There should be no rough sleepers in Dublin this Christmas – Kenny

There should be no rough sleepers on the street in Dublin this Christmas, Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday.

Outlining a range of measures taken by the Government, he said he could not speak for everybody, given that some people wanted to be on the streets and were in very particular circumstances, he added.

“One should not confuse the situation in so far as rough sleepers are concerned and the question of homelessness in general,” he added.

“There is a difference in the situation that applies to those on the streets.”

Rent supplement

The Taoiseach rejected a demand from

Fianna Fáil

leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader

Gerry Adams

to increase the rent supplement.

“If we were to decide to increase the rent subsidy, that would not improve the supply of housing by one unit. It merely puts pressure on the existing housing stock and it makes the situation worse,” he said.

Mr Kenny added the fundamental problem was supply of accommodation, be it private or social accommodation, voided units or whatever.

“People are entitled to have access to warm, comfortable and properly insulated accommodation, which has not been the case, and a great deal of work has gone into dealing with this issue and quite a deal of progress has been made,” he said.

Mr Kenny said the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No 2) Bill would provide stability in the area of those who were homeless because of rent increases.

The Government had put €4 billion on the table for social housing up to 2020, he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin insisted there was no confusion between rough sleepers and the phenomenon of families losing their homes during the past three years.

He noted it was a year since a homeless man, Jonathan Corrie, died close to Leinster House. "One year on, those at the coalface and on the streets are very clear about one thing: the homeless crisis is worse. The numbers sleeping rough in Dublin are on the increase, as well as in Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway and across the country," he added.

Families losing homes

He said he had pointed out to the Taoiseach, time after time, that the most shocking phenomenon and development in recent years had been the huge number of families with children losing their homes.

About 800 families with more than 1,500 children had, essentially, been made homeless, and about 70 to 80 families were losing their homes monthly, as opposed to 30 to 40 last year, he added.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said there been lots of assurances from the Government, since a year ago, that matters would improve. But since then the housing crisis had escalated, with chaos heaped upon chaos, he added.

Mr Adams said the Government had promised to build at least 1,000 social housing units this year. Reports indicated that just 20 social houses were built in the first half of the year and Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly had conceded a mere 200 would be built in the entire year, he added.