20 homeless people have died in Dublin so far this year

Documents released to the Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD show that in the first few months of this year, 20 homeless people have died in Dublin.

According to the statistics, one of the people who died was 17 years old, while a further four were between the ages of 20 and 29.

Commenting on the documents and statistics, Deputy Tóibín said: “These are harrowing and distressing statistics which have been provided to me by Dublin City Council.

“Behind each one of these statistics is an individual and their family and friends.

“The ages at death are deeply concerning.

“Of the twenty people who died while homeless in Dublin so far this year, one of them was under the age of 17, four of them were aged between twenty and 29 years, and a further ten were aged between 30 and 49 years.

“Its chilling that over two thirds of these deaths were of people younger than me.

Deputy Tóibín continued: “The findings as published by the Department of Health last week, produced by the Health Research Board make for sad reading.

“Substance abuse and mental ill health were big factors here, but the report cites how the deaths were primarily the result of the social determinants of health, including inadequate accommodation, poverty, lack of employment, child and adult trauma and imprisonment”.

“We know the causes of the deaths and what we need now is urgent implementation of solutions – we need the Departments of Health, Justice, Children and Education to work together on this – from DEIS schools to psychologists, to social workers and prison officers.

“It is a scandal that people are dying homeless in Ireland in 2023 at this rate and that the government has taken so long to look into it”.