Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I am proud to support this motion put forward by the Social Democrats, the case for which has been made strongly by my colleague, Deputy Whitmore. I want to echo her comments regarding Lesbos, the migrant camp there and the four children. I will say to the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, that we can do much better as a country than bring four children into Ireland. There is a much greater need than that and I believe there is a strong will from the Irish people. We have a proud history in supporting people in need in different countries and we can do much better than bringing four children here. I strongly urge the Minister to do what he can on that.

As spokesperson on housing for the Social Democrats, I wish to address one particular aspect of child poverty, that is, children and their families who become homeless or are at risk of homelessness. The current situation is that 2,620 children are living in emergency temporary accommodation for homeless people. That is without the security and stability of a home, often in overcrowded situations and with no ability for their family to plan ahead. Those are not the circumstances anyone in this House would support for children growing up and going to school and for families doing their best.

To put this in context, in 1990 in the Dublin area five families were put into emergency temporary accommodation for homeless people. That is five families in the entire year. By mid-2019, we were looking at four families a day being put into emergency accommodation for homeless people and those children were being put into that accommodation. That was just in the Dublin area with additional children and families outside of that area. This is how much this has grown under successive Governments.

The disruption and devastation caused by homelessness can have serious outcomes for children and their families and can impact on their mental health, education and well-being and the family's ability to hold down jobs and plan ahead. This is not a question of resources. Over the last five years, the State has spent more than €565 million on temporary and emergency accommodation for children and their families and for adults who are in homeless emergency accommodation. That is more than €2 million a week being spent. This is not a question of resources; it is a question of how those resources are being spent. It is about political will. We know from international evidence and from other countries how to tackle this. The Housing First model is proven to work. Unfortunately, our plan under the Housing First strategy is to provide secure accommodation for just half of the families and children most at risk. We have identified those who are most at risk - the families and children who have been in and out of emergency accommodation repeatedly over the years, those who need more support and those who have been rough sleeping. It is not acceptable that our ambition as a State is to provide a long-term solution for half of them. The goal of countries such as Finland is to eradicate homelessness, child homelessness and family homelessness and as a result of that ambition they are doing much better at tackling this than we are.

We know from other countries what works. In terms of eradicating child poverty, we can see the policies that work with regard to children and families. We know the Housing First model works but it is across the board in terms of child poverty. We know what policies and strategies work. This is a political choice and a question about what kind of country and what kind of Ireland we want to live in. Do we want to continue to tolerate child poverty or do we decide we will eradicate it? I ask the Minister and the Government take a leadership role in this regard. It is within the Minister's power and ability to do that.

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