Rent Certainty and Prevention of Homelessness Bill 2015: Second Stage [Private Members] (Continued)
  Message from Seanad
  Estimates for Public Services 2015: Messages from Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

Dáil Éireann Debate
Vol. 898 No. 4

(Speaker Continuing)

[Deputy Joan Collins:  ] That is just the tip of the iceberg. Many families are couch-surfing. Families attend my constituency office every day of the week with their children when they find themselves homeless. One particular family from Walkinstown was offered a place in Clontarf. Their children go to school in Walkinstown, meaning that meeting the cost of travelling across from Clontarf to the children’s school on social welfare payments would be impossible. The family in question ended up staying with their parents, which is causing untold problems in the home.

The demands are simple: house the homeless, introduce rent controls, and build social and affordable housing. The Minister said that it takes time to build housing. Only yesterday, at the housing committee in Dublin City Council, we were told the modular housing proposed for Drimnagh will not be built until June of next year. In 2007, a covenant on the land in question in Drimnagh stated it should provide housing for the elderly. In the time that has elapsed, officials could have had services and housing for the elderly built there. There is something strategically wrong with the way the Minister is going about providing social and affordable housing. Fr. Peter McVerry said tonight that the Government will not go to Europe to call for a national emergency in housing because it is too busy trying to present a different image of Ireland to Europe and not the reality on the ground where people are suffering homelessness.

Debate adjourned.

Message from Seanad

Acting Chairman (Deputy Bernard J. Durkan):   Seanad Éireann has passed the Motor Vehicle (Duties and Licences) Bill 2015, without amendment.

Estimates for Public Services 2015: Messages from Select Committees

Acting Chairman (Deputy Bernard J. Durkan):   The Select Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimate for Public Services for the year ending 31 December 2015 — Vote 32.

  The Select Sub-Committee on Social Protection has completed its consideration of the following Supplementary Estimate for Public Services for the year ending 31 December 2015 — Vote 37.

  The Dáil adjourned at 10.10 p.m. until 9.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 December 2015.