MUM OF SEVEN SAYS COUNCIL WOULD NOT HELP PAY RENT
THE woman whose children were forced to sleep in a Garda station on Wednesday night has claimed that she secured private rental accommodation last month, but the council failed to approve the property under the Housing Assistance Payment scheme.
Margaret Cash says that she and her seven children were last year forced to leave the rented home they had been living in for more than three years, as the landlord was selling the property.
Speaking to Dublin radio station 98FM yesterday, the 28-year-old said that since leaving the house, her family have been homeless.
In a Facebook post last month, Ms Cash expressed her relief that she had finally secured a house in Tallaght for herself and her children.
When asked about this on the radio show, she claimed that the post was referring to a private rental house she had secured for her family in July.
Ms Cash said that following an inspection of the property, the council refused to contribute towards the rent due to plumbing issues, meaning that the family couldn’t move in.
‘The house wasn’t a really wonderful house… but I said I’d take it… I said it would do, it was a roof over our head,’ she said.
‘It’s very hard in the first place to get any landlord to accept anyone with seven kids.
‘The council turned it down because it wasn’t up to standard, they couldn’t pay the rest of a place that wasn’t up to standard.’
When asked about Ms Cash’s situation, South Dublin County Council said that they had a policy of not commenting on individual cases.
Accusing the Government of ‘sitting back and allowing this (the homeless crisis) to happen’, Ms Cash yesterday called on Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy to resign from his position.
‘Does he not, does the whole country not realise how bad this homeless situation is?
‘Put it this way – if I wasn’t sleeping at that Garda station with my kids, it would have been another family sleeping in there with their children. It’s happening all over the country.’
Since posting the photo on Facebook of six of her children sleeping on plastic chairs in Tallaght Garda Station on Wednesday night, Ms Cash has been the target of critical online comments.
‘I would just like to say to the people who keep posting negative things – I wouldn’t wish this upon nobody,’ she said.
‘It’s the most horrible thing in the whole world to have to watch your children go through something like that and not being able to do anything about it.
‘Nobody understands that until they go through it themselves.’
Margaret said that her whole life had changed completely since she was made homeless, and that she was not the same person as she was. ‘It’s just so hard when you’re in a situation like that.
‘It’s like nobody wants to help you, nobody wants to know you … people look down on you. It’s horrible.
‘As a mother it’s a very, very shameful thing when you don’t have anywhere else to put your kids.’
‘It’s very, very hard not knowing where you’re going to be from one night to the other night.’
‘It’s happening all over the country’
The family have secured accommodation until Monday, but their future beyond that remains uncertain.
‘I don’t have a clue on Monday what’s going to happen.
‘We could just be back to square one again, we don’t know yet,’ she said.
Ms Cash also responded to the vicious social media attacks launched at her family as news of their plight spread.
‘The comments on social media have been horrible, they have no idea what it’s like,’ Ms Cash told the online edition of The Irish Times.
‘People were saying I should be ashamed, but I am ashamed. I don’t need to be told that. Because I am ashamed that I have to have my kids sleeping in conditions like that.
‘But what was I supposed to do? It was either that or sleep on the streets.
‘I have never been offered a house by any council ever.
‘I have never been offered any council property.
‘Where anybody is hearing this I don’t know.’
Since being forced to spend the night in the Garda station, Ms Cash and her children have been able to secure an apartment until Monday.
‘The apartment is lovely and clean, the kids slept very comfortably last night, so did I,’ said Ms Cash.
‘I’m just dreading now what’s to come on Monday when we have to leave it.’
The Irish Daily Mail contacted The Department of Housing for comment but it had not provided a response by last night.
Meanwhile, Dublin City Council/ Dublin Regional Homeless Executive told the Mail that the issue was within the remit of South Dublin County Council.
‘Comments have been horrible’