Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge everything the Taoiseach said and congratulate the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and the Government on the work they have done in providing houses throughout the country in a measured, reliable and sustainable way.

Another issue that is developing, however, relates to the lack of adequate emergency or homelessness accommodation spaces. The question of beds in every area is now one of acute importance. I have never dealt with a situation as serious and urgent, where, in many cases, people who are on the housing list have to go 50 miles or 60 miles away, leaving their job behind. They might have a job and be able to go to it, but travelling 60 miles in each direction daily to hold on to it is something we should not aspire to. Is it possible to examine extraordinary remedial works to provide something like the private sites accommodation that previously existed in County Kildare and a number of other counties and is still readily available? It involves subsidised sites that are made available at an affordable rate to suitably qualified applicants.

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