Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

For the record, I am absolutely delighted that the Scottish Supreme Court ruled in favour of minimum unit pricing today. I hope that Ireland will follow suit. What I really want to talk about today is that, on my way into Leinster House this morning, I heard that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has launched its annual Christmas appeal and expects to help 50,000 people this year.The charity's president, Mr. Kieran Stafford, has said more families are struggling to put food on the table and heat their homes. Almost 140,000 children in Ireland are now living in consistent poverty. These children are forced to skip two essential meals each week. It absolutely breaks my heart that in a country as wealthy as ours so many people still need to rely on charity just to put food on the table and heat their homes in winter. People are relying on donations just to be able to give their children a present at Christmas time. Growing up in a tenement house in the inner city of Dublin I remember the hard times and did not think we would see them again. It is heart breaking, but there is a context for all of this. In recent days there have been several soundbites on poverty and homelessness from various official sources. They include: the poor will always be with us; volunteers offering food are not helpful; the crisis here is not so bad by international standards; the bad behaviour of homeless people is making things worse and journalists covering this crisis are talking down the country. I am really worried that there is an attempt, conscious or not, to normalise homelessness. I fear that we are being desensitised to the scale of the tragedy and the perverse inequality that leaves so many with so little. We should be clear - there is no acceptable level of homelessness. There is no way to explain away 3,000 homeless children. Speaking to Seán O'Rourke, Fr. Peter McVerry noted that last year the State built approximately 600 social housing units, whereas in one year in the 1980s the figure was 6,000. I urge the Government to reflect on this and debate the issue with this House.