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.@murphyeoghan explains new measures to tackle homelessness crisis pic.twitter.com/pTiL3vxdfA
— Sean Murray (@SeanMJourno) September 8, 2017
Updated 9.10pm
A HOUSING SUMMIT chaired by minister Eoghan Murphy has concluded at the Custom House in Dublin this evening.
The Housing Minister was meeting with the heads of the 31 local authorities of Ireland.
It was billed by Murphy as an opportunity “to explore new options and to see how we can better join up our response across local authorities but also across health and social care supports” in order to tackle the housing crisis.
It was announced at a press conference this evening that, amongst other measures, a “homeless inter-agency group” is to be established immediately “to deliver homeless services in a coherent and joined-up way between the relevant departments and agencies”.
The new group will be chaired by a former department secretary general.
A further €10 million in funding for more family hubs is also being ring-fenced, as demand arises from local authorities, to be drawn down this year, according to a statement from Murphy this evening. This is in addition to funding announcements for family hubs in June.
Family hubs – which have shared kitchen and common areas – were introduced as an alternative to housing homeless families in hotels and B&Bs.
200 additional emergency beds for individuals will be in place in Dublin by December this year, according to the minister this evening.
The beds announced this evening had already been flagged by the housing department. Over 200 beds were also added to the system in 2016 “and a similar amount is currently in progress,” yesterday’s statement said.
A new mortgage to rent scheme is also on the way and will be announced in the coming weeks, according to Murphy.
He told reporters: “Sometimes no matter what we do, it won’t be enough… People will ask if this is enough.
It is not enough. More will come.
Social housing
The minister also announced a change to social housing policy – the budget is being redirected away from acquisitions “and into direct build programmes for local authorities and housing bodies”.
As a result, according to this evening’s statement, the current target for 2018 of around 3,000 newly built homes will increase by almost 30% to 3,800.
“That’s 800 new social housing homes to be built next year,” the statement says.
When asked about this number, Murphy said that the government was starting “from a really low base”, and that was doing everything it could to drive that figure up.
As a result of homes delivered from private sites and old social housing stock that is being renovated, it’s planned around 5,000 new social housing homes will be delivered in 2018.
In total 8,160 people, including dependents, were recorded as homeless in figures for July released yesterday.
A total of 1,429 families were recorded as homeless in one week in July – an increase of 299 compared to the same week last year.
In a statement, Focus Ireland said that a number of positive commitments had been made by Murphy but said that proposals focussed on “managing the emergency rather than tackling the problem”.
Its director of advocacy, Mike Allen, said: “It would be unfair to judge the new Minister’s approach to this challenging and almost overwhelming problem on the basis of this one event.
We will continue to work with the Minister and the Department with a view to ensuring that the full review of Rebuilding Ireland, when it is completed, will more fully reflect the range and extent of measures which are essential.
Pat Doyle, CEO of Peter McVerry Trust, said that he had met with Minister Murphy yesterday and emphasised the need to scale up public housing provision by local authorities.
He welcomed the setting up of an inter-agency group, and said resources from the Department of Health would be of great benefit.
Doyle said: “These resources are badly needed as many people who are experiencing homelessness lack the mental health and addiction supports they require and deserve.
We note that the target of 5,000 social housing units for 2018 is a significant increase. However, we would call for a high proportion of this incoming stock to be rapid build, to ensure that we get as many turn-key units in place as soon as possible.
Anthony Flynn, CEO of Inner City Helping Homeless, said some of the measures outlined were welcome, but that there was a lack of urgency in addressing the issue of vacant properties that could be used for housing.
He said: “I also welcome the Minister’s Housing Plan but I believe that it falls a long way short of the required number of social housing builds needed to tackle this crisis. An additional 800 units isn’t what is required to really address the current demand for social housing.”
Political parties, however, said the government’s housing plans do not go far enough.
Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin said that it was clear that Murphy “has not grasped the gravity of the homeless crisis”.
He said that today’s summit was “nothing more than a PR exercise”.
“Minister Murphy’s statement will give little comfort to the 8,000 adults and children who will tonight sleep another night in emergency accommodation,” Ó Broin said.
Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said the government’s plans “lacked ambition”.
She said: “Today’s new target for the delivery of 20,000 social housing homes by 2021, while it is an improvement on previous targets, is clearly not going to be enough to resolve the housing and homelessness epidemic that we are facing.
The measures announced this afternoon are lacking in ambition and vision and it’s hard to see much new and radical thinking in what is proposed.
