Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Broughan for tabling this Private Member's motion on homelessness. This motion was to be moved last December but was postponed, by agreement, to allow for other business. It is certainly as relevant, if not more so, today. Homelessness permeates our society and the figures for the number of homeless children referred to by Deputy Broughan are stark. It must be extremely embarrassing for the Government, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First Dáil, to see Army veterans using tricolour themed sleeping bags, now dubbed "sleeping flags", to highlight the issue of homelessness among ex-service personnel. This is part of a campaign to raise funds for the services provided by the Organisation of National Ex-servicemen, ONE. That organisation is dependent on public charity to continue its work. Mr. Ollie O'Connor of ONE says that hundreds of Army veterans have ended up homeless. The organisation has helped more than 900 homeless ex-Army personnel since it opened up its first hostel. Last night when I was leaving Leinster House at around 10.55 p.m., there was a gentleman asleep outside the gates. I did not wake him last night but spoke to him this morning. His name is James Mee and he has completed almost 30 years service at Monaghan Army barracks. He has done a tour of the Lebanon but was sleeping outside Leinster House last night to highlight the fact that some of his former colleagues are homeless and are sleeping on our streets. The cost of running ONE's Brú na BhFiann hostel in 2017 was €839,000, of which €44,000 came from the Department of Justice and Equality and a further €183,000 from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. The remaining €600,000 came from fundraising, which is disgraceful. This must be addressed by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government.

No doubt the Minister will bombard us with statistics and claim that progress is being made. I will concede that some progress is, at last, being made. Last year 18,000 new housing units were built, mainly in Dublin, where new units rose by one third. However, this is still way below the generally accepted requirement of 30,000 units per year. There is also a big question as to how many of these new builds in the private sector are affordable for people on average incomes. The housing investment programme is predicting 6,200 public housing units this year, which is almost double the figure for 2018 but again, this is well short of the 10,000 units that are required per year.

Yesterday at the homelessness summit the Minister referred to 8,400 units comprising new builds, leases, voids, acquisitions, HAP and RAS. How many of these units were built by local authorities and housing associations? In 2017, the Minister spoke about 7,000 units in these categories but we found out later that of that total, only 394 units were local authority builds. Apparently a special purpose vehicle, SPV, will be established this quarter to enable credit unions to invest in approved housing bodies, AHBs but credit unions expressed a desire to use a portion of their reserve funds in this way a very long time ago. Again, it is a question of too little and too slow.

As the homelessness crisis carries on, it is doing untold damage to homeless children and young adults. Behind all the statistics are real people who are negatively affected by this crisis. The latest scientific and medical evidence suggests that good nutrition, play and a feeling of security are crucial to the development of children's brains and motor skills. The lack of these crucial elements in their formative years can physically impair children's brain development and can have long lasting if not life-long effects. Children in temporary accommodation without cooking facilities or areas for playing and mixing with others are deprived of the aforementioned crucial elements. The same is true of the effects of homelessness on young adults. The rate of homelessness among young adults has doubled in the last four years. Young adults are at a crucial point in their emotional, cognitive and social development, transitioning from adolescence to adulthood. Again, difficult experiences at this stage can have life-long consequences. It is much more difficult for this group to exit homelessness because they are not entitled to public housing and they cannot afford the astronomical rents being charged in the private sector. This is particularly true for those in receipt of a social welfare payment, often the half-rate jobseeker's allowance. A group called the Irish Coalition to End Youth Homelessness held a briefing last week in Buswells Hotel. The group argued strongly for the introduction of a Housing First programme for young adults and I urge the Minister to consider that.

The Government must respond to the points made in the Private Member's motion before us. It must declare a housing emergency and hold a referendum on the right to housing.

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