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AN INTERNAL REVIEW in the Department of Health has contradicted a number of claims made recently about the collection of information by the department on children whose families had taken cases against the State.
In March, RTÉ Investigates reported that the Department of Health had continued to gather information on children with special educational needs and their families long after their cases had gone dormant.
It was reported that the department had been secretly using information from private doctor consultations to build and maintain dossiers on the children over a number of years and that these dossiers included sensitive medical and educational information.
This was done without the knowledge or consent of parents, RTÉ reported, and had been done with the cooperation of the HSE and the Department of Education.
RTÉ’s Prime Time also featured a report on the allegations in which a whistleblower was interviewed about the protected disclosure he had made in relation to the gathering of this information. A review of his claims by senior counsel last year had found no wrongdoing.
However, following the RTÉ broadcast, the department launched an internal fact-finding review and the Data Protection Commission also began a statutory inquiry into the allegations.
The Department of Health today published its own internal review, which found no evidence secret dossiers were compiled, or that it had sought reports directly from clinicians, schools or the Department of Education.
Since the early 1990s the Department of Health has recorded approximately 230 cases against the State in relation to special educational needs (SEN) and 29 remain as active cases.
The department said these cases mostly involve claims relating to alleged inadequacy or inappropriateness of the provision of educational services and/or related health system supports or services to individual plaintiffs with special educational needs.
Following a protected disclosure in February 2020, a senior counsel Conleth Bradley, was engaged in July 2020 to conduct an independent review of the allegations.
The review looked into allegations about correspondence from the Secretary General of the Department of Education to the Secretary General of the Department of Health and spreadsheets with details of legal cases, including updates from named defendants in some proceedings.
It concluded that there was no basis for a reasonable belief of wrongdoing, as the term ‘wrongdoing’ is defined in the Protected Disclosures Act 2014.
After the Prime Time programme in March, the Secretary General Robert Watt directed a team to establish the facts in relation to allegations made in the broadcast. The scope focused on the 29 active open SEN cases and eight allegations made as part of the Prime Time broadcast and associated media articles:
In all but two of the claims the internal review found no evidence to support them.
The review found that the department is holding one video recording of a child with disabilities, but stated that this video file was provided by one of the family’s solicitors as an exhibit in a supplemental affidavit.
It found no evidence that the department had sought updates or reports on plaintiffs directly from schools or the Department of Education.
Though it also found no evidence that the department sought clinical reports on plaintiffs directly from clinicians, one case file contained a clinical report that came directly from a clinical. The Department said it had inadvertently received this report, but it was retained on the litigation file.
The review states that in the course of its defence of the litigation, the Department of Health sought service updates from the HSE – a co-defendant – from time to time.
The department said it is satisfied from the review that it is not the practice of the department to seek reports directly from clinicians. The review states that clinical reports that are received inadvertently should always be returned and not held on the file.
In relation to the claim that secret dossiers were compiled, the review states that, as a co-defendant in litigation cases, the department may have documents on file that form part of the proceedings.
“Such files contain information provided to the Department in the course of the proceedings which may include the pleadings, correspondence and/or reports received via the plaintiff’s solicitor in the course of the litigation.
“In addition, in the course of its defence of the litigation the Department of Health sought service updates from the HSE (co-defendant) from time to time.”
The review states that where the litigation pertains to an alleged failure in the provision of service, “it is appropriate for the department to establish the actual level of service being provided to the particular plaintiff”.
“Service updates are retained on the litigation files. The department had been advised that in the absence of service updates, it would be difficult to advise on the settlement of cases,” it states.
The review found there is no evidence that the Department of Health gathered information that was beyond instructions as part of the normal defence of a litigation case or that the department is “prying into families” who took High Court cases for the handling of its defence.
In relation to allegations that the personal information stored in the department could be accessed and viewed by anybody working in the department’s division, the review found that access to the relevant files was restricted to a ‘security group’ of approximately 25 people.
This was further restricted after the initial review of allegations last year.
The Data Protection Commission is continuing its review of data collection practices regarding these cases. In a statement, the Department of Health said it looks forward to the findings of this review and where necessary will make improvements based on their recommendations.
“The Department of Health is committed to continuing engagement with service providers to improve supports for service users,” it said. “The Department of Health acknowledges with regret the distress that headlines from the RTÉ Investigates programme of 25 March have generated. The Department’s primary concern in all instances is the health and welfare of service users.”
