I was speaking to representatives of the homeless services and there was a sad and despondent air amid the news of Mr. Jonathan Corrie dying outside the gates of Leinster House. Mr. Corrie was known to the homeless services as "Teardrop John" because he had a teardrop tattoo on his face. To see the reporting of it, it takes away from the human aspect of this. On Tuesday night Mr. Corrie spoke to a friend of mine who is involved with the homeless services and he told them that he loved fishing. He had a fine conversation about his parents and I want to highlight the high regard in which he held and the love and affection he felt for his mother, in particular. I believe that on that day he had just spoken to her for the first time in five years. He had very high regard for his father also. No wonder people are affected by seeing him dead before Christmas. We can talk all day about the reasons people are homeless, but the fact remains that this was a man with a heart, a human being who died because he had no roof over his head. We cannot underestimate the scale of the epidemic, especially here in the capital city but also in Limerick, Cork, Galway and elsewhere. It is a national disgrace. It is a national shame that this is going on. I welcome the debate proposed for tomorrow. To be honest, it is long overdue. On Wednesday night the week before last I took part in the homeless count where we went around the city. I was given, with my group, a small area, from O'Connell Bridge to Liberty Hall where there was somebody sleeping at the doors, past the-----

The Senator can make those points during the debate.

I intend to. It extended past the Custom House, the Connolly memorial and Store Street Garda station where there was a number of people stretched out inside and men were huddled in threes and fours in doorways trying to shelter themselves from the cold and wet of that night. We came across an Internet café on Talbot Street where there were a number of lads stretched out all over the seats for want of a place to stay. In that patch, that tiny rectangular area up to Talbot Street and back down O'Connell Street, we counted 38 persons who were sleeping rough that night. That is not taking into account those who sleep on couches and in hallways and who are inside in homeless centres. The scale is significant. While we can have the debate, that is fair enough-----

The Senator is way over time. He can make those points during the debate.

-----instead of listening to the Minister and us talking about it and throwing it back and forth, why not invite those involved?

The Senator is eating into the time of other Senators.

With respect, may I beg the Cathaoirleach's indulgence?

The Senator is way over time.

May I finish my point? We should open up this House, as has been done previously, to those who are involved at the coalface in dealing with homelessness such as the Fr. Peter McVerry Trust, Focus Ireland and Simon Community to come and tell us what it is like and what we can do about it.

The Senator should resume his seat.

I join other Senators in extending sympathy to the family of Mr. Corrie.

If he had not died where he did, there would not be a word about him. That is the reality. I have been a Member of this House since 2002 and homelessness has been discussed since I first joined, with periodic mentions since. The facilities are not available to give a bed to everybody who needs it but not everybody wants a bed, with some choosing not to have one. I am not saying that was the case with Mr. Corrie. He is being spoken about today, unfortunately, because he died in a certain place. Otherwise, there would not be a word spoken about him. I would welcome a debate on the issue and hope some good can come from the publicity surrounding his death.

I join other colleagues in calling for the Minister to come to the House to discuss the teachers' strike. The teachers have a very valid argument and a point to make. As I indicated, I accept the Minister has made some concessions in the changes to the junior certificate proposed by the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. However, these are not acceptable, even at the level where 40% of the assessment would be done internally. I would welcome the Minister to the House to discuss the matter.

I, too, extend my sympathy to Mr. Corrie's family. Homelessness is a very sad reality in the city and a problem which has many facets. People may find themselves in settled employment one minute, with a home and family, and suddenly find they have lost their job and house. Their problems are different from the issues experienced by somebody who is severely ill and addicted, who is, unfortunately, living a life which has not had the anchorage of family, employment, etc. We need to tackle the problem in its many facets. We should see this as an absolute emergency and state we will not let another winter pass with people sleeping on the streets in near freezing conditions. It is simply unacceptable. We can have all kinds of long-term plans for solving the mortgage repayment or default crises and the need to build more units, but the hard core of people in danger of dying on the streets from the effects of exposure, crime or starvation number in the hundreds, not the thousands. It is a problem that is eminently fixable; it could be done with a budget not of hundreds of millions of euro but probably the low tens of millions of euro. I suggest the need for an emergency action plan. First, we need a major reprioritisation of public spending. There is something a little offensive about trying to make a city look beautiful by building new parks, painting the window surrounds of old buildings and beautifying our statues while people are underneath those statues and in the eaves of those buildings who are freezing. We should put a blanket ban on spending money on anything that could be classified as a beautification project until we have adequate emergency homeless shelters in place and provisions in place in order that anybody sleeping outside, under a bridge, flyover or a bush in a park will have somewhere to go, although it may not be the best home in the world. They would be warm, dry and safe in some kind of wardened accommodation. We could afford to do this without breaking any banks. As I indicated, we could halt beautification projects. Although it may offend many, the dead leaders of the 1916 Rising would probably like nothing more than to have a "seven signatories" homeless shelter rather than more plaques on the walls commemorating events from hundreds of years ago.

The Senator can make those points during the debate.

Every public relations contract in every local authority in the country can be ended and we should put a modest tax on cigarettes, with the money being used specifically for maintaining a homeless shelter. We could fix this problem in approximately six weeks if we had the will to do so.

The Senator is way over time and should conclude.

Dublin City Council is spending money this year on an interpretive centre on Bull Island. The entire country is starting to resemble a bull island if this is the scale of priorities when people are freezing on the streets.