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THE DEPARTMENT OF Housing has declined to comment on claims that there were plans in train to remove non-EU nationals and those in long-term healthcare facilities from the official homeless figures.
Last week, TheJournal.ie revealed that Louth County Council had been instructed to remove certain categories of people from its official homeless numbers, including people the council itself deemed to be homeless.
The issue of growing monthly homeless figures has proved to be something of a thorn in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy’s side, with much focus placed on the issue of Ireland’s national figure approaching the milestone 10,000 number for the first time.
This has led to accusations that the government is attempting to massage the figures in order to make them more presentable to the public.
A report in today’s Sunday Independent suggests that senior Housing officials had informed Murphy that hundreds of non-EU nationals, who may not be entitled to housing, and as many as 2,000 people in long-term healthcare, may be currently listed as being homeless in error.
That article suggests that Murphy is understood to be considering removing both cohorts of people from the monthly published figures.
TheJournal.ie contacted the department for comment regarding those claims.
A spokesperson, without addressing the issue of non-EU nationals directly, replied that the department is ‘awaiting’ a report from an interdepartmental group regarding the underlying causes of homelessness.
“The department along with the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive and local authorities continues to work to ensure that emergency accommodation is provided to all those who find themselves homeless,” they said.
The most important thing is that we show compassion for people in times of crisis. That is why we proceed on a care and shelter first basis.
Last month, Murphy told TheJournal.ie, following a delay in the publication of the monthly report on homelessness, that the government needs a better way of collating the figures in order to secure greater accuracy.
At present the Department of Housing receives individual reports from each local authority before compiling its own report.
‘Right to stay’
Housing charity Focus Ireland, meanwhile, suggested this morning, in response to the Independent’s reporting, that roughly five homeless families are “trying to prove their right to stay in Ireland”.
Focus Ireland / TwitterThere are about 5 families, homeless and trying to prove their right to stay in ireland. @FocusIreland has raised the inhuman treatment of them & their children with Government. Shame the only response seems to be “let’s leave them out of the figures”. https://t.co/6GHhPmC79B
— Focus Ireland (@FocusIreland) May 6, 2018
“Shame the only response seems to be ‘let’s leave them out of the figures’,” the group said in a tweet.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin has written to the chair of the Oireachtas Housing Committee calling for an emergency meeting to discuss the issues raised this week regarding reporting of the monthly homeless numbers.
Other rumours in recent times have suggested that the State may be considering making the monthly reporting a bi-monthly or quarterly exercise.
“I have written to the chair of the Housing Committee, Maria Bailey TD, requesting an emergency meeting of the committee to discuss the minister’s handling of the monthly homeless numbers report,” Ó Broin said today.
Today it is reported in the newspapers that the minister plans to remove more categories of people from the report. This stands in contrast to the minister’s refusal to make changes to the reporting regime last year when it was revealed that certain categories of homeless people are not included in the report, such as adults and children in domestic violence refuge and step-down accommodation funded by Tusla, or former asylum seekers who despite having their leave to remain are trapped in direct provision, effectively using it as emergency accommodation.
“Minister Murphy cannot be trusted with the monthly homeless report. He and his senior officials must come before the Housing Committee before any further changes are made to the monthly report to explain what they are doing,” he added.
With reporting by Cormac Fitzgerald
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I sympathise with the genuine homeless person …. but there are people who choose to be homeless….. as in … I was standing at a bus stop one day and a woman with two small children were there . We started to talk and she said she had been living in the Recency hotel 6 months she was homeless . I started to sympathise with her until she said ” yeah they offered me a house in Tallaght but I don’t want to live there so I said no to them …” I couldn’t believe it … so she chose to be homeless..
@windbag: You met a woman one day.
Hardly a basis for an understanding of the problem.
@hughsheehy: problem is people are being offered housing but because its not where they want it to be they refuse it so they remain homeless by choice thats the problem
@windbag:
And did she have a pint in each hand at the time?
@windbag: if you have children in school or availing of services in any particular location or you are living near support such as extended family, friends, etc. you can’t simply up stakes and leave. Housing departments sometimes make offers that can’t be accepted for those and for other reasons. A housing offer, in order to be genuine, has to be viable. Anyone refusing a non-viable offer isn’t voluntarily homeless, they’re simply being sensible. As for yourself, on the basis of an one line remark at a bus stop you leapt to a condemnatory conclusion that is, based on my experience as a housing officer, totally unfounded.
