YOU’VE SOME CHEEK LEO...
With record number of people homeless our Taoiseach claims his party is doing a better job than if the opposition was in power. In the words of Sinn Fein, we say..
LEO Varadkar has been accused of “having some cheek” after he said the Government was doing better on the homelessness crisis than the opposition would if it was in power.
Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty tackled the Taoiseach in Leinster House after it emerged there is now a record 10,000 people homeless – almost 4,000 of them children.
The crisis took centre stage in the Dail chamber too where Tanaiste Simon Coveney had to defend the Government’s record against a barrage of criticism during Leaders’ Questions.
Fianna Fail’s Sean Fleming said the Government has “abandoned the homeless” in their hour of need.
Mr Coveney replied if new policy responses are needed, then the Government is always willing to introduce them.
But it was in the basement where the arguments were more heated between Mr Varadkar and Mr Doherty at the finance committee hearing.
The Taoiseach acknowledged the problem was getting worse and pledged to invest more time in tackling it.
He said: “If commitment is down to the amount of work you are doing, the amount of money you are spending, then I don’t think anyone can doubt the level of Government commitment to this issue.
“But what we’re not seeing is the kind of results we’d like to see and that is unbeliev- ably frustrating. I saw the figures yesterday, which I note indicated a big reduction in the number of people rough sleeping.
“I think that’s welcome and it’s down in a large part to the additional number of bed spaces available and additional funding
“I absolutely am convinced if we were to accept all the proposals you put forward, we would make a bad situation worse.”
However, he received a sharp rebuke from Mr Doherty who said: “Taoiseach, you’ve some cheek on ya, on a day that under your stewardship there are 10,000 people in emergency accommodation and the best you can offer is if the opposition was in Government that we’d make it worse.”
Meanwhile, Mr Coveney was getting it in the neck from Mr Fleming who was representing Fianna Fail.
He said: “As the Tanaiste is well aware the housing crisis is very serious and he was personally involved in many of the public announcements by the Government on this particular issue.
“The news yesterday that the number of homeless families increased in the month of February is exceptionally disappointing and is totally unacceptable in Irish society.
“There are now 3,755 children homeless in the State and a total of 10,000 people in Ireland will be homeless tonight.
“The Government has abandoned the homeless.”