Murphy ‘out of touch and out of time’... as housing crisis grows
HOUSING Minister Eoghan Murphy has been told he is ‘out of touch’ and ‘out of time’ after admitting that the latest figures for those left homeless are likely to rise instead of fall.
In a shocking admission yesterday, Mr Murphy told RTÉ Radio 1’s Today With Miriam that the numbers for July, due later this week, look set to show an increase from the previous month – and could reach 10,000.
‘I don’t have them yet, we are still compiling them. My understanding is that they will be slightly up, because we are again seeing increased presentations,’ he said.
His department’s figures for June showed more than 9,870 people were homeless.
The latest revelation comes after homeless mother-ofseven Margaret Cash hit the headlines earlier this month when her children had to sleep on chairs in a Garda station.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said the New data: Eoghan Murphy minister’s record on housing was astounding and that it shows he is ‘out of touch’ and ‘out of time’. He said: ‘I don’t know how the minister can go on national radio and defend his record as minister for the past year when all the evidence points that his policies are failing. There are children sleeping in Garda stations, students sleeping in cars and commuting for hours, overcrowded housing, with many vulnerable workers sleeping in the same beds in shifts.’
He called for public housing on public land and affordable student accommodation. And Labour housing spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan said: ‘What we need to see now is a more urgent response from the State. The failure to roll out rapid-build housing is an example that hasn’t been explained and would go some way as a short-term solution.
‘Also, as an immediate reaction, we need to see an aggressive effort to bring vacant and empty houses back into use in the coming weeks and months so that homes can be provided to families. These families and the children affected are in truly precarious situations, filled with anxiety about the future that no child should have to endure, and the minister’s interview will do nothing to ease this anxiety.’
Mr Murphy said the root issue was supply and that ‘all of the evidence, when it comes to supply, shows that it is improving’. He said he understands ‘the figures have gone up in one particular region, which would give me reason to believe that they’ll actually be up overall’. He added: ‘Whether or not they hit 10,000, I can’t be certain now.
‘What I have said before is that while the numbers are obviously too high, hitting 10,000 doesn’t tell us anything that hitting 9,000 didn’t tell us, which is we have a crisis. Because, unfortunately, presentations continue, this housing crisis is incredibly deep, it was never going to be turned around in two years.
‘It’s going to take longer than that, I know it is very frustrating for people to hear that, I know they are frustrated by what is happening. I know they are worried… But all of the supply indicators are going in the right direction.’
He said the Government will meet its target of increasing the housing stock by 2021. He said ‘about 2,400 were built last year, another 4,400 will be built this year’, while ‘at the end of the second quarter of this year, 4,000 were being constructed on-site, with another 2,000 to go on-site’.
He added: ‘About one in four or one in five new houses that are built will be social housing, and that commitment maintains for ten years.’
‘I know people are frustrated’