Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Homelessness is displacement. We all know what displacement is like in Gaza. People are calling it an absolute disaster. We have displacement of more than 5,500 children. That is happening today and is a disaster. The number of homeless adults in Cork rose by 24% in the past year, the biggest year on year increase in the past five years. These figures show a dramatic increase in the number of people accessing emergency accommodation in Cork but I believe these figures do not fully reflect the actual number of people who are homeless across the country or the county. They do not include rough sleepers, women and children in domestic violence refuges, or those who are using IPAS accommodation as emergency accommodation. Figures should also be made available for those presenting as homeless to the council services and being refused, not just those who are placed in emergency accommodation. Let us not forget the hidden homeless, those sofa surfing and those living in substandard, inadequate accommodation.

Rents have increased in Cork, while supply is falling. Add that to the mounting cost-of-living pressures and it is the perfect storm for increasing homelessness. We see what the Government is doing on 1 March. The storm will be brewing much stronger. I speak to people every week in my constituency office who are experiencing homelessness and there is a real sense of despair, and I mean despair. There are only so many knocks that people can actually take. It ties our hands behind our back because we cannot give them answers because of the policy that the Government has made. The Government is just not getting it. These are young people, old people, women, men, children, and people who have jobs. I know people who have full-time, professional jobs. You cannot see the homelessness in their faces but they are sleeping in cars. One individual works in a supermarket and sleeps on a mattress in a buddy of mine's garage. That is how serious it is.

I hate speaking from script but sometimes I need it for notes. When I speak from the heart, it is the truth. Average rents in Cork at the moment are nearly €1,500. Figures show that rents for new tenants in Cork rose by 6.8% in the past 12 months. God knows what is going to happen after 1 March. In the past 12 months, rent for existing tenants has increased by nearly 5%, so we are not going the right way. We are going the wrong way.

Another woman who came to me is a highly qualified legal secretary with years of experience. She was given notice to quit. She could not find anywhere to live. Now she is secretly sleeping in her office. These people are not numbers or statistics. I hate that bloody word, "statistics". They are not a piece of paper. These are real human beings getting up, going to work, paying their taxes, trying to live a life, trying to rear a family, and no matter what way they go, there are two types of door in this country. In the health service and mental health service, there is a revolving door. When it comes to housing and homelessness, there is a shut door. It is an absolute disaster.

I mention the tenant in situ scheme. It is the one thing that worked. In my experience in the years I have been here, one of the greatest gifts this Government and past Governments have had is that when they try to fix something that is not broken, they end up making an absolute hames of it, then they scratch their head, because they are reactive more than proactive, and they ask how that happened, and then the whole situation blows up.

With the way the Government is tackling this homelessness crisis, I cannot see it being a priority. We are probably one of the richest countries in the world. We are definitely one of the most progressive but having more than 5,000 children still homeless today is absolutely shameful. That is a very polite word coming from me.

The Government signed the Lisbon declaration on homelessness in 2021. The declaration commits the Government to working towards ending homelessness by 2030. That is only around the corner. We had an alternative housing plan. Our housing expert, Deputy Ó Broin, has given the Government solutions, not ideas, but solutions, and we want to work with the Government to do it. We have to ensure that everyone has a home. It is not bricks and mortar. Houses are knocked down and rebuilt. That is bricks and mortar. A home is where people can have sanctuary, where they can raise a family, and where they can have peace. The biggest thing, as in Gaza, is having hope. If hope is taken away from a nation, it is left with nothing.

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