Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Broughan, Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Wallace and Connolly for tabling the motion. Sinn Féin stands squarely and proudly beside them on this campaign regarding housing and, in particular, addressing the most dire need for housing that exist within the State. I refer to those who have no home at all and are currently living in emergency accommodation in hotels, hostels, bed and breakfast accommodation, family hubs, reception centres or anywhere else. That is totally unsuitable for continuous habitation by a human being. It is as simple as that. Shelter is the most basic need of humanity, along with food and water. For a night, shelter might be a roof over one's head or a shield from the elements. In the long term, however, shelter can only be determined by a secure, affordable and comfortable home that suits the needs of those who live in it.

A total of 10,000 people in the State are homeless. I am not referring to those who are struggling to pay rent or people who are living in overcrowded, damp conditions or unhealthy housing, I am referring to those who do not even have that. One person in every 500 in the State is homeless. I really do not think the Government gets it. There are 10,000 people who are homeless. The only conclusion that I can draw is that if it does get it, then the Government just does not care. I fear the latter is the case. Homeless people probably do not vote Fine Gael. If I had the names of those 10,000 people and if I were to read them into the record, it would probably take until 10 p.m. The human tragedy behind the figures is a stain on our nation and the Government. The damage done will only truly be known in years to come, but it is not too late to turn back the tide. Sadly, there is no sign of the Government taking action to do so. We have a national emergency. It is plain to see. Every decent-minded person can see it.

We need to begin to seriously build houses. We need to invest in our future by building new council housing, publicly owned and protected from the greed of the market which turns basic human need into unbridled profit.

We need to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution. That is not a solution in itself but it would certainly send a very strong message. We need to end the long-term use of emergency accommodation now. We need the members of Fianna Fáil to step up and put their money where their mouth is on crucial issues like this. They can no longer pretend to care about the homeless and about human suffering when they sit on their hands and allow Fine Gael policy to continue the disastrous legacy their party started in the Celtic tiger years.

I refer to something that is not directly linked to this motion and that I have raised many times with the Minister. The rent pressure zones are an absolute disaster and are not working. They are certainly not working in east Cork. Another problem we should be looking at in the short term, because it is an emergency, is the fact we do not have any local emergency accommodation in rural towns. The Government is sending everybody into the city and saturating the system. It breaks families up. The local connection is gone, people get into bad situations, which evolve, and things get worse. The Minister of State looked bewildered and did not believe us when we said there was a housing emergency. I suggest the Government and Fianna Fáil, which are in a coalition, wake up and smell the coffee and realise there is a housing emergency.

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