James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. On behalf of Fine Gael, I support the Labour Party motion and give our support to the MakeRoom campaign, the launch of which we attended in October.

As we speak, 22 children under 12 are homeless on our streets, according to figures compiled by the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health and Children. These are the children whom the Celtic tiger has forgotten. They are the children on whom the Government has turned its back. They live in one of the richest countries in the world but they are not getting, nor looking for, luxuries. They are not expecting places at private schools, exotic holidays or expensive gifts for Christmas. What they are looking for is a warm, loving and caring home, which is the right of every young child. Instead they face a winter of extreme cold and extreme danger on the streets.

If we had read about it in Dickens we would be horrified, but thankfully times have changed. In fact, times have not changed and they will not change under this Minister's watch. The Government has a target of ending homelessness by 2010 which, even were it to be met, would be too late for these children. It also had a target of ending sleeping rough by 2004 so I am not too optimistic about the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats commitment to a 2010 end to homelessness.

The facts on homelessness have been stark in the past nine years and remain stark today. By March 2005, 43,684 households were still waiting for a local authority house, and many housing bodies say this is an underestimation, which I believe. There are 5,581 homeless people in Ireland but the Simon Community claims the overall figures are a gross underestimation, which I also believe. In Dublin, 4,060 people are homeless. There are 492 homeless children in Ireland, the majority of whom are in their mid to late teens, with the highest number being recorded in urban areas such as greater Dublin with 210. The next highest is the south with 132, the west has 46 and the mid-west has 43. The lowest figures were in the north west, where five children were found to be homeless. The overall number of homeless children grew from 476 in 2003 to 492 in 2004.

Adding to the statistics of Irish homeless, the Polish Embassy has said there may be as many as 600 homeless Polish people in Ireland. According to voluntary aid workers, more than 300 Polish emigrants sleep rough in Dublin every night. Most of the homeless gravitate towards the Phoenix Park, bus shelters and Garda stations. As Senator Ryan pointed out, we see people living rough in doorways not 100 yards from this House. With the Polish population currently standing at 90,000 and growing, the homelessness problem has become a major issue in the past few months. Some 10% of St. Vincent de Paul's night shelter beds are now occupied by homeless Poles. Focus Ireland has warned that Polish and other migrant workers are almost certain to become Ireland's new homeless poor within the next five years due to an inevitable downturn in the economy. Their problems will be reminiscent of those the Irish in London faced some decades ago.

The MakeRoom campaign, supported by Focus Ireland, the Simon Communities of Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Threshold, four national voluntary organisations working in the area of homelessness and housing, is for everyone who wants to see an end to homelessness in Ireland. Those agencies hope it will provide an opportunity for politicians, voluntary organisations, families, individuals and communities to be part of the debate and part of the solution.

The MakeRoom campaign stresses that a comprehensive strategy is needed to prevent homelessness. It believes each person, regardless of income or housing status, must have the opportunity to access vital services, and to redress if his or her needs are not adequately met. It also believes that Government policies should not contribute directly to trapping people in homelessness.

The six policy planks on which the MakeRoom campaign focuses are responding to what people need, more and better housing, support to leave homelessness, renting on a low income, proper standards in renting, tackling poverty and preventing homelessness. This is not rocket science and the Government should not have to think too hard to achieve these aims.

We should not have a debate on such an important issue simply to be negative and my party has developed a good policy in this area to tackle homelessness once and for all. To do that, we are convinced of the need for the State to invest heavily in move-on accommodation. Such housing is designed both to assist homeless people to move out of homelessness and to ensure vulnerable people do not become homeless. In essence, it provides a semi-sheltered environment for those who cannot cope with independent living.

It goes without saying that the Government's shameful failure to deliver on the social housing units it has repeatedly promised is adding to the problem. It is also vital that the root causes of homelessness, such as poverty and the twin scourge of drug abuse and alcohol dependency, are tackled. More social housing is urgently needed as the current supply is not adequate to meet demand. The number of social houses made available under Part V of the Planning and Development Act 2000 is also below expectations. In the second quarter of 2006, 1,358 social houses were provided, approximately 6.2% of total houses built in that period. The work of voluntary housing associations needs to be supported, as they cannot and should not be expected to meet the demand for their services unaided. The Government has neglected those in certain areas, as will be confirmed by anyone involved in those organisations.

Fine Gael shares the belief of organisations like Focus Ireland that the legislative definition of homelessness is too narrow. Rather we need to look at three groups for the real picture. They are the visible homeless who sleep rough or in emergency shelters and bed and breakfasts, the hidden homeless who live in inadequate, unsuitable or insecure accommodation and those at risk of homelessness, as well as those who are not homeless but are in danger of becoming so due to economic, familial or health difficulties.

Fine Gael remains committed to full implementation of existing Government strategies and will work towards the implementation of the independent review of the Government's homeless strategy. The review of the implementation of the Government's integrated and preventative homeless strategies examined the actions recommended to tackle and prevent homelessness and local authorities' action plans in response to the strategies. It shows that a lot more remains to be done in the areas of long-term accommodation, co-ordination between Government agencies dealing with homelessness, the development of a case management approach to meeting the needs of the homeless and preventative strategies for other groups at risk of homelessness.

Again, I thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion and I wish the MakeRoom campaign every success in tackling the continual presence of homelessness. The Minister of State has statistical figures but they are not accurate in many cases. I have learnt from discussions with local authorities around the country that there is a huge underestimation in the numbers of homeless today. What has the Government done in the past couple of years? It has changed the format of the housing application document. Many people find it difficult to complete that document so they abandon it and continue to live rough on the streets. The figures the Minister has quoted over recent years are inaccurate. People involved in supporting the homeless will confirm that. I am not happy with the distorted figures offered by the Minister. In the not too distant future we will have more accurate figures that will shame him and his Government on this issue.