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It’s hard to believe people being put up in the Gresham Hotel at GREAT expense to the taxpayer are classified as homeless. What a time to be alive!!
@Chris Daniels: but whose fault is that? It’s not theirs for the most part.
@Chris Daniels: MY issue is not where genuine homeless familys are being put up, its all the people who are claiming they have nowhere to stay ,[parents ,family, friends] as they know if they say they have no one [family,parents with the empty bedrooms ]that they will jump the Q
@Liberal Larry: Who fault is it? Don’t people accept responsibility for themselves anymore?
A few years ago a couple in Cork hijacked a site that the council were planning on building on, demanding one of the houses for themselves. Claiming that it was justified as they were on the waiting list for 6 years.
They were 23 and 24 so in short they’ve been on the housing list as soon as they turned 18. Zero attempt to go out and make a go of life themselves.
@Julie Burn: it is amazing that these people have absolutely no other families that they can stay with .
@Jim Buckley Barrett: being on a housing list for 6 years in itself is ridiculous never mind demanding a new build house because of it. Unless you have a genuine reason for not being able to work nobody should be on a housing list for that long, that’s more than enough time to get a decent paying job which will enable you to find your own accommodation.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: whoa dude, back up and slow down before you give yourself a coronary. I’m saying it’s not their fault that they are being put into hotels rather than alternative accommodation..
Breathe, man… breathe
@Julie Burn: Do you think elderly parents should be forced to look after disabled adult children too?
@GizmoIrl: YES i do ,
@GizmoIrl: nobody is talking about disabled adult children as you well know .. totally different circumstances
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: No it’s not different. You’re expecting parents, friends, the spiders in the corner to house people. It’s not their responsibility. If someone is eligible for housing because of whatever reason then it’s the states and our state needs to take its responsibility seriously.
@Liberal Larry: yeah Larry it’s my fault.. ffs personal responsibility! And as a Dub living in the North West it sickens me to see empty house around me and then homeless people saying I want to live where I grew up.
@Tom Kelly: read my other response in the thread. I wasn’t implying that..
@GizmoIrl: so what you are saying is it is not parents responsibility to house their own homeless children but it is the responsibility of taxpayers who’ve never met them?
@GizmoIrl: it would be interesting to see what would happen if living with a parent, other family member or friend did not affect available person’s place on the housing list. Would we have so many “homeless” people then? I doubt it.
@Chris Daniels: yea thats exactly it thats why we have a state and a government they are responsible for the welfare of its people i pay 42% tax on my wages for the comfort knowing that if i fall on hard time the state will help me up
@Chris Daniels: Like Julie Burn here we have one more faceless profileless name pushing the government spin that the homeless are not homeless, but scammers looking for a “free house”.
This is what FG think of the homeless, it’s why there is an epidemic of homelessness, it’s why FG just tinker around at the edges of the problem while making soundbites to give the impression of doing something.
FG just don’t give a flying one and care even less. Untermensch do not matter.
@Chris Daniels: a parents responsibility isn’t for life! Many children get kicked out at 18.
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: it doesnt affect were you are placed on the list, whats happened is people now know if u say u cannot stay with family parents or friends that you are classed as homeless and that u then go onto the priorty list and jump the Q that all the genuine homeless are on
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: And wouldn’t that be a good thing, that you don’t get punished because of the kindness of your family/friends who help you in the short term while you are in a bad situation. Why do politicians always want someone else to solve government problems.
@Liberal Larry: One women and her 15 year old were there for over a year and a half. Are you telling me she couldn’t find a place to live in a year and a half?
@Dave Doyle: spot on Dave
@Sam Harms: Because the Co.Councils are using private houses to house their social tennants that puts a shortage for private rental customers and that shortage puts the price of rent up.
@Is Mise jay: good luck with that … May you never fall on hard times. Many like yourself will paid 42% have lost their homes and not much help going their way from this state.
@Tom Kelly: THEY MUST all want to olive in Dublin 6.. lots of vacant house around the country. and its cheaper to live in than dublin..
@Michael Heery: where are the jobs?
