Nearly 60 people Died in Homelessness last Year in Dublin alone, Yet all Housing Construction is not Considered Essential - Tóibín
Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has called on the government to allow for houses to be built. He stated;
“Last year nearly 60 people died in homelessness in Dublin. The national number is much higher but the government shockingly do not record these deaths in other counties. The current surge in Covid is serious and we need to do our best to keep numbers down. However there is also a Housing Crisis in Ireland. It has not gone away. The government have given some recognition to this by allowing the continuation of social housing build. However Social Housing Stock alone is not going to provide homes to all those in need. All houses built go into the housing stock. All houses built provide a roof over a family. Social Houses are essential but so to are houses built for all other families”.
“As far as construction is concerned the building of a private housing is no more dangerous than building of social housing. Covid does not discriminate against builders according to the model of funding. Most building is outside. Numbers on housing estate builds are often very low. One or two people on any given unit. It would make more sense for the government to seek limits on the number of people working on sites or houses or allow people who have greater exposure to the illness to absent themselves, in order to control the illness. In the last few days we have seen an surge in the price of houses fuelled in part by the constriction of supply of homes due to Covid. This is the fastest pace of growth recorded in almost three years. This will make worse what is already a national Housing emergency.
