Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Housing is now a national emergency. There are 10,000 homeless people in the country. I know that these figures have been bandied about all evening, but they represent the reality. Unfortunately, over 3,500 of those who are homeless are children. As the Minister and Minister of State know from their constituency clinics, many of the people who find themselves homeless or about to lose their homes are ordinary individuals with decent jobs - teachers, nurses and gardaí - who are facing repossession. There are no social housing building programmes under way in rural constituencies such as Cavan and Monaghan. With over 100,000 on waiting lists, this is a national crisis. In Cavan and Monaghan, those in need of social housing are facing waiting lists of three to five years. I know that the situation in places like County Meath is a lot worse. What does one say to people who come into one's clinic who are about to have their homes repossessed, their keys taken off them, with no homes to go to? They are facing the prospect of either being homeless or sleeping on the couch in their parents houses. There are houses now with three generations of the same family living in them. People are losing their homes through repossession day after day and the housing crisis deepens. We are urging the Government to launch a new State-led affordable housing scheme. This must involve an initial capital investment on the part of the State, with the proceeds of sales reinvested into the building of more homes. It is essential that the Government earmarks additional capital investment for such a scheme to facilitate house building in key areas across the country. The Government must assist local authorities in reviewing their housing team needs. As the Minister of State said, the housing teams in a lot of local authorities were no longer there.

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