Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday the Taoiseach spoke about dark chapters in our history, but today tens of thousands of adults and children continue to live through a dark chapter and in plain sight. According to the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government's homelessness report which Deputy Eoin Ó Broin quoted, almost 6,000 adults and 3,700 children are homeless.

Of these, 4,005 homeless adults and almost 3,000 homeless children were based in the four Dublin local authority areas, with up to 40,000 Dublin households in all on housing waiting lists. Homeless campaigners like Mr. Anthony Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless have seriously questioned the veracity of these figures and point to the exclusion of almost 800 applicants from homeless lists in March and April. Another analyst, Mr. Mel Reynolds, has challenged the accuracy of the Minister's direct build figures and we know that more than 6,000 households were removed from housing lists after the last Dublin city housing assessment. Is it not time to have an independent assessment of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government's housing statistics, perhaps carried out by the Central Statistics Office?

Dublin Bay North is the worst affected constituency in Ireland. This year, Dublin City Council housing area B, which comprises much of Dublin Bay North, has 7,345 households on waiting lists or in emergency accommodation, a higher figure than for all of Fingal, all of South Dublin or for any other Irish local authority area. When the Fingal part of the constituency is added, Dublin Bay North has a housing and homeless problem greater than all of the Cork constituencies combined. In response to this housing emergency, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government have only offered very belated, confused and almost totally ineffective solutions which, combined with profound lethargy from the management of our two local authorities, has produced intense suffering for many of my constituents. The Government is not getting there. There is no way it is getting there in terms of tackling homelessness.

Last Saturday, a mother and her very bright seven year old daughter came to meet me. This child is distressed by the prospect of homelessness. She and her mother are facing their second eviction in just under two years, this time from a housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancy. Like other parents, the girl's mother is deeply concerned for the welfare of her child and herself, given the huge stress and disruption caused by constantly moving home and the very poor prospect in Dublin Bay North of a stable, forever home with a local authority or voluntary body. Of course, that child is just one of the many thousands of children awaiting rehousing or in emergency accommodation.

Yesterday, Focus Ireland, the Simon Communities, Barnardos and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul rightly drew attention to children in hidden homelessness. All of this is happening against a background of surging and uncontrolled rents of up to €2,000 per month in Dublin Bay North which produces the regular evictions which make families homeless. The Tánaiste broke his pledge to end the practice of sending children and families to hotels by 1 July 2017. He broke that promise, did not deliver enough family hubs and certainly did not deliver the required housing. I have repeatedly asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, about Government action to prevent children becoming homeless, given the adverse effects on them.

It is egregious public relations nonsense for the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to say that homelessness is stabilising. The Tánaiste, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs will be held to account in the next general election. I know that the Tánaiste will give me the same old mantra he gave to Deputy Ó Broin in response, but after nearly eight years of failure and inaction, is there now any prospect of an emergency public housing programme? The Government has said this is a crisis, so where is the crisis response? We need serious rent controls and truly affordable mortgages.

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