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THE DEPARTMENT OF Social Protection is creating homelessness by not increasing rent allowance rates according to Father Peter McVerry.
McVerry made the remarks following a report in The Sunday Times which shows the number of homeless people has actually increased since an action plan was announced following the death of Jonathan Corrie.
The €25 million plan to tackle homelessness was announced by Environment Minister Alan Kelly.
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However, the latest figures show that 1,122 people are now homeless in the four greater Dublin council areas including 531 families, compared to 780 individuals and 359 families last January.
While the Department of the Environment has responsibility for homelessness and is doing what is can to create solutions to homelessness, the Department of Social Protection, who give the rent supplements, are actually creating homelessness by refusing to increase the rent supplement.
“Hundreds and hundreds of families have become homeless over the past 18 months.
“€120 million would buy between five and six hundred houses and you would take every single family in a bed and breakfast out of the bed and breakfast and you could give them a home by Christmas…but the urgency isn’t there, there is no sense of dealing with this problem in the short term as an emergency.”
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@billy Dorney:ah the permanently outraged will have to find something else to be shocked about before xmas so….I’m thinking maybe Garda Bands or men having pints watching football in pubs or something ….
@Keith. Yes a bad name! Who questions a girl that has been raped by stating that ‘what blame is the girl for putting herself in that position’? He is a 1960′s man and should be left in that generation. Anyone who has an ounce of brain power knows he is an idiot and a joke. Controversial to enlighten the lives of people who need to get a life!
@Johnnie Sexton: No they have gagged him pre recorded so he can’t interact with his audience which was his forte,interesting the character assassins Donoghue and McInerney have now left having destroyed Hook then and their own pile of rubbish went belly up also will never read anything written by O Tool either.I am no great lover of Pat Kenny but he was the only one who publicly backed George on Newstalk.We dare not speak out against any of the PC agendas without being a Nazi,Homophobic or gender biased and god help you if you are a white Irish male.
@Catherine Sims: Pre Recorded from George.Sad.If George had any balls he should tell D’O'B and Newstalk to stick it where the sun don’t shine.George LIVE is the only way.Love him or loath him.
@Whoswho: You said men have a bad name because of George Hook. So men have a bad name huh really ?! Wtf
And all because of George Hook?
Whoever you are – you have a brain like a Shepard’s Pie.
I bet your favourite number’s 2
About the same as your IQ
@Whoswho: if men have a bad name it’s because we’ve been labelled as such the cultural Marxists. In a world replete with “vulnerable” groups we are the monsters.
@Misanthrope: that’s from the “all men are ba@tards “ brigade – usually while trying to make some equality / gender balance argument they completely negate by labeling us decent normal men as having a bad name , it would be like me saying all women are bad drivers or something , once you label the entire gender as anything you’ve lost your argument I’m afraid. All men don’t have a bad name. Some do. Just like women.
@Gerry Murphy: shows the busy schedule she had when she could step in on such short notice and take over that slot , plus sat , plus
Sunday . Apart from.Yates the whole station has gone OTT with the political correctness ..Then to top it all you have Paul Williams 5 mornings a week ,A man who’d make Ken Barlow sound interesting .
@Alan Chapman: pretty lame , she seems very nice person but so lame and safe on the radio , and its all a bit GIRLSTALK anytime ive switched in , same ol whines about equality , pay gaps , gender balance and any other hotch potch of boring snowflakey non sense …. they seem to think because the station goes OFF THE BALL after 7 and is blokey that to ‘balance things up ” we have to have middle of the road girly shit during the day…
@Alan Chapman: she didn’t stab George in the back at least. She was measured and relatively fair with her criticism. Can’t beat Hook however, really looking forward to his return.
That woman is on everything of late and useless while proper female journalists such as Sarah Mcinerney were let go for her. She was in the indo this week about taking her child out of school for a week. Who loopy cares
Yes , about time , loved listening to hooky on the evening shift it got me all angry and energised to push through those last few hours , Viva la Hook.
@sean nihill: Amazed he is coming back….Thought his colleagues in Newstalk had finished him off….If Newstalk were an army they would shoot their wounded. …
Rarely listen to Newstalk since George was let go (except for Pat Kenny and occasionally Moncrieff) voting with my feet, RTE1 extra more than makes up for Newstalk, when he returns I will too
@Charles Coughlan: Yeah that’s it for me Pat Kenny, and Off-The-Ball sometimes I’m usually a Joe Duffy guy but if its crap I’m over to Moncrieff who’s quite funny.
George Hook should be off the airwaves because he is a terrible broadcaster who has not changed his tune since he first came onto radio/television not because of these remarks. Newstalk handling of this was atrocious and the reluctance in this country to debate this hot topic for fear of the PC brigade really irks me.
@Maxwell: Absolutely. But this has nothing to do with ‘PC’. It has everything to do with the fact that the guy has never said anything of interest in his entire career. Predicatable, boring. Complete rubbish. Jesus, would you listen to him if he was at the bar next to you?
Can’t handle Ciara. Despite not being terrible the show has become too much like Women’s Hour on the BBC, last time I listened. NewsTalk seem to be over compensating for Hook’s perceived slights. Wonder what the audience figures will be next time around.
Would say a lot of people have switched off. PC wins (temporarily) over audience figures.
