Dáil debates
Thursday, 18 April 2019
Youth Homelessness: Statements
10:20 am
Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source
I also want to use this opportunity to bring home to people the real plight of people by highlighting the horrendous cases of family homelessness that we have dealt with at my constituency office. I will pick three examples for the Minister in order to demonstrate the impact on families and young people in particular. The first involves a mother and her six children who have been living in one room for the past year and a half. Why is that happening? A mother with three boys and three girls must sleep in bunk beds and double beds, all in one room. How is that allowed to continue? They are one of the families dealing with Fingal County Council. They are eligible for HAP but the big problem is that there are no properties where the landlords will take the latter, especially in cases where families are slightly larger. Landlords do not want families or children.
I find it difficulty to restrain myself because when I was elected five years ago, the first Bill to come through the Dáil that I was involved with was sponsored by Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, who was a Minister of State at the time. I refer to the legislation by means of which HAP was introduced.
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