Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. A leading pediatrician has issued a stark warning about the dire impacts of child homelessness. Dr. Aoibhinn Walsh has said that children are presenting with rickets, anaemia, faltering growth, extreme tooth decay and skin conditions like scabies. Children with autism or intellectual disabilities experience additional trauma from overcrowded noisy emergency accommodation. She told The Irish Times, "They may be nonverbal, faecal smearing in hotel rooms, bed-wetting, refusing to eat, not sleeping." There is an enormous body of research that tells us that homelessness is disastrous for children's health and well-being. As far back as 2019, a study from the RCSI warned that 40% of homeless children experienced clinically significant mental health and behavioural difficulties. At the time, that report rightly garnered major headlines and media attention. It was also raised repeatedly in this House.

Five years later, Dr. Walsh's warnings about the catastrophic impacts of homelessness on children have largely gone under the radar. She is concerned that as a society we are becoming numb to the appalling damage being done to children. Why? Under this Government, thousands of children in homelessness is increasingly viewed not as a crisis, but as the norm. There are now 4,316 children living in emergency accommodation. At the end of this month, we will likely find that the figure has increased again. Since this Government took office, the number of children in homelessness has increased by 63%. Never before have so many children in the State been without a secure home. Never before have children been spending so long in emergency accommodation.

Of the nearly 1,500 families in emergency accommodation in Dublin in May, 26% of them had been homeless for two years or longer. Once families enter homelessness, it is getting harder and harder to get them out. That is why we must stop children and families becoming homeless in the first place.

The new Labour Party Government in the UK has said it will ban no-fault evictions. This will leave us as one of the few countries in Europe where these evictions will still happen.

Nobody who is a good tenant and who is paying their rent should be made homeless. If the Tánaiste really wants to tackle child homelessness and prevent more children going into homelessness in the next week, in the next month and over the recess, why will the Tánaiste not stop this from happening? Will the Tánaiste introduce a no-fault eviction plan?

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