@Chris Daniels: What kind of sick b@$tards are the people who keep on going on & on about THE TAX PAYER…?FUNK YOU’SE… HOW DARE YOU PUT A PRICE ON A HUMAN LIFE…
@Michael Kelly: & if you think you have a say in the matter because you work & pay tax, then go & do some overtime & pay more tax & keep the work dodgers in welfare & give them a rise..! yeh miserable bunch of ‘wannabe upperclass’ Know it alls…
@Dave Doyle: you know i am right ,by the way great faceless profile
@GizmoIrl: so you would throw ur own 18 yr old out on the street ,and leave there bedroom empty,
@GizmoIrl: why has the state to do everything. They should get work and get their own home for god sake do something for themselves
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: I know , and on 6 one news one ‘homeless’ person staying at the Gresham still managed to have the eye lashes ‘done’ and make up to the nines , I think its about time that some common sense to distinguish people who have to sleep rough in harsh winter conditions and need ‘accommodation’ – to other who while undoubtedly have some challenges are not in the same ‘homeless’ situation – there are also clearly people gaming the system – multiple refusal of accommodations that might be perfectly good but ‘not near enough to family and friends’ – theres a broad spectrum of homeless in this crisis – its difficult to be sympathetic to somebody who was living in the Gresham hotel for 6 months but needs some ‘certainty’ about ‘appropriate’ accommodation and somebody who is in a sleeping bag on the canal in the freezing weather.
@Liberal Larry: You are right. Myself and 2 children have found ourselves homeless now as the apartment we have been in is being rented to family. I’ve applied for hundreds of places within a 50km radius and got nothing. My youngest has special needs and I can only work p/t. We are on the HAP scheme which no one wants to touch.
The amount that will be given to us per night for a hotel is crazy, I could never or would never pay that much for a hotel per night. Use the money to build houses and apartments for people for god’s sake. This country is a shambles.
As for the above post, ‘what a time to be alive’. You complete fool! And many other words I can’t write. Having no where to go, no family in this country and having to live in accommodation with very little possessions, no where to cook, do washing etc, is not going to be fun, or a little holiday, although that is what I’m trying to make it to be to my children. Don’t judge!
@Julie Burn: It’s a catch 22. If you go to family and sleep on the floor or wherever, you no longer need help. So what do you do. I understand both sides of the argument. I’m not from here and can’t return home, we are basically in a really crap situation.
Nice to know are property tax is been put to good use by the unelected Dublin City Council in accommodating people in 5 star hotels .670 people in hotels,has to be costing millions.
@Denis Mc Kenna: circa €40m.
I predict by the end of this year NO hotel in Dublin will be used by DCC for emergency accommodation. Freeing up that money was essential in order to create Social Housing.
Hotel accommodation should not become the new normal for those facing the alternative of rough sleeping. Permanent and affordable homes are the proper and decent alternative.
@Fiona deFreyne: true but how can anybody even afford to get on the housing market at the moment, let alone somebody who is homeless?
@Fiona deFreyne: Did you read the article? You are seriously deluded and just repeating yourself regardless of the article and content.
@Kal Ipers: I am pleased to see the belated movement away from hotels. Hotels are not the solution.
It’s ridiculous that you can declare yourself homeless and just walk into a top hotel and book in like this .
@Kal Ipers: Well said Kal, Fiona clearly didnt read that article first, but first to trot out the ould populist BS, hopefully collect a few green thumbs to make herself feel good.
@Fiona deFreyne: what about there own empty bedroom, rooms that they left at there parents , come on fiona ,can they not stay there until they sort or DCC sorts out a place for them, NO you know why they say they cant stay at there own parents with there old bedroom ,its to jump the Q the dogs in the street know it
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: you can’t
@Anne Marie Devlin: self accommodating. According to the article
: so if the council can’t find you accommodation you can self accommodate in a hotel ..so how have we got people sleeping on the streets ?..genuine question
@Fiona deFreyne: Tony, if you didn’t have so many illegal economic migrants staying with you, you could house some of these families. It would be a pleasure to stay at yours because you spend so much time on the journal.ie your guests wouldn’t have to interact with you..
@Anne Marie Devlin: you can. I know people who have done it.
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: do you think they should spend a few nights on the street first? Have you actually lived in a hotel with kids? I have, not as a homeless person but on secondment from work (while looking for accomodation) and I can assure you, it is a nightmare that I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy. Yes there may be people who have family that they can stay with in a spare room buy with waiting lists for housing north of forever, who in their right mind would take people in for that length of time. “Ya here, cram yourself and your family into my box room”. Wake up
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Are you Fred? Serious question.
ALL the genuine homeless are being left behind
@Julie Burn: Everything you post is nonsense.
