James Heffernan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. Unfortunately I did not hear the speech of the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and I cannot seem to get a copy of it so I apologise if I go back over points that have already been covered. I welcome the forum the Minister has put together, although it is a bit behind schedule. I do not know what was happening for the previous 15 or 20 years that something was not put together. I hope it will not just become a token gesture because the issue is in the media spotlight at the moment. I hope it is really followed through on and that we are updated on the outcomes and have an input as elected representatives. There is a huge disconnect there.

"Teardrop John" was found dead on the steps across the road from here the other morning. It is a horrible way to die and it was certainly very poignant. It brought the issues home to everyone and asked serious questions of us, but it did so because it happened outside our door here. If we are talking about a man being found dead on the steps of the Parliament, it is bad, but I am ashamed to say all of our national monuments in the city centre have people sleeping on their steps.

I took part in the homeless count in the last fortnight, and I can assure the Minister of State it was a very sobering experience. I went with two other people who are involved in services for homeless people. We started at the corner of O'Connell Bridge and went along the north side of the river, down past Liberty Hall, up past the Custom House, around Busáras and back down Talbot Street to O'Connell Street - just that rectangle. There was a lad sleeping on the steps of Liberty Hall, there were people at the Custom House, across the road from Jimmy Connolly's monument, and at the Store Street Garda station there were about five lads inside the station. In fairness to the gardaí they had let them in because it was a cold, wet night and the gardaí kind of turned a blind eye to the people sleeping there.

When we came up onto Talbot Street, we went in the door of an Internet café owned by a Chinese gentleman. He knew what we were there for because obviously he has experienced it before. He pointed around at the people who were there and said that 80% were homeless. The place was black with people. They were stretched out on chairs at computer desks to get in out of the cold and rain. Most of the people we came across were single men and most of them were foreign nationals as well. That shocked me, to be honest, because we speak a lot about rights for our undocumented Irish in America. I met a lot of Paddies in London who were rough sleepers and had fallen on hard times, and maybe the drink had got hold of them or whatever else. Unfortunately that problem is reversed here, in that we have people coming from different countries with a very poor level of English, and they are the lads who are huddled in threes and fours in doorways for warmth and for their own protection. I put it to the Minister of State that some form of an amnesty be given, because these lads are afraid of coming forward to the services.

They are afraid to give their names and details for fear of what might happen to them given the poor experiences they have had in that respect in the countries from which they come. I ask that some form of an amnesty be given to such immigrants who find themselves in such circumstances on our streets.

Things are bad enough for a person sleeping rough on the streets and there are no facilities for them. It is not as if they can get up in the morning, brush their teeth, wash their face and go for a shower, the basic essentials that we take for granted. They do not have facilities in which to do that. I was in an organisation in Merchants Quay earlier today and I know the services being provided by it. Its finances are stretched and it is doing a bloody fine job with very few resources.

I welcome what is being done and the money that is being spent. I take account of Senator Moloney's point that when it was put to parties in Dublin City Council whether a tax should be back into pockets of the wealthy, such as those living Ailesbury Road, or the money should be used to build houses for the homeless, the so-called left wing parties - the Fianna Fáilers the Anti-Austerity Alliance and Sinn Féin - voted against it. It was a Labour Party proposal and I commend the Labour Party councillors for doing that in Dublin City Council, but they were not listened to in that respect. It comes down to priorities, especially political priorities from a political class. The Minister of State's Department was able to spend. I could be wrong on this but I calculate there are approximately 200,000 houses that have a private well. Each of those households was given €100 a few weeks ago. If my maths serve me right, does that calculation work out at €20 million? I do not know if that figure is correct, having worked it out off the top of my head.