The Social Democrats have called for a cross-party delegation to come together with a singular focus on addressing the homelessness emergency across the country. The party’s Co-Leaders said that the situation was growing increasingly out of control and the tragic events of the last two days mean it is simply inhumane to continue along with a ‘business as usual’ approach to the both the election campaign and the homelessness emergency. The party asked at what point enough becomes enough and said surely we’ve long since passed that stage. They said politics must be parked so that real cooperation can occur in order to find a resolution to the emergency.
Catherine Murphy said
“This is not who we are as people. We are fundamentally more decent than this. People and their belongings being heartlessly swept from our streets, people dying in lonely hostels or emergency accommodation – that is not an Ireland we should recognise or accept. It is unfortunate that it has taken the tragic events of recent days to catapult the emergency into the narrative of the General Election campaign but if anything should come from it, it must be that no longer will we accept a ‘business as usual’ approach.”
Róisín Shortall said
“We know that the homeless emergency is the sharp end of the housing emergency and there is a raft of policy solutions needed for all aspects of the wider housing emergency but as an immediate measure we must all come together – across the political divide – to agree a resolution to what is a simply unacceptable situation on our streets across Ireland. It is unthinkable that the General Election campaign should continue as if nothing has happened. All of us in politics have a responsibility to step-up and try change things. That has got to happen without party politics or point-scoring. We manged to pull it together on Slaintecare and I can’t see why we couldn’t do the same for an issue of such gravity.”
16th Jan 2019
[ENDS]