@Tomás Ó Briain: So living in a hotel is a viable option?. I’m sorry but it’s nobody’s right to get housed neat their family just because they reliant on them. Lots of mortgage holders had to move far from family and there children’s schools for the privilege of having there own home, yet they are supposed to accept that little Mary doesn’t want a cheap council house in tallaght cause it’s to far from mammy and daddy to mind her kids?.
Ridiculous.
@windbag: And I suppose you told her of your disgust to her face did you?
@windbag: I’d say over 70% of the homeless are similar to this situation.
Woman with kids couldn’t be arsed working since doesn’t pay as much the welfare.
Free gaff in balljamesduff sure why would I want to live there.
@hughsheehy: That would remind you of Enda’s man with two pints.
@Tomás Ó Briain: I don’t know about you but if I was homeless and got a chance of a house I would jump at it … especially with children… get them settled and not living in a one room hotel …
@Leroy: 70% jesus christ may aswell say 10000000000% seen as your gonna make up a random figure .. clown
@windbag: I don’t know what way they work it in the city but down the country if your refuse a house you are put back to the bottom of the list.
@Leroy: lots of lone parents work and attend back to school schemes with the new rules that were brought in by Joan Burton they don’t have much of a choice but work. If they have supports to help with child minding or picking them up from school they are more likely to get a job. If they are on minimum wage they wouldn’t be able to afford child minding outside the area of their support.
@Charliegrl80: you were allowed 3 refusals but I think they’ve cut this back now
@windbag:thats just one person, you’re trying to dilute the crisis.
@Charliegrl80: plenty of schemes out there to help them back to work .subsidised childcare too
@windbag: bullshit Enda.
@windbag: Did she have two pints?
The building site i work on currently in Dublin released 18 homes for social housing and every house except two have been given to unemployed non-nationals, I work on the site 10 hours a day so unless they all do nightshift they are in fact unemployed and basically here to scrounge a living!
@Rooney: Same here , 10 out of 14 social houses to non Irish nationals .
@Clinton Baptiste: Its beyond a joke, Dont get me wrong im all for social housing if its given to the right people!
Non Irish or Non Eu? Cos the entitlements of the 2 differ significantly.
And I want to believe they won’t decline a House because they don’t want the location.
@Ay. David.: Non irish shouldnt be getting anything for free! I wouldnt get anything handed to me in your country.
@Ay. David.: Non EU, mainly middle eastern origin.
@Clinton Baptiste: I don’t likr buying into division, there’s enough foisted on us by vested interest, so we’re looking over our shoulder at each other and lose sight of the big picture. You only have to look at the top comments to see it.
If what you’re saying is fact then this is wrong. If hotels are good enough for Irish families, then they’re good enough for Africans or any other “refugees”. The homes should go to Irish families first.
Instead though blaming those who were given these houses, we need to ask the questions of whoever is responsible for making the decision to house Africans before Irish families.
The reasoning has to be explained.
Then we can see and understand what is going on.
@Ay. David.: well you hardly think all the Africans decided to buy in balbriggan, ongar and tryllstown. Thousands of houses provided for free to non eu nationals and who for the most of them don’t see them working
@Dave Doyle: There are organisations who are government funded and funded by people like soros .
Peter Sutherland was a driver of this mentality in Ireland .
“the European Union, in my view, should be doing its best to undermine” any “sense of our homogeneity and difference from others”. An ageing or declining native population in countries like Germany or southern EU states was the “key argument and, I hesitate to the use word because people have attacked it, for the development of multicultural states”, he added ” Peter Sutherland .
@Clinton Baptiste: The Cudenhove-Kilergi plan.
