Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In the south east, there are 330 adults and 113 children officially recorded as homeless. That is 70 families. In County Waterford alone, 110 adults and 37 children are in local authority-funded emergency accommodation. Those are only the official figures; they are the tip of the iceberg. They reflect people in local authority accommodation but they do not capture the hidden homelessness that every public representative in this Chamber encounters weekly - certainly those of us who operate clinics and have a listening ear. In Waterford alone, beyond the 37 children formally recorded, there are another 66 children placed on an emergency basis in vacant council houses with their families. These are houses which are not ready or fit for allocation. They are not secure tenancies or allocated. They have no stability. It is effectively emergency accommodation under another heading.

Behind those figures and statistics are the real stories of people I meet. Just this week, Liam who separated from his partner visited my constituency office. He ended up sleeping in his car and he is still sleeping in his car. He will sleep there tonight. He works, pays tax and gets up early in the morning. He does everything expected of him. He has nowhere to live or to go and no prospect of that changing anytime soon. Emma, who survived serious domestic abuse, secured a private rental but now faces losing it because the landlord wants the property back. This is no fault of her own. She is again staring homelessness in the face. For Louise, two days before Christmas could not tell her children where Santa would be delivering presents. Ultimately, they had somewhere for the Christmas period but we cannot countenance the instability, hardship and stress that caused. James and his family are overholding because they have nowhere to go. He leaves for work each morning unsure whether he will return to the locks having been changed and their belongings and whole life in black plastic bags out in front of the house.

Just this week, I met grown siblings who were raising their respective young families in their parents' house. There are three generations under the one roof - multiple families, not out of choice but because the rental market has collapsed. This is happening in Waterford city, Dungarvan and across our rural communities as well. Rural homelessness rarely looks dramatic. It does not make headlines; it is usually unseen and seemingly unacknowledged by Government. It does not tend to appear in the Government's figures. It looks like a young couple back in a childhood bedroom with their kids, separated parents forced to continue sharing a home long after a relationship has broken down because neither can afford to leave, or people returning from urban areas to overcrowded family homes because there is nothing to read locally. That is homelessness too.

Tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta seo le feiceáil go soiléir i bPort Láirge agus ar fud an oirdheiscirt. Tá na céadta daoine gan dídean go hoifigiúil agus go leor eile nach bhfuil san áireamh sna figiúirí sin. Tá páistí á dtógáil i seomra plódaithe i dteach a shean tuismitheoirí agus daoine óga ag codail i gcarranna. Tá daoine scartha fós ag maireachtáil faoin díon céanna mar nach bhfuil aon rogha eile acu. Is toradh ar chinntí polaitiúla Fhine Gael, Fianna Fáil agus na neamhspleáchaigh é an scéal seo, agus tá sé de chumhacht againn agus ag ionadaithe an Rialtais cinntí eile a dhéanamh.

Nationally, homelessness has risen by 13% a year, child homelessness is increased by 15% and almost 17,000 people are officially homeless, including more than 5,000 children. At the same time, funding for tenant in situ has been reduced, the scheme that keeps families in their home and prevents them going into emergency accommodation. We see the rent hike Bill the Government is trying to pretend did not happen, does not exist and will not impact renters. Those rents are continuing to rise naturally but they are definitely going to rise in light of the changes the Government has brought in at the behest of the institutional investors.

Supply continues to shrink despite what the Government says and fewer than 1,800 homes were available to rent across the State at the start of this month. No credible modelling has been presented to show what this will mean for renters and the likely outcome is clear - higher rents, shorter security and increased risk of homelessness for families.

In Waterford, this homelessness crisis has a human face. I have told the Minister of State some of the stories. This does come down to some of the policy choices he and his colleagues in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made, along with backbenchers and the Independents buoying up this Government. We need action and a change in direction from this Government but before any of that will happen, the psychological reality is that it needs to acknowledge the mistakes and harm that has been, is being and will continue to be caused unless it changes its ways, trajectory and policy. The question is: having listened to the statistics and heard the stories, will the Minister of State do that? Will he change the trajectory, listen to the people of Ireland and take this issue seriously?

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