Sir, – Further to Fintan O'Toole's "'Misery in Dublin' – what kind of legacy for our children?" (Opinion & Analysis, November 3rd), our people, poor or dispossessed, as well as the young wishing to set up home, deserve a public housing scheme without delay. The golden circle will not do it and does not care. It needs a new mindset and we need to elect those who are committed to social justice.
Let us take back the power from the cosy cartels and provide for our own people and the refugees who need our help.
Those of us from those estates in Dublin built over 60 years ago in Drimnagh and Crumlin, etc, owe it to a new generation to press for the same at least. What terrible greed has ruined this fair land! – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL POWER,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole paints a very grim picture of homelessness in Dublin and makes a ridiculous comparison with Dublin in 1913, as described in a Paris newspaper at that time.
He might have informed his readers that the homeless situation in Paris – affecting 142,000 people – has grown by more than 50 per cent in the last 10 years. There are more than 25,000 homeless in England at present, which is almost exactly equal to the Irish level when comparative populations are taken into account.
It is, of course, unacceptable that anyone should be homeless but it is unfair to mislead readers into thinking that the problem here is very different from that pertaining in other European countries.
The rapid growth in homeless figures in Ireland is partly due to rising rent costs and partly due to many other factors, including the fact that families have decided to “go homeless” in order to jump to the top of the housing queue. – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Dublin 16.