@Clinton Baptiste: MADNESS, what area of dublin and could you name the estate please
@Michael Powell: Add Tallaght to Balbriggan, Ongar, tyrrelstown, the government actually bought some residents of tyrrelstown their homes when the company notified their desire to sell the houses and the residents protested because they wouldn’t find property that accepted rent allowance in the area,
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: thanks God I have my own house and most of my friends have their own house too. But your attitude is make me sick. My husband and me nearly hand over half of our wage to revenue and never claimed anything even when I was taking my career break to look after my young family. I didn’t claim anything is what I believe social welfare is for someone whom really need a help not someone who is choose not working when they are able to. Touch wood that day never happens to me. If I am not able to work for some reasons not my own choice and you tell me after all the taxes I have paid and not deserve any help because I am choose not get a Irish citizenship?
There should be no non nationals homeless as they should be made leave the country. We have to look after our own citizens
@Kevin Moylan: amazing how our people in gov can’t seem to figure this out, instead they open the doors to immigration and make up stupid rules to define a homeless person based on where they’re from.
@Kevin Moylan: 100%
@Adrian: be careful. You’ll be called a racist
@Kevin Moylan: You reckon that an Irish person who works for 40 years in the UK and then becomes homeless through no fault of their own should be kicked out of the country?
@Kevin Moylan: you are all brains.
@Adrian: no work would be completed without the poland guys in ireland. our own lads prefer weed and walking their dogs…..
@Kevin Moylan: haha! Non Nationals are usually the investors without Ireland can totally pack up. Good luck with your incest society though..
@Adrian: It’s bad enough that Ireland only uses 3/7Categories of ETHOS Light Categories (European Typography of Homelessness and Housing)definitions but now seemingly trying to narrow it even more is astounding!Politics should take a back seat to the needs of the people!
@Kevin Moylan: That would indeed by a great way to create a nice comfortable fascist state, pretty much what Finland is rapidly turning into…
Makes sense
@Adrian Lawlor: they are still in line for housing just removed from reports so that the government will look better. They really do think that the electorate are dumb!
@Joe Conlon: Seem’s like, if a rough sleeper passes the door of a house, He/She is classed as a home owner. Mnnnnn.
@Joe Conlon:
The electorate is dumb, continually voting self-obsessed parasites into positions of power.
@Joe Conlon: welll look who the electorate voted for for years. ireland forget its youth have left the country..
@Adrian Lawlor: they will be removed from homeless list. Not housing list
Non nationals whether EU or non EU should not even be considered for social housing until they can prove they’ve contributed to the system through their taxes for minimum 10 years end of story.
The housing problem is never going to be solved while we have this softly softly approach to immigration with whats basically an open door policy. The country is being flooded with people who have never contributed and have no intention of ever contributing and are taking the absolute p.ss out of the Irish nation. If you want to come in you must be able to fend for yourself and your family or else Slan abhaile….
@Alan Foley: Go back to the pub. None of the Irish fellas with 150 or so convictions contributed even 10 days, yet they have a place to stay. But that’s ok.
@psychiatrist: Unfortunately we are stuck with Irish wasters. Theres nowhere to send them but we can get rid of non Irish wasters and repatriate them home which would be cheaper than housing them and giving them welfare.
@psychiatrist: No thats not ok but the point is have we not got enough of our own scroungers screwing honest taxpayers without importing more from all over Europe/Africa and beyond….
@psychiatrist: But they are Irish none the less and their families have contributed and as for 150 convictions for serious crimes I think after 10 convictions lethal injestion they are no good to man or beast
It’s a simple problem of resources. In terms of size and population, we are a relatively small country, we cannot cater to the rest of the world’s needs. Hell we can’t even cater to our own. We have some legal obligations as regards people from EU countries. Sure enough, people from non-EU countries who have for years contributed to the system, paid taxes, Prsi etc should be taken care of if they fall upon hard times but we cannot be a soft touch for everyone.
Health and other public services are overstretched, and there is often issues regarding assimilation. Basic cold hard facts may upset the bleeding hearts but they cannot be ignored.
@John Fergus: Have you got any cold, hard facts?
@John Fergus: reciently went to a&e in tralee at 6.00am with breathing difficulties after triage i waited until 5.00pm to be seen by a doctor. When i initially went in there were 7 or 8 people ahead of me which was ok.
Point is that in the ten hours i was in the waiting room it seemed that if you were a traveller, an african national you got to see a doctor as a priority and the less you complained the further down the que you were places.
Thankfully i was not having a heart attack
Not sure Murphy can be blamed for this one. The Dept is asking councils to remove people from the list, people who shouldn’t have been on the list to begin with. Not a fan of FG, but jaysus people, no point in bashing them for simply doing their jobs.
