THE GENERAL SECRETARY of the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) has said that the government should ensure that families made homeless don’t resort to attending at Garda stations because there are no facilities to house them.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, Antoinette Cunningham said:

“Anyone who presented at a Garda station would of course, be treated empathetically and sympathetically. But quite simply, there are no facilities in Garda stations to deal with people who may be the subject of an eviction order.” 

“I think we would all know that a Garda station is not a suitable place for family who have been evicted or who are homeless,” she said.

It’s feared that a significant number of people will be made homeless in the coming months as the eviction ban ends in three weeks, with some tenants having until June before the ban leaves them vulnerable to eviction.

“The only thing we have in Garda stations is a public office. There’s quite a number of people who come in and out through at all stages of the 24-hour service. As you can imagine, cells are used for the detention of people who are under arrest,” Cunningham explained.

“If the government feel that that’s something that could happen, they should immediately take steps to ensure that it doesn’t, in the knowledge that there are no facilities.”

She added that the government needs to tackle homelessness urgently and Garda stations aren’t equipped to do anything more for homeless families other than offer them a cup of coffee and shelter out of the rain.

The family services manager of Focus Ireland, Niamh Lambe, told the show that the level of homelessness she is expecting is deeply concerning.

“The services we support are at capacity, we’ve already been having instances recently where families are being sent to Garda stations, it’s not good enough in this day and age.”

“This reactivation of the eviction ban, it’s not going to work. We’re going to see such an influx of people and we don’t know where these families are going to stay because there’s just not the accommodation.” 

Also on the show, Fine Gael Junior Minister Kieran O’Donnell said that it was “disappointing” that only 25 tenant in-situ purchases had been made in Dublin last year compared to the 1,873 eviction notices issued there in the same period.

Ó Mongáin replied: “It’s disappointing for you, it’s existential for families that have nowhere to live”.

O’Donnell said “Minister O’Brien has written to local authorities this week telling them this week to get on with buying houses with tenants in-situ”.

“We want children to be kept in their homes, how can we do that? The councils need to get on and purchase these homes.”