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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has insisted that Ireland has “one of the lowest levels of homelessness” despite a record number of people living in emergency accommodation.
TheJournal.ie asked the Taoiseach about his statement in his speech last night in which he said “cynical” people state that Fine Gael won’t solve the housing crisis and how the Rebuilding Ireland action plan is working.
“I don’t believe them. Yes, there are major challenges with housing and homelessness, and no, they won’t be solved overnight. But we have a plan, the plan is working, and we won’t stop until we succeed. Because we believe that everyone should have a home. And we believe that every working person should be able to aspire to own one,” he said last night.
“How can you make such a statement when Ireland has one of the highest figures to date?” Homeless figures rose to its highest figure in September to 8,300.
“We are actually a country by international standards compared with our peers that has a low level of homelessness.”
“What stats are those? Per capita?” asked TheJournal.ie.
“They’re the stats and we can provide them for you and that of course is a good thing. It’s a good thing that in Ireland we’ve a low level of homelessness compared to our peer countries.
“But what’s better than that is that we don’t think that’s good enough and we want to continue to reduce homelessness in the years ahead.”
Does Ireland not have one of the highest figures the country has ever seen, asked TheJournal.ie.
“Yes, yes obviously homelessness and the number of people in emergency accommodation has increased over the last number of years, but by international standards homeless in Ireland is low but that is not good enough. We want to turn the tide on it.”
The government later provided an OECD report which the Taoiseach was referencing in his remarks. However, the Simon Communities of Ireland have challenged the claim that Ireland’s rates of homelessness are low compared with other countries, stating that other countries use a broader definition of homelessness when gathering their statistics.
Yesterday, the Peter McVerry Trust criticised Fine Gael for not having a segment on the homelessness crisis at the conference this weekend.
The Taoiseach pledged to his delegates last night that his party won’t stop until it solves the housing and homelessness crisis.
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So the book shamelessly plugged for weeks by Aoife at Journal.ie wins the Journal.ie sponsored award presented by Aoife. All above board so, move along.
This book was edited by Sepp Blatter and funded by Bertie Ahern. Well done to all.
The ‘If you sponsor an award you can pick which book you want to win’ awards.
Hi Peter, we sponsor the award – we don’t pick who wins. The votes for all of the awards are cast by a judging panel who we are not involved with or members of, and members of the public.
I wrote a number of articles as part of our sponsorship, (like other publications did) on a number of the nominees. You can find them if you search for ‘Irish book awards’ on the site.
Also I wrote two pieces on Long Gaze Back, one when it was published in September and one yesterday, after the public voting for the awards had closed.
The ” give everyone an award to get the books into the media to increase sales for Christmas awards”
“Ireland AM Crime Book of the Year”.
If I were that author I’d be dropping the “Ireland AM” bit from my CV.
Bressie looks delighted. I’m glad that he won an award. Awards for anthologies always puzzle me. It’s basically a prize for other peoples work and imagination.
So the Journal award goes to one of it’s own ???
To The Journal.ie… I am curious how votes were cast in your office for this award.. If #wakingthefeminist was about conspiracy AGAINST female writers, then I suppose this award is a conspiracy FOR female writers..
Hi Sinead, we sponsor the award – we don’t pick who wins. The votes for all of the awards are cast by a judging panel who we are not involved with or members of, and members of the public. Hope that clears things up for you.
Joe Duffy and Niall Breslin…….SAKE!
Right, that’s the feminist list.
Now where’s the real list?
Delighted for Dónal Ryan – a stunning collection of short stories. Well deserved!
But that award is for s single short story, ‘slanting of the sun’. I didn’t think it was the best story in the book?
I though gilmores book would have been a shoe in for the fiction award after all his promoting and drama and shot at dawn bull. Maybe it’s in the fantasy section or heaven forbid, maybe it’s just crap, and nobody’s buying it!
Jim mcguinnesses book is very good.
Awards for books that hardly anyone will bother reading.
speak for yourself
In my humble opinion Mr Donleavy is a tad over rated. The ginger man was his first and best book. After that he descended into a surreal sort of post aristocratic Irish pastiche. First prize for his longevity. Still fighting fit in his mid nineties. I suspect keeping his exposure to other humans to a minimum helps with this.
Not Ireland’s favourite books. They would be the ones people read and enjoyed. Most likely to be found topping the charts. These are winning books picked from eligible books whose entry is sponsored by the publisher. Having said that, for the winning authors, it’s nice to get the recognition. Congratulations to them.
Ur old enough to know the rich look after the rich best thing is they do not look happy happy days
I’m sure you’re right j k but I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.
No Irish author in the Mills & Boon series? No Irish novelist nominated for the Bad Sex award in Britain?
Joe Duffy – oh, is that the one with the national radio show, the one that’s been promoting his book all year, at licence payers’ expense? The one who had his book printed in Germany?
Oh yes, so it is.
“This is a local book for local/ German jobs.”
Yet the Bible keeps on selling, it reminds me of the so called charts. The best selling music that beats those on those famoust top 40 turns out to be classical music and Mozart keeps on selling.
So when I see charts, awards or the top 5 then I think that they exist in order to sell these goods as those who sell themselves well never get a mention…
have your say