Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The homelessness figures for May, which have just been released by the Minister, are truly shocking. They show an increase in the number of adults, families and children without a home since last month. The figures show that there are almost 10,000 people homeless when the numbers of adults and dependants are added together. The most shocking aspect of this is that there are 137 newly homeless children included in the figures for last month. This demands action. The number of homeless children has increased, from 3,689 to 3,826, in the past month.

Today and tomorrow, primary school children will be getting their summer holidays. They will wave goodbye to their teachers and classrooms and will go home. They are looking forward to a summer of fun in their neighbourhoods and possibly a week or two in a holiday resort. However, those 3,826 children in homeless services face a very different prospect. They do not have permanent homes or neighbouring children to play with. They are probably sharing one or two rooms in a hotel with the rest of their family, with no space to play, to go outside and kick a ball, ride a bike or scoot on a scooter, as our children and grandchildren do during the holidays.

I do not believe we should leave the Dáil this summer until we have put a programme of support in place for families availing of homeless services for the period of the school holidays. I noted that the Minister spoke about the school completion programme, homework clubs, after-school clubs and transport to school, among other things. However, these children are going home from school for their holidays and they really need a programme of support. I ask that the Minister liaise with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Zappone, in order to put a programme of support in place. This may mean organising trips to parks or that the children be enrolled in summer programmes, but those families really need extra help. They cannot afford holidays. They cannot even cook their own food; all of it has to be bought in. A range of supports must be put in place before the recess.

We must put a limit on the amount of time a child can live in a hotel or a bed and breakfast. We all know that Rebuilding Ireland promised to end the use of hotels, except for short-term use. I accept that it may be a short-term solution, but the promise was made. Rebuilding Ireland was published two years ago but that promise has still not been fulfilled. At my clinic the week before last, I met two families that had been in hotels for a year or more. We have to set a time limit. Deputy Ó Broin has pointed out how the number of children who are homeless has increased since the Government took office. From April 2017 to April 2018, the number of homeless children increased by 36%. We cannot talk this away. It needs focus, action, a plan and a time limit.

The Minister looks quite deflated today. His intentions are good, but we really need more of a focus and more urgency. Time limits have to be put in place. Many Members of the Opposition have suggested that there should be a statutory right to housing or a referendum on the issue. That would focus minds within the housing authorities, which would have to deliver then. I know a little bit about the Scottish situation, but not much about the other 81 countries where people have a constitutional or statutory right to housing. My understanding is that this would ensure that the kind of urgent focus we need is applied to this issue, and it should be looked at as a potential solution.

The Minister will meet the CEOs of the local authorities at a summit next week. He should say a number of very specific things to them. The Minister indicated that he supports them in doing what they are supposed to do, but he should take out the stick a little bit more and tell them what they have to do. We have all spoken about the number of vacant homes, both private and public. The void scheme has ensured that publicly-owned local authority houses have mostly been brought back into use. However, the number of privately-owned vacant homes is still very large. The vacant homes officers who have been appointed should be told to focus solely on bringing vacant houses back into use. They should not have any other duties. Such an approach has been effective in Britain. The Peter McVerry Trust has also used it successfully in Ireland. The situation is absolutely urgent, and this is perhaps the quickest fix possible. The Minister must also impress upon the CEOs that they have to prioritise families in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation and get them into homes. Recently, I spoke to a Labour Party councillor who said that the CEOs must consult councillors when the disposal of publicly-owned land is proposed. The Minister does not have to be notified when that is done. I suggest that he should have to be informed if any CEO proposes the disposal of lands which could be used for social and affordable housing. He should also go back to the drawing board and ask every local authority to come up with a plan for every vacant site that is appropriate for housing. That process is taking far too long and it is also not achieving the correct mix of housing. Those of us on the Opposition benches would like to see these sites used exclusively for social and affordable housing.

I want to talk about the families that are now homeless. I urge that the Bill I introduced in July of last year - the Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017 - be progressed. It passed Second Stage with support from everyone in the House, for which I am thankful. However, it still has not progressed to Committee Stage. The support of the Government is required to move it on. The Bill will ensure that local authorities and housing authorities have to respond to the rights of the child. In addition, it would impose a legal obligation on the local authorities to act in the best interests of the child when his or her family becomes homeless. I want to see progress on that Bill. I also want to ensure that there is an immediate focus on those families with children who are saying goodbye to school this week. Post-primary students have already finished school for the summer. The fact that so many families will live in hotel rooms for the summer is intolerable. The needs of such families have to be prioritised immediately. They should be given the kind of supports they need to have some kind of normal summer, and also in terms of prioritising them for the housing that is in place, whether vacant homes, local authority homes or private homes.

I also want to raise the issue of prevention. I acknowledge that some measures have been taken to prevent homelessness, including HAP among other schemes. In Britain, there is an obligation to intervene much earlier. A similar approach has been proposed in housing debates in this House on previous occasions. As soon as a local authority becomes aware that a family will potentially become homeless, it should intervene at that point rather than waiting until the family actually is homeless. Much more can be done to keep families in their homes, particularly if they are in private rented accommodation, to prevent them from becoming homeless. That solution is much better, particularly for children in those families.

We are talking again today. We have spoken about the housing crisis many times in this Chamber. It is an emergency, but I really believe that specific actions must emerge from this debate today. The Minister and the Minister of State, Deputy English, are present. I hope they will take on board the various proposals coming from this side of the House, for both the short term and the long term, in order to ensure to ensure that we get rid of this blight on our community and this distortion of childhoods of so many young people.

I note the figure today is 3,826 and we must ensure that we are not looking at an even higher number in respect of the June figures. The Minister should give us a programme of action after this debate and should use the summit with the chief executive officers, CEOs, of the housing authorities next week as they have a very important role here as well. Housing is not always prioritised by CEOs of local authorities but it needs to be the absolute priority and that should be the message the Minister gives to them when he meets them next week. I hope we see a decrease in the figures next month.

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