Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Tánaiste mentioned empathy earlier. Will his Government extend a bit of empathy to families that are in homeless accommodation for years on end? I raise this matter because I am currently dealing with two cases where there is a distinct lack of empathy being shown. As I understand it, this is at least significantly to do with Government policy. In one case, a family of eight, including a disabled mother, a father and six children, three of whom are in college, have been in homeless accommodation for six years. They are going to be evicted from the hotel they are in because the father briefly went over the income thresholds the Government promised but failed to raise. He has now lost his job but, because of the legislation, his family is going to be made homeless and he is not entitled, after six years in emergency accommodation, to the housing assistance payment. The other family, of two parents and four children, has been housed in multiple homeless accommodations over the past four years. The family is going to be thrown out of its current accommodation because it has to be refurbished.

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