Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to stay with the theme of homelessness, in the context of Galway city. The Taoiseach's comment that homelessness is a stain on society is a self-serving myth. It is a stain on the policies of successive Governments, including the current one. The Taoiseach said we should ensure people do not experience homelessness for too long and get them in and out. The difficulty in Galway is that those affected cannot even access homeless services; they simply cannot get into them. Simon Communities of Ireland, in its regular quarterly report, Locked Out of the Market, states there is no rented accommodation under the housing assistance payment arrangements, discretionary or otherwise. We have a major crisis. Could the Minister of State acknowledge the facts on the ground? When will we ever see a report from the task force in Galway, which was set up more than three years ago because of a housing crisis? Not a single report was produced.

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