Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I echo the passionate comments of Senators Boyhan and Ó Clochartaigh. We are a society beyond crisis and in an emergency that is only growing. We have had at least two years of emergency and it seems we have done nothing but grind to a halt. As public representatives we have a moral responsibility to demand adequate resources to guarantee the provision of homes for our people. Previous Governments failed miserably and ignored what was coming down the road. I have put that to both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, as they ignored an issue that was not rocket science, the lack of homes being built in the face of the growing needs of our population, especially in the Dublin region.

Homelessness has hit thousands of ordinary families and our mindset on the issue has changed from the single man spoken about earlier. The count was 109 last night. Our image now has changed to ordinary families who have lived precariously but have had jobs, with children being comfortable and looked after. When the jobs were lost in the downturn, they lost their homes because of greed, increased rents and a lack of social housing when many people have to wait at least ten years for such housing.

As another Senator mentioned yesterday, I am concerned about the mental health and well-being of the 2,000 children currently in emergency accommodation. As an experienced councillor with a mental health profession, I see these people come to my clinics every week. Children who are seven, eight or nine are beginning to suck their thumbs again. They are beginning to be incontinent and doubly incontinent again. Most tellingly, they have gone dumb and cannot speak of their distress and anxiety. They are reverting to infantile behaviour and refusing to continue to walk, jump and play. They are sitting in a corner, dumb. Day in and day out they are being reared in prams. They have to get out of accommodation during the day, roam the streets and be accepted, quietly, at night, as if they are an embarrassment to the owners of these hotels.

There are thousands of so-called hidden homeless who are unaccounted for in box rooms throughout the State. Every family with a spare room has offered their daughter, son, friends or other family members the space of box rooms. This cannot go on as it is an emergency. We must treat it as such. Let us stop using the word "crisis". We are accountable to those in dire need and we are public representatives. Let us stand up to the plate. Fianna Fáil had a good discussion about women's refuge and we must take the issue in the context of the Women's Aid report. It had horrific findings of damage and destruction - physical, emotional and mental - done to women and children. We must ensure there is adequate financing and resources for people caring for women and children in such cases.

I ask Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to stop shouting from the rooftops, as they so eloquently put some of their speeches, and support the amendment moved by Senator Ó Clochartaigh, along with the motion for rent certainty to prevent homelessness. It would go some way to mitigating the increase in rents by linking it to the consumer price index. I do not have much more to say.The democracy of local authorities, promised by the former Minister, Phil Hogan, in Putting People First, Action Programme for Local Government, does not exist in the mandate of councillors, especially when it comes to housing. Local authorities have been starved of finance and personnel over recent years and that has been difficult. In the local authority I worked for there is a 12-week turnaround for housing, which is quite good. I think it is similar throughout the country. My suspicion is that because this is coming from Fine Gael it is a question of disinvesting public services whereas I want to invest in them. I do not want the disinvestment that will lead eventually to privatisation which is the ideology to my right.