@Tommy Roche: Since it seems their job is to do whatever it takes to get re-elected, even if that means skewing figures to make them look less incompetent, yeah – there’s a point in bashing them for doing their job.
@hughsheehy: Where’s me bleedin free house !
@Robert Harris: Go on, tell us all where they’re to be found.
@Robert Harris: i want a free car…
@Dave Doyle: 127,000 social houses in Ireland and 90,000 on rent allowance.
@hughsheehy: So you still call removing people from the list because they are not actually entitled to be on the list, skewing the numbers ?
@Michael Powell: That’ s wrong you do not get rent allowance in a council house, you pay differential rent based on everyone earning in the house, either from working or welfare. You only get the allowance if you are in an over priced private landlord accommodation that is way out of your income and no other rental propertied to rent within the limit of the allowance. Get your fact right!
when will we discover that we cannot supply the demand for housing and health care to eu citizens also ,which is limitless and endless , we are among the smallest country in the eu , and now that the brits have left mainly because of unsustainable migration we are attracting those that would have gone there , it’s common sense that a big change is on the way , just like the celtic tiger this is a runaway train that is destined to crash and burst into flames , some leadership please for irish people
While we’re sorting out our little list, could we add the few hundred thousand people who are stuck living with their parents or “”sofa surfing” because they can’t afford to move out and live independently?!?
As for non EU nationals applying for housing, they are in Ireland because the place is seen as a soft touch society. As someone said above, you don’t see Paddy landing in Australia and wanting a free gaf, etc, it just doesn’t happen, but we have lunatic politicians like Aodhan O’ Riordan and that other headbanger Eamon Ryan who stand up in the Dail and basically invite these people over here. We are long overdue a national conversation on this absolute crap. Sending this from Edinburgh as I had to leave Ireland last year over the housing crisis, it boils my absolute p*ss to even hear that there are non EU p*ss takers looking for free housing back in Ireland.
@Johnboy: hey man, I understand your frustration but it is easy to blame it all on non eu migrants. Take out all the non eu homeless people, send all away, let’s see if the problem will be solved. I don’t think there is non eu looking for free gaf, in fact the other eu nationals take better advantage of the system…. so pls direct your aggression and bias towards your govt.
@Johnboy: agree 100%. Social welfare and social housing should only be eligible for Irish citizens. If immigrants and non nationals want to come here they need to work or else go home!
@Ay. David.: Stop expecting us to look after you. If you cant afford to pay your way, go home.
@Johnboy: Based on your tone you seem unhappy. What you fail to understand is business. There are not enough Irish fellas who are qualified enough or even suitable for the jobs we got here these days. Things change.
@psychiatrist: stupid comment. Of course skilled and educated expats coming here to work and pay taxes are good for the country. It’s the uneducated and unskilled africans and middle eastern types coming here for freebies are bleeding the country dry
@ƃuᴉʞ sᴉ uᴉoɔʇᴉq: it’s non eu who working hard and paying taxes to raise Irish who live in social housing in prime location of city centre. So before writing your uneducated guess let me ask you how many houses Irish government build in last 10 years? How many houses we need right now and how many they deliver?
Mostly people are burden on social even they are working but still taking money form different programs. 180 Euro week, child benefit, housing benefit, single parent allowance, transport allowance, heat allowance etc plus more then 50 Criminal conviction (fáilte go hÉirinn)
@Noshah Noshah: nice rant noshua pity its a complete nonsense fairytale. If you read my last comment you will see I already stated working immigrants are good for the country. It’s the amount that are coming here and already here just to avail of social services and social housing are bad for the country and this is also making the homeless and housing situation worse
More number crunching tricks to make it look like there is progress. The housing epidemic is a complete mess. Build more social housing, and stop leaving in uneducated immigrant spongers as it is only making the situation worse!
@ƃuᴉʞ sᴉ uᴉoɔʇᴉq: It’s SF and the Loons of the left, who are telling everyone, Ireland will give you a house for free
Amazing that non eu nationals would be on the list to start with
I don’t think anyone can believe the govs figures on anything now. Their credibility as a gov are only going down, down, down.
