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

After a very brief respite during Covid-19 on the homeless situation because of the temporary eviction ban and the ban on further rent increases, now that those measures have been lifted, the family homeless situation is once again spiralling out of control. We need to address it in this House as a matter of absolute urgency. The figures are back up towards 10,000 people. In the past few days, I have been informed of 60 families who are going to be evicted from the Shannon Arms apartment complex in Limerick.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day on the telephone with a mother of three, whose husband works 12-hour shifts in a Dublin hospital, who was sitting in a park and had nowhere to live. This is someone whose husband protected us on the front line and now the family are homeless. They have been looking for tenancies for six months but they cannot find them. I am hearing story after story. The situation is getting decisively worse. We need to address it in this House as a matter of absolute urgency and have a discussion about what additional emergency measures we will take to stop the homelessness crisis spiralling out of control.

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