Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Okay. Would it be possible to share with the rest of the Chamber any findings of the study or even the timetable for when it is to be completed?

I believe that three actions are necessary in this situation. First, we need to be able to collect information from counties other than Dublin. We need to know how many people are dying in homelessness in each of those counties. If we do not know what is happening elsewhere, how are we meant to develop a policy to ameliorate that situation?

Second, we need standardisation of homeless accommodation. Right now, many homeless service providers are unregulated and the standards within homeless accommodation can be very poor. Some homeless accommodation facilities are very good, but some others are very poor. We need this area to be regulated. HIQA needs to be responsible for it and there is a need for regular and routine inspections.

Third, I have been made aware of an incredible situation. If a person who is not from Dublin goes to seek assistance in Dublin, that person is told to go back to his or her own county to get assistance. In level 5, and even under the current level of restrictions, one is not meant to cross a county border. One arm of the State is telling people to go back to their own county to receive assistance, while another is telling them they may not do so. As a result, there are people on the streets without assistance. Nobody should be turned away from assistance, especially in the run-up to Christmas.

Obviously, there are many hard-working charities and individuals doing phenomenal work to help people who are in homelessness. I am thinking of Br. Kevin of the Capuchin Day Centre here in Dublin and Councillor Anthony Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless. These people deserve enormous credit for the work they are doing on the ground. However, it should not be up to charities to do this work. The fact that charities have to be involved in this area shows the gaping chasm left by Government inaction in this particular space. I believe the Government has constantly fallen short in helping vulnerable people during this pandemic, be it those in nursing homes or direct provision, members of the Traveller community, workers in meat factories, people with disabilities or mental illnesses and people who are homeless. Those are the people who have suffered by far the most in recent years and especially in this pandemic. I am calling on the Government to show real compassion in the run-up to Christmas., compassion not just in terms of words, but in terms of actions for these people.

The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive has furnished me with a significant amount of information relating to homeless deaths. It is heartbreaking stuff when one reads the detail of it. Many of the deaths were as a result of suicide or overdose. One man was discharged from hospital, walked around the corner and hung himself from a railing. Another man was found dead the day after he was released from prison. Many of the 56 people who have died were young men or young women. God rest them all. Departments need to work together on this issue. We need prison reform and concrete plans to tackle drug and alcohol abuse, especially among people who are leaving prison, homeless shelters, etc., as well as potentially those who are leaving hospital.

In recent times, I have submitted freedom of information requests on housing issues to local authorities. The information I have received shows that throughout the country there are several people and families who are in need of social housing but who are being turned away despite the fact that there are vacant properties. In my constituency in the great county of Meath, the council told me that it owns 3,546 properties. It received 1,168 applications for housing in the first half of this year. That shows the disproportionate demand as compared with supply. It granted only 440 housing applications and currently has 130 vacant properties. That is startling. There are 130 vacant properties in the ownership of Meath County Council. Only 127 properties are under construction. Why are people being turned away? That is a really important question to which we must find the answer.

Another significant and scandalous issue is the fact that Traveller accommodation is not being built. Local authorities receive departmental funding that is specifically earmarked for accommodation for the Traveller community. The subject of Traveller accommodation is seen by many political representatives as politically toxic and, as a result, local authorities are handing that money back wholesale to central government. They are handing money for housing for homeless people back to the Government during a housing crisis. That is unbelievable. In Galway some months ago, a house that was built and ready for a Traveller family was burned to the ground. I welcome the fact that Deputy Ó Cuív was one of the few elected representatives who stood up against that action. I commend him on that.

I have previously raised the issue of housing for people with disabilities. One in four people who are homeless has a disability. That is way out of kilter with the proportion of people with disabilities in the general population. In some cases, people with disabilities have been waiting far longer than a decade for appropriate housing. The Disability Federation of Ireland stated that there is a significant lack of appropriate housing for people with disabilities, be it social housing, private rental or privately purchased housing. There is an especially acute crisis in housing for people with disability. Meath County Council has 173 people with physical disabilities on the housing list, with 26 new applications this year. Many houses need adaptations. Some €70 million is provided annually for such adaptations and I welcome that, but there are 31 local authorities in the State and, unfortunately, that money does not end up doing a whole heap of work once it is shared among that number of local authorities. What we need are quotas in the housing sector for people with disabilities. That is the subject of one of the Bills on which Aontú is currently working.

Single people are being stuffed when it comes to housing. For the past 13, 14 or 15 years, very few units have been provided to house single people.

To put the issue of homelessness into context, during a debate in the House last week, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, told Members about the need to put €500 million every year into a rainy day fund. It is lashing rain on people who are in homelessness now, yet the Government has had a policy of putting money into the rainy day fund. Permanent TSB will not pay tax on its profits until 2038. AIB will not pay tax on its profits until 2037. Is it any wonder we have a problem?

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