Typical FG
Massage the figures instead of solving the problem.
I would question our reported almost full employment too.
We were happy to take them in to help out our economy, we have a responsibility to look after them when it doesn’t work out.. or at very least acknowledge that they exist.
@john doe: do we, no Irish person arrives in Australia expecting to be put on lists and getting hand outs, they arrive with money in their account and a job to go to, thats the way it should be
@john doe: The figures are already skewed. I think if they allowed people to live at home and not lose their place in the housing list, we would see a drop in numbers. I know at least 10 people (5 couple’s) who have declared themselves homeless in order to try and get social housing. They now live in local hotels. I live in a small town. I’d imagine the situation is worse in Dublin.
@shanekeogh: If they’re not entitled to housing they’re not entitled to housing. It doesn’t mean they’re not homeless.
@Matt Bateman: Potentially, but that’s another debate.
We’re great as a nation at resorting to the blind eye technique. You deal with people strictly at the entry point in the airports/ferry ports, once we let them in, you have to treat them fairly, like any EU citizen. Fair enough, kick em out of the country if they have done anything (and put them on a biometric database so they don’t come back).
If Murphy spent more time fixing the problems and less time on ways to hide the problem it would be much appreciated, he and Leo seem somewhat consumed by spin. It’s a disgrace
Weird comments so far. You don’t believe that, say, a Canadian or Norwegian homeless person should be included in the homelessness figures on account of their nationality?
@Brendan O’Brien: buy them a plane ticket home! Much cheaper that way!
@Brendan O’Brien: ok but lets be realistic here, they’re not Canadians or Norwegians
WHO will come outside the Dail and protest about the none eu people getting the houses before the Irish , i am sick of this , i know of estates in parts of dublin that white people are now the minority
Nonsense There’s Hundred’s in one “Hotel” that I pass everyday.
Anything to massage the figures, the truth would choke this lot
what we are facing is migration experiment that is limitless and has worked no where else in the world , the english speaking migrants from europe do not have britain as an option anymore ,now their focus is ireland , a new ferry from spain to ireland is starting this summer , that country has 40% youth unemployment , i’m sorry though , i don’t want to have my children competing for jobs here in their own country a yellow pack economy that has reduced living standards for the irish and migrants already here , enough is enough
look as i said already if anyone is willing to come and protest outside the Dail with me,let me know. but i already know that no one will. This country is fooooked if we dont put our foot down .
” ‘awaiting’ a report from an interdepartmental group regarding the underlying causes of homelessness.” 10 years into this crises of Irish and other citizens being homeless and their expecting a report. Really?
Scariest words in the English language:
I’m from the Government; I’m here to help you…
And we should believe their (and the NUJ’s) spin on the 8th ? Sure thing Paddy !
Typical Blueshirt right wing policy – ignore anyone not from their rich boys and girls club
The definition of homeless should be defined in the same manner as in the other EU nations. I think the irish govs definition is already very narrow in this regard. It doesn’t fix the problem in any way. Its an idiotic solution by a totally inept gov.
10,000 homeless? 4,500,000 not homeless. It won’t be an issue in the election.
Over the year here in Ireland there has always been a long list of people waiting on local authority housing. The problem now is that the local authority’s don’t build house anymore, let the local authority contract in builders to build houses on the land banks that the local authorities are holding onto around the country. Or let people set up c’ops and give them the land to build on.
This is a disgrace, why are people allowed be lazy and unproductive when they are fully capable of picking something up. The refugee family across the road from me are living in a €1,200/month home and none are working, not to mention i have never seen 1 of them in a school uniform so… what type of dystopia are we allowing politicians in Brussels to create in Ireland?
How low will this tosspot go to hide the truth from people if he’s not capable of doing the job of solving the crisis clear off
It might be the Bulmers talking but I really hate Murphy’s patchy excuse of a beard
I met a fella on a bus who told me
That he met a fella on a train who’s uncle told him that that the homeless problem is just a rumour spread by people with nowhere to live ….
A look of people jumped on homeless band wagon . I feel
A lot of so called people came into this country under false pretenses. They have cheek to Demand houses in certain area . Look after our own first then foreigners. .
It is good that they are becoming more discerning with the statistics because up to now they were lies, damn lies.
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