Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was alarmed to learn today that the Assistant Garda commissioner, Mr. Pat Leahy, has issued a direction to the Dublin metropolitan area that all overtime cease on the basis that the budget has been exhausted. We learn this through the Garda Representative Association, GRA, whose members were told last night to go home from their stations. This essentially gives the green light to criminals to go about their business to the detriment of good citizens. This is especially worrying as we face into the Christmas period when presents will be left in homes and cars and pick-pocketing in general is on the increase. Having attended many policing forum meetings in Dublin South-Central, I have seen that among the primary concerns for residents is the lack of policing on the streets; community policing; gardaí on the beat; and gardaí on bikes to deter such crimes as burglaries and assaults. I ask the Minister to seriously consider reinstating this budget as the cessation of overtime is very much a regressive policing step.

I would like to sympathise with the family and friends of the man who died sleeping rough in Ranelagh yesterday, an area that happens to be very close to the constituency office of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. The latest figures for rough sleeping found that, as of 7 November, 184 people were sleeping rough in Dublin city, amounting to a huge 30% increase since April. The fact that the homelessness crisis is spiralling out of control is a damning indictment of our Government and of the track records of the Ministers responsible. I commend the Islamic Cultural Centre in Clonskeagh for opening its doors to those sleeping rough during both Storm Ophelia and the recent cold spell.

As we all know, the elephant in the room here is the lack of housing supply, particularly with regard to social and affordable homes. We have seen no less than six failed housing policies to date, among them the failed development contribution rebate scheme; the failed vacant site levy; the failed vacant homes action plan; the failed local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF; the failed repair and leasing scheme; and last but not least the failed Part V social housing scheme. More than 120,000 people nationwide are on the housing list. We need to start thinking bigger and have more ambitious plans because the current rate of building will not so much as scratch the surface of this huge list and issue. I again call on the Minister to come into the House to address these matters.