Dessie Ellis TD

This evening I urged the Dáil to pass Sinn Féin’s Bill on the Housing Crisis which has escalated into a national emergency resulting from years of underinvestment in social housing builds. I called on the government to acknowledge that the only way to fully address this crisis is to immediately commence a major social house building programme.

This government’s quick fix, flash the cash strategy will not work this time. The temporary provision of 260 extra beds last Christmas in response to the death of Jonathan Corrie on Molesworth Street, Dublin was a wasted opportunity to take decisive action. Once the headlines had passed and the government thought its obligation fulfilled, the number of people sleeping rough on the streets doubled.

Only last week, we witnessed the tragic death of another person sleeping rough on our streets. We must not allow these deaths to become the backdrop to the conversation on homelessness. There can be no more deaths of people like Alan Murphy and Jonathan Corrie; there can be nothing other than outrage and action in the face of such tragedy in modern Ireland.

The many charitable organisations, community groups, and housing agencies are to be commended for the work they are doing to assist people who are homeless or living in housing distress throughout the State, but they must not be left to shoulder the burden any longer. The government must act now to provide emergency accommodation in the short term and a major social house building programme in the long term.

Myself and other Sinn Féin representatives have today today published Sinn Féin’s private members’ motion which will be introduced in the Dáil on Tuesday (29th September). The bill calls for the housing and homelessness crisis to be addressed with immediate effect.

Read our bill here

Anybody in elected office knows that housing and homelessness has reached crisis point. Our constituency offices are inundated with people who are desperate to be housed, from people who have been on waiting lists 13 or 14 years, to people who are on the streets seeking emergency accommodation.

Homeless people are being denied shelter; families are under increasing strain to keep a roof over their heads. And it is getting steadily worse. Almost 5,000 people state-wide are living in emergency accommodation; some 2,298 people living in emergency accommodation in Dublin, including 1,275 children. It has come to this point because of years of underinvestment in social housing by Fine Gael/Labour and previous Fianna Fáil led governments. We also have to factor in years of bad planning, bad governance, property speculation and an over-reliance on the private sector to deliver our social housing needs.

Rent supplement levels are totally inadequate – since this government came to power the spend has reduced by almost half. The Mortgage Interest
Supplement has been cut from €77,246,000 to €11,930,000. Not only have supports been slashed – this government has made it easier for the banks to evict people in mortgage arrears resulting in more homelessness and housing overcrowding. Sinn Féin has outlined a series of additional measures in which this crisis can be tackled in our private members’ motion. In the interests of all those homeless or in danger of losing their homes, we are hoping that all parties will support our motion. It is too serious to be ignored.