TD claims people are ‘near suicidal’ over housing crisis

A SOUTHSIDE TD has claimed people are arriving at her clinic in Ballyfermot “in a near suicidal state” because of the housing crisis.

Reacting to the RTE documentary ‘Ireland’s Property Crisis’, which caused consternation across the country when it aired last week, Deputy Brid Smith of the People Before Profit party said it had just confirmed what she and other TDs see on a daily basis.

“I see people coming to my clinic in Ballyfermot in a near suicidal state, who are facing eviction, or are in unsuitable accommodation,” Deputy Smith stated.

“Housing Minister Simon Coveney’s plan to tackle the problem has now clearly failed and the crisis is getting worse for many of the country’s most vulnerable people.” 

The Dublin South Central TD stated that the media needed to show less interest in Coveney’s leadership bid to replace Enda Kenny and look more at what she described as his failure to deal with the country’s greatest housing crisis in its history.

Deputy Smith added that a woman who featured in the documentary has started a regular protest outside the Ballyfermot Civic Offices every Tuesday to highlight the difficulties many thousands are having accessing decent accommodation.

However, a spokesperson for Minister Simon Coveney rejected the claims made by Deputy Smith that the Government’s plan to solve the housing crisis had failed.

 “The minister would refute Deputy Smith’s comments,” said a press officer at the Department of Housing. “Rebuilding Ireland provides €5.3 billion for 47,000 new social homes and there is currently a pipeline of in excess of 8,400 social homes at various stages of delivery.

“The target for this year for building, acquiring and leasing social homes is 5,000.”

The spokesperson added: “There are currently 20,000 families/individuals in receipt of supports under the HAP system and this is growing at the rate of 300 per week. Our most recent Housing Activity Report indicates that Commencement Notices in the 12 months to January 2017 are up 44 per cent year on year, completions to January 2017 year on year are up 18 per cent and planning permissions to the end of 2016 are up by around 26 per cent.”

REPORT: Andrew Ralph