Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I second Senator Higgins's proposed amendment to the Order of Business. Second, I congratulate Senator Bacik on her rightful recognition.

I wish to discuss child homelessness. According to official figures, there are now 3,848 children living in homelessness. We saw a photograph of one of them, Sam, eating from a carton on Grafton Street. Figures are one thing, but when one puts a face to the child, it makes the situation very different. I wish to highlight a report I launched last Friday in Cork. It was undertaken by Young Knocknaheeny, which is a brilliant project that is supporting child and infant mental health. Its efforts are being undermined by the housing conditions in which the children are living. The report refers to couples rearing three children all under eight years of age, the housing assistance payment, HAP, not being accepted, borrowing money from loan sharks to pay the rent, zero-hour contracts, notices to quit and going to a hotel in the country and not in the city where the children are at school. A family with five children is sharing a room and trying to get out to school from that room. Senator McFadden spoke about similar issues earlier. It is little wonder that one of the parents attempted suicide and that one of the children expressed suicidal thoughts. Another family with three children was camping out in the attic of a house. The attic had damp and mould and this resulted in respiratory problems for them. The family has been on the local authority waiting list for seven years but could not find a place to rent that accepted HAP. There is another account of a family of seven, comprising six children from infancy to teens, living in a house which had damp patches in the bedrooms, with cloths and rags blocking up windows. There was no heating system in the house, only open fires and electric heaters and there was rubbish in the garden. These accounts are shocking and they should shock us but we are not acting. Two more reports are due to be published soon, one from the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government and the other from the Joint Committee on Children and Youth Affairs. I ask the Leader to invite both Ministers to the House to answer questions with regard to what on earth is happening to end child homelessness.

I would also like the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs to answer some questions on what is happening with Bessborough. Very important services are being provided in Bessborough to children and their families but the nuns are talking about selling it off. There is also the question of 800 unmarked graves about which the Minister must provide clarification.

Finally, I welcome the results of the parliamentary survey by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, the first of its kind, that are being announced as we speak. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate on what that survey has uncovered and, more importantly, on how we respond to it. I also wish to acknowledge the work of the women's caucus in making the survey happen in the first place.