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

When one thinks about all of the tribunals and commissions of investigation we have had, how long they went on for and how much they cost, they are quite telling about the history of this country. A commission of investigation into NAMA related to the housing crisis and what developers did to this country; a commission of investigation into the IBRC, a dodgy bank that lent money to developers who helped to wreck the economy; planning tribunals to do with dodgy planning decisions; and investigations into mother and baby homes and the scandal of the mistreatment of women and children for decades. I could go on.

There is one lesson that we should take from all of these. I do not know exactly what the model for investigating past scandals is but one thing we could learn is that it would be best for these scandals not to happen in the first place. I want to warn the Taoiseach today about a scandal that we are going to be investigating very soon, namely, the scandal of children who are homeless being put through the trauma of being made homeless and living in emergency accommodation or direct provision for years. Indeed, we may well be investigating the state of some of the accommodation that Ukrainian refugees are being put into now, judging from early reports. There is a serious problem with putting vulnerable people, particularly children, into totally inadequate housing, into emergency accommodation, direct provision centres, hostels and elsewhere. I promise the Taoiseach that we will be investigating the damage and the trauma caused in years to come. As I did earlier today, I ask the Government to prevent having to set up a commission of investigation in a few years and to take emergency measures in this area now. Families and children, wherever they may be from, should not be in these absolutely dire and inappropriate situations.

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