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

Because of the State's failure and neglect, many children are literally having their childhood stolen from them. If the new subcommittee is to be of any use, it must do tangible things about that. I will provide two examples. On Friday of next week, a working family with two teenage children, one of whom has special needs, will be evicted from their home despite the eviction ban mentioned by the Taoiseach. The family has done nothing wrong. They have paid their rent and their taxes all their lives and they are going to be evicted from the home in which they have lived all their lives. When I go to the council or to the Minister, I am told there is no scheme for them. There is no scheme in which this family fits so they think they will be living in a car in about a week.

Another case I have raised with the Taoiseach and others for four years involves a mother, who ironically works with Tusla and vulnerable children, whose child has lived with her in emergency accommodation for four years. His mental health is on the floor. His mother does not tick any of the boxes. She is slightly over the threshold for this, there is no scheme for that and so on. These children are suffering. One group of children will be suffering more in a week and there is no scheme to help them. Will this unit intervene in cases such as that and tell the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or another Department that children are not suffering any more; they are not going to be forced to live in a car or if they have been in emergency accommodation for four years to get the children out of emergency accommodation because their childhood is being stolen from them?

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