Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will agree that nobody should be homeless, regardless of where they are from. That could be Dublin, Cork, Belfast or Galway. Nobody should be homeless in this day and age. We can all agree that for decades the policy has been free-market ideology that has normalised homelessness. It has put people on the street and without shelter. At the moment, there are 14,000 people in emergency accommodation. Some are Irish, and others are not from Ireland. That is a scandalous situation. More than 4,000 children are in emergency accommodation. It is quite incredible. The composition of those who are homeless has obviously changed from individuals to families.

However, the treatment of people last weekend was absolutely unacceptable, and they are people. They are human beings like me and you. It is unacceptable that people who come to this country seeking support are treated like that. I am sure the Minister does not support that. He is a decent person, but surely he could not support the way those people were treated last weekend. The majority of people in Ireland are very decent. We understand immigration. We understand that it is incredible we have empty State-owned buildings that people can use. They could be used, even in an emergency situation. Regardless of where they come from, people surely deserve some sort of shelter. Yet, this State is not doing that. You have to ask yourself why it is not doing that. It is obviously to send a signal to others telling them not to come here, because this is what will happen if they do. There are individuals in this State who are trying to pitch others against people trying to do their best, even in the area of homelessness. People are trying to stir up all sorts of division and hatred in our communities by asking, "Why do they not look after their own?" If people ask me that when I am out canvassing, I say that the State has never looked after its own. There is a reason people are homeless in the first place, which is policy. It has been the policy of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, in particular in the past 20 years, and is the reason people find themselves without a home or shelter. That goes down to people who have literally nowhere to go. We are talking about the most basic of human rights. If we cannot even offer people the basics of shelter, there is something fundamentally wrong with this Government.

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