Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Mitchell. I am always reluctant to discuss homelessness, and particularly child homelessness, in this way because it means it is accepted. We must first state that it is totally unacceptable, disgraceful and completely unfair. Those words are not even strong enough for the kids growing up in bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels or the family hubs about which we hear so much. There are no family hubs in my constituency but there is emergency accommodation in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation. I also think of the children living in overcrowded and difficult circumstances, who are staying with family or friends, and living in sitting rooms or five to one bedroom. That is not a normal existence for children. Most of us in this House are parents or have nieces or nephews, and we would not accept or want that life for our children or families. We should not accept it for other children.

We can have this discussion every week, month, or year, but the figures keep increasing time and again. We need to look at the solutions. It sounds ridiculous as it is so sensible, but the solution is to build houses. We should be doing whatever we have to in order to ramp up and speed up that process. This has gone beyond a crisis. It is an emergency situation. It is hard to believe that we are facing into 2020 and are still having this discussion.

I also want to talk about domestic violence because a number of children are in refuges with their mothers who have had to flee very difficult and dangerous situations. They are not even counted in the homelessness figures, and neither are the children growing up in sitting rooms or with six or seven of them in one spare room. The figures are therefore far worse than what we see. I do not know how often we can say it, but this is completely unacceptable.

We need to look at short-term measures to get people out of emergency accommodation, as well as longer-term measures such as building houses. However, we also need to address the people who fall into that middle category, where they do not qualify for social housing support and are paying such high rents that they cannot even think about saving for a deposit for a mortgage. The councils used to have a scheme that provided people with mortgages on a 3% deposit basis. That was changed in 2016 at the height of the housing emergency and child homelessness crisis. It is absolutely unbelievable that we changed that. That rate has now increased to 10%, which means the councils are no different from a bank or building society. The Government is tying the hands of local authorities, and progressive local authorities in particular. They are very active, and are doing their best to address this situation and deal with very difficult individual cases every day, particularly in the run-up to Christmas. Council staff are going home every day thinking about how they want to get this family or that one sorted before Christmas. We are tying their hands by doing things such as changing the mortgage scheme. We need rent freezes and rent controls like they have in other countries. There are rent controls in New York city, which is one of the most capitalist cities in the world, yet our Government cannot seem to accept that as a viable solution. The reality is that there are too many landlords sitting in this Chamber. We need to get real about that.

It is difficult to know what else to say on the issue because, as I have said before, coming into this House to talk about homelessness is like Groundhog Day. In the run-up to Christmas, children are writing their letters to Santa, getting excited about Christmas, and wondering whether they will still be in a hotel or sleeping on their granny's sitting room floor or couch on Christmas Day. That is just totally unacceptable. Are we actually going to address this issue and change it, or will we just keep having statements on it every week, month or year? We always talk about this issue around now because it is an emotive time of year, but we need to start addressing it. The solutions are there. An all-party Oireachtas committee specifically about housing and homelessness was created in 2016 where those of all parties and none were represented and agreed a set of proposals. It is nearly four years later and those proposals are not being implemented. It is not as if the solutions are not there. It is not a question of funding, because the Government has told us time and again that the funding is there. What is the problem here? We cannot talk about statements on child homelessness as if they are a normal thing, though that is what is happening.

For children in rural areas, there might only be one form of emergency accommodation available, which is far away from their schools or family supports.

What measures are available? I have heard much reference to wrap-around and additional supports but I know of no family which has received supports such as extra money for childcare or to feed children while confined to a hotel room. What supports are available? I ask the Minister of State to outline what the supports are, who receives them and how one can access them. I do not think they exist. Like many things, they exist as a plan on paper but they are not available to people, and certainly not those in rural constituencies.

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