I have two children who I anticipate will be with us long term who will have to work – doing anything – until they find something that hopefully they will enjoy doing. We’re accepting of this. However long this takes they will need to save and hopefully find a place of their own. This is parenting and that’s life. Just because one doesn’t want to live at home and wants “their own space”) who doesn’t?) you don’t always get what you want.
@Lydia McLoughlin: most mothers are very happy to have their children live at home as long as possible and not to establish their own homes.
It is not possible to start your own independent life relationship, your own family, your separate emotional and financial development and to start paying down a mortgage unless or until you move out of your parents’ home.
@Fiona deFreyne: you’re missing the point of staying at home … Stay and save then you can have all if what you say …As I had to do. I stayed and saved and EVENTUALLY afforded my own home. Granted it’s more expensive now but I still had to save 10% to buy my home and I did it. The answer is not to go homeless and wait for others to put you up and provide for you.
@Fiona deFreyne: And get a job…
As far as I know if you stay with parents, you are off the priority housing list.
@Catherine Mc: according to Housing Officers that is their case because you are deemed to have accommodation.
@Catherine Mc NOT off the housing list, you can stay at your parents and stay on the housing list ,but it takes longer , thats why most are claiming they are homeless to get on the priority List
@Catherine Mc: which is why I’d love to see what would happen if that no longer applied.
@Maria Hickey-Fagan: you are on the ball , they say they cant stay in there old bedroom at there parents home to jump the Q to get on the prority list ,and in doing so leave all the genuine people going about it in an honest way behind in there parents or friends houses who have to wait years to be housed
Mad hotels use for housing making shortage of hotel beds which pushes up the nightly rate, which makes people turn to air BnB which on avg is provided by a home owner just looking for a little help or a little extra income. Yet there seen as the problem and must be taxed.
Maybe the Council could build some houses? Did Brendan Kenny consider this as an option?
@Locojoe: now there’s an idea.
The looming housing crisis was known about in 2011. It has taken a very long time for FG to wake up to the need to reinstate social housing and to fill the severe back log of urgent demand.
@Fiona deFreyne: Noonan purposely didn’t build houses in order to get house prices up and therefore improve banks wealth or balance sheet.
@Annmoore: you are absolutely correct.
@Fiona deFreyne: social housing is the answer as long as the council’s aren’t forced into selling them off at cut price to tenants again. Social housing should not be for life, nor should generation after generation of the same family be allowed live in the same house. If you can afford to buy a house do so, but not one built and paid for by the state.
Truly incredibly and yet everyone will demonise landlords when they house these unfortunate people at a fraction of the cost of the hotel. Tenants would be infinitly happier in private rented accommodation where they would have their own front door key and could come and go as they wished. Government wake up.
@Michael Dowd: The price of rent now is way beyond what these people can afford.
From someone who is paying 2,500 a month in rent I would love a break in the Gresham. We are working flat out to keep the roof over our family’s head and will probably move to cheaper accommodation outside of Dublin and suffer long commutes once the eldest has done the leaving in June. Am bored to tears with the expectations of the so called homeless. I think the real homeless who are sleeping rough who have complicated needs are being overlooked.
@Ali murray: You ignorant little person. As I said before in anther post, do you really think a break in the Gresham is better than having your own place to live? Staying in one room with your children with minimal belongings, storing all your belongings, having no where to cook, do washing or having room to do homework?
We have applied for hundreds of properties, but who would chose a single mother working p/t over professionals? I don’t blame them. You have over 1000 people applying for the one over priced small place. Everyone is desperate for somewhere to live. We were promised a place, gave our notice then the landlord said it’s no longer available due to family issues. He lied and put it back on daft for 2,000pm. We are now homeless. I can’t return to my country, have no family here so we are stuck. So tell me now, how lovely is this little break in a hotel going to be?
Much of what is said here is true and much isn’t but honestly i think I’m still in shock that homeless people are being put up in the Gresham hotel!!! Does anyone else find this even slightly astonishing? Absolutely great for them though, great thing to look back on too…. ‘hey remember that time they let us live in the Gresham for a year for free? Haha those were the days’ but yes….. Dublin city has some real problems with homelessness for sure
@Paul Devlin: Hey Paul, I can understand everybodys ‘amazement’ of being put up in a hotel, but not many people know about the restrictions on the people being housed there..
