The Government “are ideologically incapable” of addressing the homeless crisis, said homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry, adding that he has no faith in them.
These comments come after a report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) found that almost 7000 people are homeless in Ireland, 27 per cent of whom are children. The figures also show that 17 per cent of people without homes are employed.
Fr McVerry said support organisations have been calling for the situation to be identified as a crisis for some time.
“The Government doesn’t have a proper strategy. They’ve had three strategies - none is working. Rebuilding Ireland is patently failing. The numbers are going up every single month,” he told RTÉ’s Today with Sean O’Rourke show.
Fine Gael TD Colm Brophy, speaking on the same programme, defended the Rebuilding Ireland strategy and said work is being done.
“We need to be building more houses. There is a major problem on the supply side. The long term solution is to build more. We can’t do that instantly.”
Earlier on Morning Ireland, Barnardos Chief Executive Fergus Finlay described the figures as ‘shameful and beyond shocking’ and called for the introduction of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO) on vacant houses.
“It is simplistic to go the CPO route. To put in place legislation, face legal challenges, it could be years. The solution is not CPOs, we would be bogged down in legal challenges,” said Mr Brophy.
“We have to be realistic.”
Fr McVerry said that dependency on the private rental sector was part of the problem, not the solution.
“Everything has to be looked at. There is no supply problem. There are 200,000 empty units in this country. Use CPOs to take on the vested interests, to stop people being put out of their homes.”
He said that if a legal challenge was taken he was confident the Supreme Court would opt for the public good over private interests.
Fianna Fáil TD Anne Rabbitte claimed that the Government could ‘go quicker’ as the crisis has now gotten out of hand and the problem was escalating.
She said there were 1,000 units in Dublin over shops that could be utilised as accommodation.
“We have to incentivise owners to let them go up two or three storeys.”
She also called for Tusla to become involved as an advocate for homeless children as the agency has a duty of care for their welfare.