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THE CONTROVERSIAL CHAIR of the Housing Agency Conor Skehan has come under fire over comments he made in relation to a formerly homeless family yesterday.
Skehan appeared before the Oireachtas Housing Committee yesterday afternoon, where he was questioned over comments he had made recently in the media.
Skehan courted controversy in early January, when he suggested in an interview with the Irish Times that some homeless families may be “gaming the system”.
He had previously said that homelessness was “normal”.
Shehan mounted a robust defence of his comments yesterday when questioned by the Housing Committee.
While being questioned, Skehan referred to the case of one homeless Dublin family in particular, whose story was highlighted last year.
The #MyNameIs campaign launched last summer aimed to highlight the issues facing homeless families and children in Ireland.
As part of the campaign, a video of a young boy David was highlighted. David has cerebral palsy and had been living in unsuitable emergency accommodation for two years.
The video shows him attempting to access a building and having difficulty with his walking support.
It gained a lot of traction when it was first posted.
Skehan’s comments
Referencing the case yesterday, Skehan said that David’s family had turned down an offer of accommodation because “it was a 10 minute bus journey from where they has hoped to secure a home”.
“The same family also refused a transfer to a hotel nearby where they could have had a room adapted for people with special needs but this was not close enough to her mother’s home,” he said.
“Now this comes this next piece to the heart of looking for evidence harder.
“When the facts of this case were brought to me by RTÉ and the Irish Independent. They both investigated and confirmed the story, both indicated that they were anxious to run it.
They both then reverted and advised me it was too dangerous legally to deal with this story.
Responding to Skehan’s comments, a spokesperson for community group Inner City Helping Homeless – who are behind the #MyNameIs campaign – said that David’s family did not turn down suitable accommodation.
“David’s family were offered accommodation five miles away from Swords, on a route with a limited bus service,” the spokesperson said.
As the family don’t drive there isn’t enough daily buses for school runs and David’s CRC and doctors appointments which is why the offer wasn’t suitable for the family’s specific needs.
Skehan faced fresh calls for his resignation as chair of the Housing Agency following his appearance yesterday.
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Really picky I know, but why do news reports always say ‘one of the biggest’ or ‘one of the richest’? In this case it could be the hundredth biggest or the actual biggest….which makes quite a difference.
@Mary Murphy: that’s one of the most interesting questions I’ve seen in the journal.
@Mary Murphy: a bit like “a number of casualties have been reported”
@Mary Murphy: It has to sound sensational.
@Mary Murphy: completely agree, a bit like saying over €4,000 was stolen when it was €4100. Is it not easier to type the exact figure?
@Mary Murphy: completely agree, a bit like saying over €4,000 was stolen when it was €4100. Is it not easier to type the exact figure?
Echo!
Or maybe, just maybe it could be because until it breaks of all they know is that it’ll be really, really big but they don’t know exactly how big. So instead it giving it a top ten listing its helpful to say one of the biggest because when it does break off it will be.
Enter it into the munster champioship to challenge kerry
Antarctica has grown in mass by 40% in the last 20 years. A Global warming hoax delivering billions of hard earned money through Carbon Tax to the 1%.
Stop reporting this global warming horse manure.
Research HAARP weather manipulation and make up your own minds.
@JohnnyD: what about area? It’s always interesting when people don’t mention area when talking about Antarctica
@JohnnyD: Johnny, such nonsense may be amusing to the educated but it is also dangerous and creates doubt in the ignorant when this is a very real and proveable thing that is happening.
Note also that Climate Cange adversely affects the poorest communities so any work to slow it down or mitigate against it helps the poor, not enriches the rich.
@JohnnyD: Wonderful a huge ice chunk of Antarctica is about to break off as a result of global warming which will trigger even bigger break off of ice raising sea levels and you think it is a hoax. Antarctica is melting from below at an unprecedented rate. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/07/antarctica-sea-level-rise-climate-change/
Stephen Hawking has stated we are on route towards a Venus type hell hole of 150 degrees.
@Fozz: It never rains in Antarctica well it used not too -but it sure does now http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41136-it-s-raining-in-antarctica-while-trump-slashes-climate-science-funding
@JohnnyD: Lies and more lies.
Interesting to note that you shoved HAARP in there, as if one global conspiracy in a comment wasn’t enough.
@JohnnyD:
What has Arctic ice done over the same period?
@JohnnyD: Oh God go away with your conspiracy theories. This claim has been widely disputed and the methodology challenged. See for example http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/05/16/is-antarctica-gaining-or-losing-ice-nature-may-have-settled-the-debate/#.WV5QDusrJxA
But even if this were so it is accepted that climate change will produce warming in some areas and varying results in other areas. Climate is not weather and the climate is warming.
@Fozz: everything changes fozz
Galway isn’t that big.