For instance: They are not allowed to intermingle with ordinary paying/booking people, & they have to leave at about 10-11 am & not allowed back until around 11pm, so its not really that extravagant..! More like a prison really…
@Michael Kelly: what prison do you know that they let you out at 10am every morning and back at 11. If you ever in a hotel all paying guests do leave for awhile so to allow for room cleaning etc so I’m sure the non paying guests have to leave whilst their rooms are also cleaned or do you think the hotel give them each a hoover
@Paul Devlin: Jesus christ, I can’t actually read past this post. The absolute ignorance of yourself and some people!
1 on a radio show today complaining it’s terrible her husband has to go to work ad he’s homeless wtf. Also has to get the kids up early for school cause she not around the corner from it and the best part was they couldn’t go down for breakfast in the pyjamas or have chill out time. My sympathy to those who really lost homes but most of these tossers should be told to f off
@Anthony Whelan: why would you actually enjoy walking down to a hotel buffet every morning to a sea of new faces? Not exactly a nice normal environment for your child to feel like they’re in a safe and functional home. If I fell on hard times I’d much rather have a tiny place with facilities where I can close my door than that. There’s no shame in her telling people it’s hard. I dare not say it is, for fear the mob will come bashing with their sticks.
@Bortoli: seeing as you haven’t falling on hard times surely you be volunteering to put a family up give them a nice couple of rooms with a kitchen sure they won’t bother you at all. When there paying for the room then they can decide what faces they sit at breakfast with
@Anthony Whelan: why the fu#k would say that to him @Bortoli for saying what everyone else is thinking if urvsuch a bleeding heart why don’t you give them your home
@owen kirwan: think your reading incorrectly and judging from your first line it’s a wonder you can read at all. Read his comment again he’s the bleeding heart I’m the heartless fu cker. Don’t know what you are your comment is nonsense really
@Anthony Whelan: Surely you can do that yourself? Myself and 2 children, one with special needs are now homeless. Can you even do some babysitting while I go to work? See being homeless isn’t always a jobless, illness thing, shit actually happens sometime. So why don’t you go see the world, get some understanding and stop judging
I wish that we had REAL journalists who could follow the monies we paid to these hotel owners aka Party Hacks and Donors. That would be done expose!
@blackcoffee: farmers and guards all over the country rent out houses..
@Michael Heery: was the great tax scam back in the day before they ringfenced rental income. the wifey ran a very unprofitable B&B from home and the rental profit was netted off against the B&B losses. Rathmines & Ranelagh were full of houses owned by guards.
I saw rate of E300 a night for the cheapest room in the gresham in december! How many of us could afford to spend a week in that bloody hotel? so live out of a 4 star hotel for 1.5-2 years, have breakfast made for you, room cleaned I assume etc and then get given a house worth maybe 500,000 when you factor in interest over 30 years, maybe 1,000,000! Sounds like a fantastic deal to me! How much do you need to earn after tax to pay 1,000,000?! Banana republic!
@Shane Zerbe: yes and no heating and electricity bills breakfast ready for you. She would still have her dole or lone parents allowance and children’s allowance
So if it’s not a problem, then why are people in the hotels in the first place.? Magic housing tree?
@Father Hody Commody: a perceptive question.
Good, they might now stop relying on hotels to house families and get there finger out and house them.
@Dillon Kalen: well said.
@Dillon Kalen: the adults in the families could get a finger out and get a job and work? Like the taxpayer who’s paying for their accommodation.
@Dillon Kalen: there were no houses or suitable accommodation available that’s why they were all put into hotels in the first place…
@KingBen: or all the kids daddy’s should be even housing their kids. People should be taking responsibility for their own kids putting a roof over their heads etc. Loads of people self of entitlement looking for a house yet never paid anything into the system for their kids.
@Grainne Keegan: I agree with you, people are being offered houses outside of Dublin and they are not taking them – time to put the children first instead of staying in hotels to stay on the list for a council house – I live outside of Dublin as couldn’t afford to buy there – work / crèche / bills you know the rest to keep a roof over our heads -
@Grainne Keegan: Parents need to take personal responsibility.
I have a great idea!
Let’s turn Trabolgan into a temporary homeless shelter where all homeless can be temporarily housed for a few months until things get sorted out and the backlogs are cleared.
I would have said Mosney but that is still full from the last time a temporary solution to accommodation shortage was created – 11 years ago.
If they don’t have a home that means they are homeless,doesn’t matter what sort of hotel they are put up in its not the same or as good as having your own home.
