Ógra Aontú statement in response to news that five homeless people died in Dublin in the past seven days
Ógra Aontú have issued a series of letters today, as part of their response to the news that five homeless people died in Dublin over the course of the past week alone. The group are pleading with people to donate to the Capuchin Day Centre, a service providing food to homeless people in our capital.
Spokesperson for Ógra Aontú, Bernadette Harkin a student of Law in Queen's University Belfast, said:
"Last Sunday, July 19th, a woman who had been resident in a homeless women's centre in Finglas died in hospital. Two days later, on Tuesday July 22nd, two further women were found dead within hours of each other from the same centre - they were aged 21 and 34. The following day a homeless man aged in his 30's was found dead on Dorset Street. The following day, July 24th, saw the Dáil vote to grant a pay rise of £16,000 to the three new Super Junior Ministers. The night before last it was confirmed that another woman was found dead in a Dublin homeless service".
Bernadette continued: "Ógra Aontú have today written five letters. One to Cllr Hazel Chu, Lord Mayor of Dublin, requesting that she heed the calls of Independent Cllr Anthony Flynn and seek to re-enact the Lord Mayor's Homelessness Forum as a matter of priority. We also sent a letter to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive asking them if they can tell us how many homeless people have died in Dublin over the past month".
"The other letters we sent were to the three Junior Ministers who received a pay rise during the same week that five homeless people died in Dublin, inviting them to donate to the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless. A new trend is emerging in Irish politics, where the vulnerable are treated as an afterthought, oftentimes completely neglected, ignored and deprived of dignity and human rights. We cannot let this become normal in our country", concluded Bernadette.
