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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 5 Mar 1991

Vol. 405 No. 9

Adjournment Debate. - Dublin Youth Homelessness.

Voluntary and community groups who have been working in the area of homelessness have been calling for over 20 years for the provision of emergency and long term facilities for homeless children. At this very moment an eviction notice is hanging over a voluntary hostel run by Fr. Peter McVerry in Ballymun. This is a scandal which has been ignored for far too long.

The National Campaign for the Homeless estimate there are about 5,000 people homeless in the country and that does not take into account the 20,000 people on local authority housing waiting lists. Despite the passing of the 1988 Housing Act the problem of homelessness is growing all the time and getting worse. It appals me to learn that, whereas the largest number of homeless people are in the Dublin area, none of the Dublin local authorities have applied for even a penny from the special fund established under the 1988 Act for emergency housing for the homeless. I welcome the commitment given recently by the Minister for the Environment to work more closely with voluntary groups working in this area and acknowledging that they provide 93 per cent of all the hostel accommodation for homeless people in the country. Continually one finds it is groups like Focus Point and people like Fr. McVerry who are providing essential and much needed services that should be part of the public responsibility, but because the State agencies have not done or may even have refused to do anything to tackle the glaring problems, voluntary groups emerge and form and take action.

Again I find it amazing that no money from the health board or from the Department of the Environment is given to Fr. Peter McVerry in his struggle to deal with a very real problem in the Ballymun area. It is the threat of the eviction from Thomas McDonagh Tower of the boys from the hostel there that has brought into focus the need for a purpose-built hostel in the Ballymun area. The existing hostel is in a three bedroomed flat in a block of flats where all flats are tenanted. It is completely full, and from everyone's point of view the current situation is totally unsatisfactory. It is not surprising that with as many as 15 young people in the care of the hostel at times difficulties are created for the residents. The residents have made it clear that they do not want these boys evicted on to the street and fully agree with Fr. Peter McVerry's suggestion of a purpose-built hostel in the Ballymun area. The young boys who are in Fr. McVerry's hostel cannot go home. Some have left their family home because of violence and some because of abuse. Some of the boys have gone through traumatic events in their very short lives and this hostel has been tireless in working over the years to provide a haven and a programme for rehabilitation of the children involved. They have had their successes in dealing with some of these boys, but trying to deal with a number of damaged and difficult youths in an overcrowded, three bedroomed flat does not allow for proper attention and care to be given and, indeed, makes their very stressful task more difficult.

The corporation have said they are in favour of the idea of providing a site for a hostel in the Ballymun area, but there has been no official contact between the corporation and Fr. Peter McVerry in relation to possible sites. It has to be said clearly tonight in this House that this problem cannot be allowed to fester for much longer. The site needed for the hostel is little more than half an acre. Fr. McVerry and his group have already submitted plans to the corporation for a hostel which will be capable of catering for about 12 boys, and the cost of providing the hostel, £260,000, will be provided from private funding, so the only outlay which will be required for the provision of the hostel will be the provision of this half acre site from the corporation — or if the health board have land available perhaps that could be considered also.

Virtually all the boys in Fr. McVerry's hostel are from the Ballymun area, so it is a Ballymun problem. They range from as young as ten years to 18 years of age. It is a basic principle of child care that you do not uproot a child unnecessarily from his or her environment. It is essential, therefore, that these children are cared for in their own area where they have friends, relatives and schools. I urge that this matter of a plot of land for a hostel in the Ballymun area be looked at urgently by the Minister for Health and the Minister for the Environment and that action is taken on this issue before 5 April when Fr. McVerry has again to go into court to face the possibility of eviction.

I welcome the opportunity to address this issue because as Minister of State at the Department of Health I take a very serious view of the difficulties with regard to youth homelessness which are prevalent in some of our larger cities and towns. I echo the sentiments of all concerned with this problem when I say we are anxious to bring to an end the difficulties for youth homelessness not only in the Ballymun area, to which Deputy De Rossa has referred, but wherever else it exists in our capital city and around the country.

The problem of young homeless people and the difficulties they face is one which the Government are very conscious of and which is being tackled in a number of ways. The Child Care Bill, which is currently being debated in the Seanad, contains important new provisions to assist young homeless people. The Bill, when enacted, will impose a statutory duty on the health boards to promote the welfare of children up to the age of 18 who are not receiving adequate care or protection. Of particular relevance is an entirely new section in the Bill requiring the health boards to investigate the circumstances of homeless children and, in appropriate cases, either to receive these children into care or to take steps to make accommodation available for them.

As indicated in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, the Government are committed to providing the additional resources to bring the legislation to which I have referred into operation as soon as practicable after its enactment.

A number of service developments have already been initiated with particular emphasis being placed on the Eastern Health Board area. Included in these initiatives are: The assignment of a special team of social workers to deal specifically with homeless young people. This is supported by a centralised crisis accommodation unit; the establishment of two new community residential projects, one for boys in Tallaght and the second for girls in Ballymun. Both projects provide residential care for young people between 12 and 16 years of age; a new long term residential unit has been developed in the Clontarf area which caters for boys in the 11 to 14 age group; the setting up by the Eastern Health Board of a new project called "Carers for Young People" which will cater for adolescents who have had difficulty adapting to other settings; the purchase of a premises near Blessington which will house a therapeutic unit for boys and girls with special difficulties. This is due to come on stream in the first half of this year; and negotiations which are taking place between the Eastern Health Board and a number of organisations regarding the provision of additional emergency and long term accommodation for both boys and girls.

Funding has also been made available by the Minister for the Environment for special projects for the young homeless. For example, "Focus Point" have received grants amounting to £2.4 million from the Department of the Environment's voluntary housing scheme towards the provision of a new flatlet project at Stanhope Street, Dublin, and the provision of a residential facility at Arran Quay, Dublin. In addition to the facilities available in Ballymun, homeless children and young persons from the area are placed, as necessary, in various hostels and residential centres around the Dublin area.

As I have already stated in the House, the Government are committed to doing all that we can to bring to an end the plight of young people sleeping rough on the streets of our cities and towns and the initiatives which I have just outlined give practical evidence of our resolve to tackle this problem. I am anxious that everything possible will be done to bring to an end the plight of the young homeless including those in the Ballymun area. I think it will be possible to deal with the case referred to by Deputy De Rossa in the Ballymun area. I assure Deputy De Rossa that I will take a personal interest in trying to resolve that issue.

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