Child homelessness and eviction ban
Deputy Hearne highlighted record child homelessness and called for an emergency temporary eviction ban. After repeated interventions from the Chair about his conduct, the Tánaiste acknowledged the issue, but argued homelessness had still risen when the ban was previously in place.
A record 5,274 children are homeless along with their families. It is equivalent to a shocking 222 primary school classes of children. These children will spend Christmas in homelessness without a Christmas tree and without a dinner table that they can sit around with their families on Christmas Day. They will wonder if Santa will even find them. Each week we come in here, we put forward solutions and we feel the Government is ignoring them. Why will the Government not implement a temporary eviction ban to stop thousands more children and families being made homeless?
Does the Tánaiste really consider what life is like for the 5,274 children living in emergency accommodation and how damaging and traumatising it is to them? I have a piece of art for the Tánaiste today made by the artist, Asbestos, which sets out that 5,274 children are homeless.
Comment on this
The lettering is from the Proclamation, in which the State committed to cherish all children equally. We are not doing that. I call on the Tánaiste to take emergency action on that.
Comment on this
The rules of the House are one thing but Deputy Hearne is rightly highlighting a very important issue. As a constituency TD, I absolutely do consider this. I also consider it as the Tánaiste. Everybody in this House considers what more we can and must do in relation to child and family homelessness. We have different policy perspectives that we debate in this House. It is not a question of people ignoring each other. I hope it is not. We all need to be better than that. When we had the eviction ban in place, we did still see homelessness rise. As a policy measure, without getting into the legality of the politics, we continue to see homeless numbers rise and that is why we are taking a different approach now in terms of child and family homelessness, social housing allocation and in relation to the scheme the Minister, Deputy Browne, has put in place to acquire larger homes from local authorities and a ring-fenced fund. We will continue to do this work every day and in the days, weeks and months ahead.
