Máiría Cahill (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, call for a debate on the issue of homelessness. Country to what Senator Cullinane said, I raised the issue in November as a Commencement matter. I am quite disgusted that someone can come in here for less than ten minutes on the Order of Business and profess to care so much about the issue of homelessness that it becomes a party political point, and then leave without listening to the rest of the contributions. I could wave and quote figures about what the Government has done about the homelessness crisis until the cows come home, but I do not want do that because it is not a party political issue.

It is very worrying that families with young children are living in hotel accommodation for a year or more. As someone who was made homeless and very recently spent four years on the homelessness list because of republican intimidation, I also do not accept the bona fides of the Senator on the issue. All of that is not important. I have never seen conditions like some of those aired on the RTE programme last night. I do not want to hear criticisms of this Government and what should have been done. Rather, I want to have a debate on this issue and find out what we can do in the short term. I understand it will be 2017 or 2018 before some families are housed. In the meantime, I want to know what can be done to make the lives of families in emergency accommodation easier.