Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share time with Senator Grace O'Sullivan.

Despite what the Minister of State has said and the efforts he has outlined, the Irish housing system is broken. It is broken for the 3,079 children living in emergency accommodation. It is broken for the hundreds of people with leave to remain but who are still stuck in direct provision centres because of the lack of housing. It is broken for the women experiencing domestic violence who cannot leave their unsafe homes because of the lack of housing. It is broken for the refugees who we fail to welcome and who we say we cannot take in, so reneging on our international obligations and commitments currently standing at 1,259 people welcomed out of 4,000 as of last July. It is broken for the Travellers living in overcrowded halting sites that have become deathtraps. I saw evidence of the latter for myself in Spring Lane in Cork last year. It is broken for people with disabilities languishing in congregated settings - again, evidence of missed Government targets and broken promises. It is broken for the couple from Dún Laoghaire, one a physiotherapist and one a teacher, who can only aspire to buy a house Wexford, which is not really nearby for them. It is broken for the teachers taking leave of absence in order to work in Dubai and save for house deposits who cannot be replaced and for the pupils they leave behind. It is broken for the nurses who cannot be recruited to work in a Dublin child mental health centre, as we heard at the Seanad public consultation on child mental health. It is broken for the companies that cannot recruit. According to the Cork Chamber of Commerce, the crisis in the rental sector is the number one concern of 90% of Cork’s largest employers. The system is broken for the 14 people I counted sleeping in doorways on St. Patrick’s Street in Cork on a wet, cold Christmas Day. It is certainly broken for Kathleen O’Sullivan, who died on the streets of Cork at the age of 48 and whose funeral I attended in December. The Irish housing system, if we can even call it that, is broken from top to bottom for all those people and many more.

On the gagging of NGOs, if that proposal is true, and I truly hope it is not, spin or a gagging order to protect Ministers and officials from uncomfortable truths about housing will not fix our broken housing system. That said, there is a way out.