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29 September 2015

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Minister Alan Kelly's 'windy rhetoric' won't tackle homelessness crisis

Pearse Doherty TD, Mary Lou McDonald TD and Dessie Ellis TD speak to reporters at Leinster House

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER ALAN KELLY'S rhetoric and platitudes will not tackle the huge crisis of homelessness in Ireland, Sinn Féin says.

The comments came as Sinn Féin put forward a Private Members Bill (PMB) which will be debated in the Dáil over the coming days and puts forward a number of proposals to deal with the epidemic of homelessness and social housing.

Speaking to reporters at Leinster House on Tuesday, Mary Lou McDonald TD said:

"We have had another tragic death on the streets of Dublin [homeless man Alan Murphy] just a stone's throw from the Dáil. It is the latest stark reminder of this humanitarian crisis in terms of rough sleepers and a largely hidden homeless epidemic."

She noted that many people who have lost their homes are now sleeping on couches or spare rooms of friends or family members:

"Tens of thousands of families are on our social housing lists waiting for many long years and there has been no coherent or genuine response from Government, despite all the windy rhetoric so beloved of Minister Alan Kelly."

Sinn Féin's highly-detailed PMB looks at issues surrounding emergency homeless accommodation, increased funding to local authorities to build affordable social housing, protection of funding for refuge centres for survivors of domestic violence and disability adaption needs in current housing stock.

Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Dessie Ellis TD says his party is bringing forward the Bill because of the quickly deteriorating situation in housing:

"If Minister Alan Kelly really sees this as a humanitarian crisis then we need emergency measures," he said. "This Government has been speaking about rent certainty and rent controls for years and the Minister still hasn't done anything."

The Dublin North West TD described the situation with thousands of children living in emergency accommodation as "absolutely appalling":

"We were promised action after Jonathan Corrie died last year that something would be done, yet now the amount of homeless people sleeping rough has actually doubled. This simply cannot be allowed to continue."

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