@Observer: American talk radio can be great! And Newstalk was great but has gone downhill in a boring kind of way. George used the wrong choice of words but he is a good man and a family man and does respect women and to suggest otherwise is pure nonsense. George also knew how to entertain which is the whole point of the radio show, try to make mundane day to day things interesting.
@gregory:
Didn’t pass any comment on his family or his personal life . He’s a public figure who made his reputation on controversy which is fair enough actually agree with him on some points .
So I think it’s fair enough to call him out when he gets it wrong in saying that everyone deserves a second chance
George got tired of saying responsibility and used the wrong word blame. If people couldn’t see what he was trying to say, well then I’d say, I’ve seen every kind of critter God ever made and I’ve never seen a more meaner lower stinking yellow hypocrites than these people.
Should never have been suspended. As a society we have allowed ourselves to be controlled by the indignation outrageratti brigade, smugly pouncing on harmless inarticulate comments.
Simply cannot believe the comments I am reading here.. nor what Ireland I find myself living in these days…this misogynistic arrogant man should be quite simply off all national airwaves….not a man of this time! His and his pals of yesteryear’s comments are no longer de rigueur nor acceptable to the wider audience…of today. Repugnant and revulsive…in fact!
@Gearoidin Ni Canainn: well if you find the ireland your living in these days bad ive very bad news about the future , because idiots like you prefer sanitised safe bland drivel and think that older presenters are just yesteryear’ and you somehow think that because you dont like the opinions of some presenter they should ‘quite simply’ be off the airwaves – and I wonder what you propose for replacement exactly – the more homogenised broadcasting is becoming the more bland safe space and PC nonsense – keep wishing for that so , come back to me in a few years with how tolerable you find the Ireland you will be living in then. Moran.
@Col de Gal: ….
Not ageist at all..my boy..
There is no age nowadays at which Hook’s behaviour is acceptable….not sure what century your mind resides in? Welcome to the modern world.of accountability!
@Pizyco: What sort of a bygone drivel are you??Firstly, you do not have the balls nor the decency to use your own real name here…but are a ‘small man’ hiding behind a pseudonym??…or small man full of wind but of little or no real confidence to expose yourself ..being the more likely.
My comments are nothing whatsoever to do with ageism.. These outrageous comments by George Hook..are no longer acceptable at any age.. full stop.!
I , unlike you believe that we collectively create our own future….not await for the future we are given…too much for your ‘pea sized brain…no doubt!
You do not represent any man I would hope can influence the future if Ireland…for all our sakes…
Newstalk was much better before it became a National radio station!
Listeners hardly get a look in now!
They used to have a good controversial morning programme with Brenda Power but I don’t think
She was into being PC which probably didn’t suit some people.
@Mairead Hilliard: its interesting how people get so easily outraged these days and and permanently think that unless your safe sanitised PC crap you shouldnt be on air , and then wonder why the overall quality in radio and media is falling into such band mediocrity….people need to be careful what they wish for , the public wants what the public gets indeed….
@Pizyco: You’re so right. All those victims of sexual violence being “outraged” at someone stating they must share blame with the perpetrator/s who sexually assaulted &/or raped them, should just stop wanting to ruin the “quality of radio and media” for everyone else by expecting “safe sanitised PC crap”, and instead accept that some people can say whatever they want without having to care about the consequences of their words.
“The presenter ended a monologue on the issue of rape with the question “is there no blame now to the person who puts themselves in danger?” – the big big problem with this statement is the word BLAME “Oh look your Honour she made me do it” FFS!
Bizarre anyone would want him on the airwaves, probably one of the the most stupid, idiotic anti woman statements ever made on radio.
@Ken Hayden: People aren’t looking for a perfect world, because nature doesn’t capitulate to our sense of perfection. What some people are looking for, especially in relation to sexual violence, is that the perpetrators of such acts are held 100% accountable for their actions. Some of us are sick to death of wasn’t the victim “asking for it” becuase they dressed/talked/walked/drank/etc as an excuse to share the blame. There is no blame to share. There is no responsibility to share. The responsibility is the perpetrator’s, and theirs alone. Ensuring that this becomes a societal norm just might make a significant amount of people not assault or rape someone.
@Felicity Hensen: You are right ,but all women would not agree ,were you ever in the company of women ,one of which would be determined to take her friend’s husband and who would scold her own daughter for dressing provocatively ,they are there you know
@Austin Rock: wasting your time Austin. His supporters like to conveniently forget that he talked about her being passed around and questioned her judgment on the night but of course not that of the men there… But he only used one incorrect word apparently.
Hook should have been fired. History of anti woman comments and victim blaming is despicable. Disheartened by many of the comments here. Newstalk creeps me out. I want my media 50/50 men and women not just old white men wittering on.
Get rid of that obnoxious man.He should just fade into the background.
He is not important to anybody.He will not be missed .He is a man so opinionated that what he says should be ridiculed at every moment he opens his mouth.Not alone that he is completely incoherent and he Sounds like he has a very bad speech impediment. When he opens his mouth it sounds like he is dribbling out morose cacoughinous mumbo jumbo.Just go away George.Your time is up.
Is it not a better course of action whilst this boorish over privileged sponger is off the air to terminate his contract, radio has got on fine without him. he will not be missed.
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