asked the Minister for Health how many persons in Dublin city are at present homeless and living in shelters, Army barracks, and the Mendicity Institute, specifying the number of persons in each place.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin City Homeless.
10.
I have already indicated to the Deputy, in reply to a question yesterday, that the Dublin Health Authority provides shelter and maintenance in several of their hospitals and homes for persons who are unable to provide those services for themselves or their dependants. I have assumed that the information which the Deputy now seeks relates to the Island Street premises and Griffith Barracks.
On 5th instant, there were eight families, eight husbands with their wives and 17 children, in the Island Street premises and there were 19 women and 12 children in Griffith Barracks.
There is an implication, which the Deputy may not have intended, in the phraseology of the question that the type of accommodation provided for these persons who are without permanent homes at present is grossly inferior. Any such inference would be incorrect and unfair to the health authority. The health authority discharges its statutory obligations when it ensures that no person who is homeless is left without a bed in clean and reasonably comfortable surroundings; but it has not the function to provide, at the public expense, superior family accommodation for all who may seek it and cannot reasonably be expected to do so.
Are we all taking leave of our senses?
No, not all.
Listen to me. Here we are, on the eve of Christmas, all of us reasonably comfortable and prosperous, and we are talking about families of women and children and husbands who have no roof over their heads and who will spend their Christmas in places like the Mendicity Institute——
This is a statement, not a question.
Are we all taking leave of our senses in that we are quite bland and quite content to say that the Dublin Health Authority has no duty other than to provide people with a shelter and a clean place to rest?
The Deputy has not yet asked a question.
Is there no conscience left in this House to protest against the appalling fact that our neighbours are living with their wives and their children in the Mendicity Institute and other institutions like it, with, in many cases, the families divided and the fathers separated from their wives and children? Surely there ought to be some scintilla of saeva indignatio left in this House to protest against such a situation and call upon the Government to take whatever measures are necessary to provide caravans, or anything else, so that these families can be gathered together again into a home at least for Christmas and not leave the country under the impression that we are all quite content with the situation that exists? Are we? I think it is a hideous scandal and something of which we ought all to be ashamed.
Is it true that some of the women involved in this public scandal are in fact on hunger strike?
I do not know. I saw that in the paper, but I do not know.
Surely the Minister for Health knows?
Perhaps he does.
Why is he not here?
He was not asked that question. It is all very fine for members of the Opposition to come down so flatly on the Dublin Health Authority, but the Dublin Health Authority are doing their best under very difficult circumstances.
What are the difficult circumstances?
Order.
Surely we all see that this is only a temporary situation. I have been told that one house was offered to one family and it would not be taken.
This has been going on for the past six months.
Is it not true that this situation has arisen largely as a result of the houses falling down on the people in Dublin and there being no houses into which to put them? Is it not time someone got incensed about this? We have failed to build houses. Could we not get a sufficient number of caravans in which to gather these families together and give them a home over Christmas at least or make it clear that we are going to do the best we can and not leave them in institutions with the fathers separated from the families, appearing to be quite content that we are doing all that can be expected of us? It is a damnable situation.
There were plenty of vacant houses in Dublin in 1956.
Was that not our glory? We had built too many houses.
The houses were vacant because the people were leaving the country.
The Government are glad to have the houses now.
There were houses available for everybody. Now we are in the situation that these people are in an institution and there are no houses available for them. There were houses for the people when we were in office and the people were not in institutions.
(Interruptions.)
Order. Question No. 11.