Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is like groundhog day. During my previous contribution on homelessness in our republic in March, I concluded by pleading to Government to declare homelessness to be a national emergency. Our homelessness national emergency needs a whole-of-government response with daily targets and reports, rather than quarterly. I ask Government to do this now and to declare that the common good of our nation dictates that Government ensures a minimum standard of housing for all of our people.

If policies are not working then they need to be changed or dumped immediately. There are nearly 10,000 homeless human beings in Ireland today who need to hear a better response. I wish I could state that, today, there is a better reality to report but the fact remains that there are 3,826 children homeless today in this so-called "republic of opportunity". That figure does not take in the hidden homeless children in "Leo’s Ireland" and I commend Barnardos for their excellent research in this area.

Last December, during yet another debate on child homelessness, I had to report the sad reality of families being accommodated in my own hotel in Glendalough. These stressed families have young children who were being transported more than 50 km each day to get to school and struggle for some appearance of normal life. I wish I could state that, today, this disgraceful child homelessness has ended, but the fact remains that homeless Dublin families are still being forced to seek accommodation in my hotel in Glendalough, and beyond. What does it say about the crisis in child homelessness that we are putting tourists into homes in Dublin today while Irish families are crammed into hotel rooms throughout the commuter belt?

In one of my first contributions to the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government two years ago, I was the first to raise the point that short-term letting platforms such as Airbnb were being abused in Dublin and that homes that could be used for our homeless families were being used to accommodate tourists. I warned about this and, at the time, I was accused of scaremongering and attacking Airbnb by vested interests. Two years later, Irish families are being transported to a hotel in Glendalough to escape homelessness while houses and apartments are being rented to tourists. If this fact does not make everyone in this House ashamed and disgusted, let me warn them what is going to happen when Pope Francis visits. Dublin city hotels and all accommodation providers will be jam-packed with attending delegates. Where will homeless families go? It would be sickening, wrong and a national disgrace if we were to ship these families away from the eyes of the media into faraway hotels. They should be given the platform that the World Meeting of Families provides to address child and family homelessness, not only in Ireland but globally.

There are warnings around the world about how cold governments can be about families that are homeless and looking for shelter. It is a little rich to lecture the United States about the horrific treatment of homeless immigrant families in Texas when, for years, the Government has failed to tackle child and family homelessness in Ireland. Fianna FáiI has tried time and again to urge the Government parties to act radically on child and family homelessness. Fianna Fáil has given them every opportunity to give the crisis the attention it deserves. The trauma suffered by Irish children because of their experience of homelessness in Ireland will mirror the trauma of children and families around the world. Governmental systems throughout the world pay too much lip service to caring about families experiencing homelessness, and do not take enough action.

This Government is currently part of the problem in tackling child and family homelessness. A national emergency should be declared now, before Ireland joins an international list of shameful responses to those in need of shelter, help, and a place to call home.

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