Yes it is that size.
@Frank Reynolds: How many Longfords would you fit in it?
How did they do that? Only asking because, you know… actual Galway…
@Guill Ire: We have to go down to Roscommon and start pushing.
An effort to restrict pollution is a worthy cause but the notion of controlling the planet’s temperature by doing or not doing something is about as sane as trying to stop darkness coming on each evening.
Behind all the fuss is a very childish notion that experimental sciences scale up such as the idea that a common greenhouse equates to the planet’s atmosphere -
http://www.met.ie/education/pdfs_eng/YP%20Fun%20Facts%20Climate%20Change.pdf
This is the so-called ‘scientific method’ via Newton , it began its existence as a rule but snowballed rapidly through the notion that the fall of an apple (experiment) equates directly with planetary orbital motion (universal qualities) hence the ‘universal theory of gravitation’ -
“Rule III. The qualities of bodies, which admit neither [intensification] nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever.” Newton
It is unfortunate that adults can’t get to the actual issue of which ‘climate change’ is just another system of an overreaching systemic failure.
@Gerald Kelleher: it’s a shame you don’t believe any science after Newton. The problem is though, the results are all around us and you’re just saying “Newton is wrong about what caused them” can you see how strange that is? Also the greenhouse effect is real but is only called that so that lay folk like myself can loosely grasp the concept
@Dave O Keeffe: There are always kids running around with the notion of experts/lay folk however some readers should back themselves and their common sense to spot that ‘climate change’ is merely a symptom of an overreaching agenda that began with the ‘universal theory of gravity’ where planetary motion was squeezed into the fall of an apple much like they try to squeeze the planet’s atmosphere into the conditions found in a common greenhouse.
Genuine climate research includes all planets of the solar system and the common traits which define climate for all planets regardless of composition or distance from the Sun. The only way to contend with the expensive nonsense of the greenhouse climate bandwagon is to expand climate research to all planets and discover why the Earth’s climate is what it is.
The Met Eireann take on climate fits in with the empirical method but that is simply modellers having fun with the wider population while getting paid for it.
@Gerald Kelleher: Gerald , you forgot to add the occasional ‘mwah ha ha’ and ‘silly little folk out there’ to those comments. In the hughly unlikely event that you misunderstand something … about the lay population, nearly everybody here understands that all modelling systems are only representative, including Newtonian and Earth climate models. Newtonian physics worked perfectly as a tool up to a point, and is still quite useful sometimes, so while the mechanistic view of the world is long dead, some of the tooling can still be very useful.
@Greg Blake: Ignore Gerald, Greg. Gerald is of the opinion that he, and only he, is right, and every single other person on the planet is wrong. A few months back he quite literally stated that only he alone knows the truth. In a to-and-fro between myself and him he argued with me over linguistic etymology, an area of study in which I am educated and he is not. When he was beaten in the argument he turned to belittling me rather than any argument I presented (classic case of deflecting and playing the man and not the ball). The facts of the matter are that Gerald believes in pseudoscience, posts links to back up his opinions which generally actually agree with standard scientific models and he’s also a religious fundamentalist. Better to ignore him.
@Greg Blake: Newton was the Nigel Farage of astronomy – making it up as he went along and mangling astronomical insights as he did so in order to push predictive science at an experimental scale up to an astronomical level.
Again, people should back themselves against the voodoo and bluffing of theorists where astronomy and terrestrial sciences are concerned.
The great discovery of Copernicus was that the Earth overtaking the outer planets causes them to temporarily fall behind in view hence the Sun is stationary and the Earth moves -
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011220.html
Newton botched this by trying to assert that a hypothetical observer on the Sun accounts for the observed motions of the planets -
“For to the earth planetary motions appear sometimes direct, sometimes
stationary, nay, and sometimes retrograde. But from the sun they are
always seen direct,…” Newton
The Royal Society academics could talk a good game and no doubt some here will fall for the superior/inferior intellect sort of thing that the professors like to project but anyone with common sense gould figure out from that statement that Newton is entirely stupid with the insight of Copernicus which accounts for the orbital motion of the Earth and a Sun centred system.
@Brian Ó Dálaigh: Don’t be silly, to be confident and competent is astronomy and terrestrial sciences only requires reminding people what is known -
“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” Galileo
Haha it only takes Gerald one or two comments to bring any argument back to the earths rotation- his obsession. Amazing that all of the ‘modern science’ that he claims are nonsense have allowed scientists to launch probes and satelites and a space station and the Hubble telescope, etc. Using precise calculations that Gerald doesn’t believe should work. Somehow all those theories seem to be working for them! But yeah, Gerald knows the truth and all of them are wrong.
