Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I would like to talk about the right to housing. Rickets, anaemia, faltering growth, extreme tooth decay and scabies are just some of the extreme health conditions now being reported by medical professionals regarding children living in emergency accommodation across this State. There are now 4,316 kids living in emergency accommodation. Ten years ago, the figure was just 700. With Fine Gael in government, those numbers rise month after month after month. Many of these kids have been living in emergency accommodation for more than two years. I put it to the Taoiseach that his is either a Government of deliberate cruelty or a Government of incompetence. If it has chosen not to act decisively to prevent child homelessness, it is a Government of deliberate cruelty. If it has tried to stop it or at least tried to reverse the rise, then it has failed utterly and is a Government of incompetence. Which one is it? While the Taoiseach is at it, he might tell us when he will give the people a referendum on the right to housing.

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