A GIANT MAY Day march held in central Dublin this afternoon put Ireland’s homeless crisis firmly in the spotlight.
Thousands gathered from 2pm for a march that began at the Garden of Remembrance off O’Connell Street.
May Day is traditionally seen as international workers day, with solidarity protests held across the globe.
Homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry used the occasion to call for ‘an effective public home building programme’ at a rally held at Liberty Hall following the march with the firm message that ‘housing is a right, not a privilege’.
Speaking at the rally, McVerry said that the government’s housing strategy is clearly not working as homelessness is increasing, and that it is time for “more radical measures”.
He called for evictions of people by banks to stop unless those people have secured alternative accommodation.
Siptu had billed the march as serving to “highlight the opposition of trade unions and housing activists to a Government plan to sell off local authority land to private developers”.
“Our view at the Dublin Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) was that it was very important do something on housing, so this march represents a broad coalition of all interested charities, and we were really delighted to host it,” Pat Bolger, president of DCTU, told TheJournal.ie.
We’re calling for a programme of public housing to ease the current crisis. The government ministers’ reliance on the private sector is just unrealistic at this stage.
We don’t think that people want to hurt the homeless, but it’s an inevitable consequence of the policies currently being pursued.
“We intend to keep campaigning,” Bolger added. “We’re committed to this coalition.”
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