Gay Byrne and housing homelessness
Senator Ardagh first paid tribute to Gay Byrne, then raised housing and homelessness, criticising the lack of an effective affordable housing scheme and rising emergency accommodation use. The Chair corrected a brief slip and she acknowledged it.
First, I welcome our new colleague, Senator Hackett, to the House. I congratulate her and her family. It is great to have them in here today as it is certainly a day they will always remember.
I would like to raise the passing of the late Gay Byrne and extend my condolences and those of the Fianna Fáil group in the House to his wife, Kathleen, daughters, Suzy and Crona, and his larger family and colleagues at RTÉ. I grew up watching Gay Byrne on "The Late Late Show" every Friday night. He was a real trailblazer not alone in his distinguished broadcasting career but in the massive influence he had on wider society, giving people permission, as it were, to discuss topics that would not generally have been discussed at that time. Not alone did he introduce us to Boyzone but during the AIDS epidemic, he introduced Irish people to condoms and there was a funny episode where he-----
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Boyzone. We were all very sad yesterday when we heard of his passing. Ní fheicfimid a leithéid arís and ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis.
I would also like to raise an issue I have raised regularly in the House, which is that of housing and homelessness. In 2018, we were told in the budget introduced at that time that an affordable housing scheme would be established but it is fair to say no such scheme has worked effectively. We have not seen many fruits from that scheme and we have seen an increase in the number of people accessing emergency homeless accommodation. There are more than 10,400 on the list for such accommodation, comprising more than 6,500 adults and 3,800 children. That list does not include those we call the hidden homeless who are not accessing emergency hotel accommodation but living with grandmothers or parents. Many people are living at home, cannot afford rent and are not on the emergency accommodation lists. Members may have seen the Focus Ireland advertisement and for those who are accessing emergency accommodation, especially children, what is portrayed in that advertisement is a real scenario in that children are living in hotel rooms in which one could not swing a cat and in which the parents cannot cook. Parents are trying to give their children a proper childhood but it is impossible in such accommodation. There will be major repercussions for those children, and society, down the road if we do not ensure this homelessness crisis is resolved in some way. It is a disaster for those families, especially coming up to Christmas. It is very upsetting for them and for all of us. We have let them down.
I would like to see a lot more done. The number of people accessing emergency homeless accommodation has remained at in or around 10,000 since we started in the Seanad. Something urgent must be done. I know we say it all the time but no holes have been made in it and there have been no changes. We need to take the figures seriously, as they will increase as the weather deteriorates, despite Leo's comments on climate change and temperatures increasing.