With reporting from Daragh Brophy
Nice sentiment but let’s be honest here it means nothing. The question for western democracies now is how many more citizens they are willing to sacrifice before patience runs out.
Similar situation to war where the establishment talks the talk and the ordinary man and woman and child in the street walk the walk.
Can guarantee you this – when members of the establishment start to pay the price with their lives they’ll soon be singing a different tune.
@Carl Ingalls: the psychological and morale battle is more important than military and security aspects in asymmetric conflict situations.
Members of the establishment, the privileged and the powerful, are never affected by armed conflict but that is a separate issue.
Mass carpet bombings by Western forces in the Middle East, $350 billion arms deals with Saudi Arabia and repetitive interference in the Middle East on top of the Iraqi second invasion have not helped and have contributed to terrorism.
Is not Allah’s name used in mitigation, every time, or am I missing something?
@Tony Daly: you’ll blame everything except Islam.
I don’t think people get it yet. Islam is just an ideology used for conquer and to
prevail. Islam is not a religion. You can not reason with brain washed people who believe they are right beyond all reason. There is billions of Muslims if only 0.1 percent of them are radicalised that means there is Millon’s of them willing to die in the name of Allah… There is little if any solution to this mess.
@Tony Daly: one of the terrorists was from morocco. What western intervention is going on in that country?
@Carl Ingalls: absolutely. The British establishment didn’t give a toss until the financial district was targeted with warning to clear out innocent civilians. There were talks the next week.
A huge cancer in mankind is that the killing. Industry (relabeled the Defense industry by their PR departments) have politicians and decision makers as their shareholders. Perpetual war enriches these policy makers. Is it in their interests to end war?
It’s morbidly routine at this point. Islamic terror attack occurs. People vent their outrage and disgust. The liberal media swoop in, putting ou an an article saying that Muslims are showing their solidarity, bla bla bla. Next week, they’ll be back to pumping out articles about terrible that think Trump and the right are. Rinse and repeat. Everyone go back burying their heads
@Alex: clearly the hash tags aren’t working!!! Rather than be proactive and come up with a solution. The liberal grief junkies and apologists are out in force
@Alex: moan, whinge, attack liberals and repeat ad nausea.
@cholly appleseed: what’s your solution?!
@Tony Daly: You have a problem with whinging about terror? You must be a liberal
@Chucky Arlaw: can you hear that? crickets
@Alex: I’m still waiting for your plan by the way
@Dave O Keeffe: they don’t have a plan just like Brexit it’s just built up hatred vented on the journal comments Section they don’t have any solutions.
@some random guy: nobody does. I hate terrorists too
Standing defiantly pretty much means sitting around doing nothing and waiting for the next slaughter at this stage.
@IrishInfidel: really though what can do done though ? .. how is anybody meant to stop a terrorist ploughing a van into a crowd ir someone stabbing innocent peopke
@Suzie Sunshine: Could start by having a serious discussion about Islamist extremism within the Muslim community, but politicians throughout Europe seem to afraid to call a spade a spade.
Nothing can be done if we’re not allowed talk about the problem
@IrishInfidel: Just like you?
@Chris Avison: this was meant in reply to your first comment!
@IrishInfidel: foiling most of the terrorist attacks, increasingly effective intelligence, fast responses within 8 minutes elimating the terrorists, detaining the support network and getting on with life in a resilient manner is far from doing nothing.
@Tony Daly: we need to find a cure for this disease , a plaster and a pat on the back just won’t cut it anymore . Time for action now , Ireland now being called a soft back door for Jihadis .
Problem will be here for a generation or more. The solution needs to be looking at the long term. Needs to be around integration and acceptance. So much progression on race and sexuality over the last 50 years that would have been laughable at the outset. Religion needs to be next on the agenda!
And it is perfectly natural and healthy for people to share in grief.
@Tony Daly: Tony look at the damage that was done even with a record 8 minutes response. . You’d never be able to eliminate them ..
It’s all been said before, the West has to take a stand for the values we have fought through the centuries for or our way of life will down the road be under threat, interesting how Assad is quoted as saying the terrorists are almost in retreat in the East, while here in the West it’s looking like a free for all with hardly any country untouched in some form or other by terror.
@Kate Flaherty: selling out Western values out of overreactive fear and hatred in the face of a very limited ISIS terrorist campaign is not helpful.
The English show fortitude, resilience and getting on with life in the face of adversity.