@Ross Stewart: These are all empirical slogans that are easy enough to dismiss with time and if the right people show up. All predictive astronomy is based on the calendar system which simply means that one year does not equate to one orbit of the Earth around the Sun. If things were normal there would be people who could discuss why predictive astronomy is useless in matters of climate and other planetary topics while you dummies mix astronomy with engineering achievements.
@Gerald Kelleher:
You have an unhealthy obsession.
@Avina Laaf: Coming from an anonymous person who believes one 24 hour day doesn’t equate to one complete rotation of the Earth I would say that means next to nothing. This is the mindless world of modelling and you among others believe I have much to say about what happened and where it started.
Gerald, the fact that things can dock with the space station that is travelling at 17150 mph around the earth relies on scientists knowing exactly how fast the earth rotates down to microseconds. Amongst many other modern theories which you no doubt disagree with too. The fact that you think this is just engineering shows your ignorance on the matters- sorry to have to burst your bubble.
@Ross Stewart: The thing about a clockwork solar system of Newton and his empirical drones is that the Earth’s rotation is modelled on stellar circumpolar motion -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYy0EQBnqHI
This modelling is known as RA/Dec which puts the conclusion on rotation at variance with the 24 hour system and Lat/Long system. In other words, academics can’t express the basic facts of a round and rotating Earth and easy enough to test.
As speeds across latitudes diminish from a maximum speed at the Equator, what is the maximum Equatorial speed of the Earth in miles per hour ?.
How do all their maths and calculations work out perfectly then Gerald? How is every launch into space not a disaster?
You have no answer but you’ll reply with more obtuse quotations..
@Ross Stewart: If you had sense, you would become familiar with the development of timekeeping and the references used for the calendar system first and then the 24 hour system and Lat/Long systems. This allows you to express the maximum Equatorial speed of the Earth without the slightest hesitation and then and only then allows you to see the usefulness of predictive astronomy without drawing awful conclusions as they did in the late 17th century.
The daily business of people on Earth relies on the relationship between clocks and the Lat/Long system which in turn is a human devised grid system express the rotation of the Earth at a rate of 15 degrees per hour, an inviolate fact challenged by the careless who have little or no regard for the development of timekeeping and its limitations.
How do their maths and calculations work out then Gerald? How is every launch into space not a disaster? It all relies on modern science that you deny with an unhealthy obsession.
As has it done many many times before
Governments world wide react to Global warming ,like the Captain of the Titanic ,”There is no need to be alarmed,Ladies and Gentlemen ,we are stopping briefly to take on a little ice”
Where is Al Gore?
@Rowe: creaming himself
@Rowe: sitting in his beach front mansion watching the sea level no rise. Same as the people of Tuvalu, The Maldives and Diego Garcia.
The scam is breaking up.
Sure ”tis only God above and God alone controls the weather….
Wonder if they’ll GPS tag it ? You’d think they’d have tone them all to track them
Ok, then name just one of those times
It would send the shivers up ye
Religion of peace my arse
@Daithí Uí Ciarmhaic: Don’t be glaciophobic.
@Daithí Uí Ciarmhaic: we all know these migrant icebergs reak havoc but liberal media are too afraid to report it
@Daithí Uí Ciarmhaic: we all know these migrant icebergs reak havoc but liberal media are too afraid to report it
@Darren Byrne: This iceberg is part of a dangerous separatist movement
Deport it!
@George Roche:
The new ICEIS
@Tweed Cap: We must apply diplomatic pressure to have their assets frozen
@George Roche:
Agreed but that will prove difficult in the current climate..
@Tweed Cap: And complete silence from the Antarctic regime in the midst of all this. Unbelievable.
@George Roche: let’s build an ice wall to keep it out
@Daithí Uí Ciarmhaic: Did ye even Read the article??!!
God sometimes the commenters on here…. !
@Séamus Ó Lochlainn: Irony alert
@Malachi: yep. Hence the !!!
Odd statement about the iceberg will not add to sea levels “as it melts” – while that’s true, the fact that the ice is at present on land (AFAIK) means when it breaks off and ends up floating this alone will cause a rise in sea level. Whether it then melts or not is irrelevant.
@Ross Stewart: that’s because Newton was the Nigel Farage of Astrology. And Gerald is now trying to find who was the Theresa May of Astrology.
@Gerald Kelleher: I’m leaning towards Brian’s views. I hate closed thinking and your opinion doesn’t sufficiently dispel other notions. Please provide something more tangible before ridiculing all of us dunces
@To Bren: There are always a few intelligent and independent people who can spot just how overreaching empirical modelling is -
“Rule III. The qualities of bodies, which admit neither [intensification] nor remission of degrees, and which are found to belong to all bodies within the reach of our experiments, are to be esteemed the universal qualities of all bodies whatsoever.” Newton
That is where it all began and where it ends.
What will the domino effect of this be and that is my second time to write that on here.
have your say