Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry for being late. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on family hubs. I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government at which presentations were made by representatives from the Mercy Law Resource Centre and Focus Ireland and by the Ombudsman for Children. They gave harrowing accounts of children who are staying in what is meant to be temporary accommodation. Family hubs were a new solution to replace hotel accommodation. We know, despite numerous promises by the Government, that families are being accommodated in hotels, in some cases for up to three years, all over this country. In many cases, they are many miles from their original homes and often they are in different counties to where their children go to school. We have a constitutional provision that refers to cherishing all of the children equally in this nation but that is simply not happening. In that context, it is important that we invite the Minister to this House to explain what he means by temporary accommodation and by hubs. At the very least, I call on him to establish an independent inspectorate to examine these hubs because we have heard harrowing stories today. Many Senators will have heard similar stories in their communities. This is an important issue and it should be given absolute priority. I ask the Leader to arrange an early debate on how we are housing children and families in inappropriate accommodation. These cases will be tomorrow's redress scheme. We will look back and ask what we did for our children and their families. This is an important issue and I ask the Leader to facilitate an early debate with the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and his colleague, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, who also has a responsibility in this area.