@Tony Daly: overreactive fear? Get a grip. People have every right to be fearful. This from the man who lives in a dangerous fire hazard of an apt but choses not to inform the relevant authorities but give out instead. You are a plonker mate
@Tony Daly: I’m hardly encouraging the “selling out of western values” as you put it, radicals seek to destroy, freedom, democracy, choice, all these things we have are now coming under threat, their holy men are telling them to go to Europe, have bigger families, buy bigger cars, live in bigger houses, western women are looked on with disdain by these fundamentalists, recent tests done in Sweden using dental examinations, X-ray and by checking bone density proved that 70% of those claiming to be minors are not in fact minors, the incidents of rape and sexual assault attacks are also on the rise, kebab shops and other shops in this country are being used for money laundering to fund ISIS, I could go on but I have a feeling it wouldn’t make much of an impact on you Tony……
@cholly appleseed: certainly not. You are losing control. Sad. You are a victim of ISIS and playing the tune of ISIS.
@Tony Daly: you are apologies and refusing point blank to blame the Islamic ideology. It’s grand having no fear when you sit I’m all day long and comment on every article 50 times never venturing out. No wonder your biggest complaint and worry is the tinderbox you live in
@Tony Daly: we don’t need to run around thinking the sky is falling , but we can tighten border controls and immigration , why should we not stop people coming into the country , if we don’t know who they are . The Irish government owes a duty of care to its people first and foremost .
@Ken Hayden: that absolutely should be happening. If it’s not then shame on them. After that though what next? Most attackers have been in the country they attack for years. Some even born there. How do we weed out the extremists in a way that doesn’t feed into the rhetoric of ISIS and create more?
@Dave O Keeffe: To be honest, I don’t really care if the action taken creates more of them , once it eradicates the disease . If we don’t allow more in , then we’ll solve the problem .
Like I said , the majority of Muslim’s here are not radicalised , but the islamic ideology needs to be tackled . We cannot , I repeat cannot allow the situation to develop like it has in other countries .
England is now facing an uphill struggle because it buried it’s head in the sand .
@Ken Hayden: When have the Irish Government or any Irish Government for that matter given a stuff about its people. I certainly won’t hold my breath !!
@Ken Hayden: are you reading these before posting? You don’t care if your plan creates more terrorists and kills more innocent people once eventually they run out of people willing to die.
The law has got to be changed so that expressing sympathy for terrorism or ISIS is enough to put you away for a long time. They have tens of thousands of these guys under surveillance without enough evidence to actually do anything. They have to make it easier. Build detention centres if necessary. As for the lads who actually travel to Syria, should be immediate arrest upon return.
@Fred Jensen: so please list or identify those who are expressing sympathy for terrorism. I know of no one doing that.
Detention is just another name for internment without trial. Preventative justice does not work. It will alienate modern Muslims.
@Tony Daly:
They can have a trial where they are accused of expressing sympathy for radical Islam, and if convicted they are put away.
@Fred Jensen: so who is expressing sympathy for radical Islam, where, when, on what occasion ? Be specific.
Effective intelligence is far more important, of course. Prevention is the right approach.
@Tony Daly: f..k u and ur so called modern muslims …where are they …and what does modern muslims mean ?
@Rachel Alan Stafford: they’re the over 1 billion Muslims that have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.
Why is there not mass protests against Islamic terror and for the government to act? People will have rally’s and mass protests about Trump becoming president but not when there is something to really protest about like radical Islam . It’s a joke .
@Mumpsimus: there is no point in divisiveness and polarisation.
Londoners and Mancunians showed calm dignity and quiet composure.
What else are they meant to do though ??
Standing in defiance after the event isn’t a whole lot of use tbh. A lot of blood shed and lives lost prior to that point.
London stands not just in defiance but in effective opposition to terrorism by eliminating the 3 terrorists within 8 minutes.
Contain, control and eliminate the terrorists.
Londoners are strong, resilient, calm and determined.
We should not play to the agenda of ISIS by magnifying the risk.
@Tony Daly: kumbaya Tony
@KingBen: there is a religious and dogmatic quality to that mindless chant.
32 men, women and children, mostly members of the same few famillies killed in a U.S airstrike on a school yesterday in Syria. Death toll expected to rise much higher. 44 killed in an airstrike the day before. This is not an excuse for these crazies in london or wherever but it certainly doesnt help. Of course the western media ignore it.
@Seamus Og:
So how did you get to hear about it? Any links?
It’s summer not spring
@Teegan Maguire: Hi Teegan. Yep it’s Summer but you wouldn’t think it would you? (K.Mc)
A documentary last year profiled some of these guys. https://youtu.be/VNGRpKwIAwE
rip to those poor folks just going about their lives, until those disgusting savages put an end to that in the name of mohamad whatever they call him lol
Very sad
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