Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

In this Covid-centric world, much of non-Covid Ireland is being forgotten about. Many really important sectors of Irish society feel they have fallen off the world when it comes to Government priority. Some 150,000 cancer appointments have been missed this year. There are 200,000 women on cancer screening waiting lists who, despite the winter plan, will not be reached this year. Some 3,500 women have contacted domestic violence services for the first time this year. Child poverty rates are increasing at approximately 5%. There is a mental health pandemic sweeping across the country. Our domestic economy is being flattened, with 51% of retail currently online.

Another issue that has fallen off the priority list is homelessness. I have statistics from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, which give serious cause for alarm. The death toll among people who are currently homeless in our capital is spiralling out of control. So far this year, the number of homeless people in the capital who have died is more than 50. That compares with 34 people for the whole of last year and 35 for the whole of the previous year. That is an incredible statistic, first of all because it is from a smaller base of homeless people and, second, because the year is not even over yet. Councillor Anthony Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless has expressed huge concern about the numbers given that homeless deaths typically peak from November to December in this country.

I urge the Taoiseach to read that report from the DRHE to examine the specific cases. One man, for example, was found dead the day after he was released from prison. It refers to young women in their 20s dying from suicide and drug overdoses. The list goes on. There was an incredibly tragic situation where a man was discharged from hospital, walked around the corner and hanged himself from a railing. This is a profound human crisis. These men and women are the same as any of us here. They just have had different life experiences. Their situations are being eclipsed by Covid. We need urgent help on this. These figures only relate to Dublin. The simple fact is we do not know what the figures are in the rest of the State. First and foremost, can we find out what is happening in this regards throughout the rest of the country?

Second, we cannot fix this if we do not know what is going on. There needs to be a proper investigation of these figures. The fact that these figures are spiralling out of control, far higher than previous years, means the State needs to investigate what is happening to people who are homeless in the capital and throughout the rest of the country to make sure that we can put the proper services in place so that lives are saved.

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