverage that must occur before alarms sound? I am not blaming individual Ministers who are trying, but they are failing. In business, sport and life, I believe one learns from failure. There is nothing wrong with learning from failure but there is everything wrong with ignoring or denying it and living in a parallel universe. My colleagues and I will work with the Government and we have said this before. This is a national emergency and demands a response. I hope the Minister takes that on board. However, as a Member of this Dáil, and of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, and a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, I am asking the Government to declare homelessness to be a national emergency and do it now. Our homeless national emergency needs a whole of Government response that delivers results. The Government should assure our people that housing provision in Ireland will no longer remain subject to a speculative market and declare that the common good of our nation dictates that Government ensures a minimum standard of housing for all our people.

Affordable housing needs to mean what it says on the tin. The measures which need to be taken by the Government, the Dáil and each local authority must be strong enough to deliver affordable homes for all of our people. If policies are not working we need to change or dump them immediately. There are nearly 10,000 homeless human beings in our nation today, and that needs a better response.

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