@Caroline Gillespie: you own home is a place that you have a predictable residence in, your own exclusive use, a stable and predcictable environment, suitable for children, if there are children, and within reasonable distance of employment, schools and essential services, a place to have roots in and an opportunity, if you so wish, too participate in the local community. It is knowing that you have a roof over your head, decent facilities, safe , healthy and secure and that you can access work and services.
It’s not a hostel, hotel, bed and breakfast.
@Caroline Gillespie: agree , but the reality is Dublin City is one of the most expensive cities in Europe to live – and the Gresham Hotel is a very expensive city centre hotel that really is a buinsess for tourists to pay high prices and stay central on a visit – not for people who are relying on state support – I presume the cheap inexpensive motel travel lodges out on the Navan road or 3 star IBIS rooms were unavailable for them to have to get 4 star O Connell street instead ??…..taking the pi55 a bit to be fair
The necessity of hotels, regardless of standard, as a solution to homelessness, is a damning indictment of the housing policies pursued by FF and by FG.
Using hotels as an emergency response is an inevitable consequence of:
1. The effective and de facto embargo on the construction of social housing since the early 1990s.
2. Inadequate supply of housing units.
3. Unaffordable private residential rents.
4. Lack of security of tenure for private residential tenants.
5. The lack of intermediate housing accommodation solutions for recently evicted residential tenants and those who have been subject to mortgage repossession.
6. Precarious forms of poorly paid employment. The poor in employment.
7. Dismally bad spatial planning, with suitable housing constructed too far from employment.
It is good to see that hotels are moving away from the unsatisfactory, inadequate and inappropriate emergency accommodation of tenants. This was never a proper solution. It is a total misery for the families involved.
@Fiona deFreyne:
1. No embargo
2. Social housing demand has dramatically increased beyond our own demographics with a influx from other countries.
3.It is affordable for those working hence there isn’t any for those being subsidised
4. There is security for 6 years if you pay your rent
5. The number of repossessions is miniscule and actually is one of the cause of the shortage
6. Way overblown and the majority it is secondary income to households. Don’t expect to be able to rent on minimum wage in the capitol of any country
7. Agree bad planning requests but mostly down to the demands of the public.
The risks in renting in this country are the biggest blockers to increasing rental properties. We need people to invest and nothing has been done to protect those that provide this service
The way to fix this issue is to exempt renal income from income tax so that people invest in rental properties (limit it to medium, long term lets – not airBnB). Institute a vacant land tax on zoned land, implement a use it or lose it rule wrt planning permission to spur building. Get rid of cumbersome planning restrictions – allow bedsits, different types of living accommodations.
@Kal Ipers: you managed, no doubt accidentally, to get most of your rebuttal bad wrong.
One simple query.
How many completed new social housing units (no refresh) were actually built in each year since 2000 to 2017?
@Damon16: ha ha ha ha your deluded if you think private business is going to be a solution for a social problem. Private business are out to make as much money as possible not be bleeding heart socialists.
@Fiona deFreyne: nothing wrong in what I said. You have the misconception that social housing needs to be built by the government. 10% of all housing built was to be provided as social and affordable housing. Local councils failed on this front by taking payments instead and then spending it. I am aware that there a lot of new extra housing built in Ballymun and finglas after 2000. There was also an entire estate bought in Beaumont and provided social housing.
Wow such homlessphobia on here today. Those people ?, be carefull, you might end up been one of those people youself one day, saying that, a few pri@ks on here would deserve it.
@Joe Ryan: for telling the truth,
@Joe Ryan: Is that the 1 in 5 that refuse the properties? Personal responsibility means many people protect themselves from getting that way by saving, getting insurance and education.
@Kal Ipers: thanks Leo V
@Joe Ryan: tmaybe so , but there is no doubt its not normal for any country to house people in need in 4 star hotels in the main city centre that cost 300 euro a night over Christmas – its not normal – and its a long way from people in sleeping bags on the canal – there is no doubt some gaming the system is going on and normal decent taxpayers have every right to complain about how the crisis is being solved / handled – the political correctness is a bit tiresome too – we know it can happen us all etc etc but come on people on state supports shouldnt expect 4 star treatment – thats not right either !!!
Ireland is a country that offers no future to young people.
Emigration needs to be encouraged at school.
Foreign investors need to understand that Ireland is a bad place in which to do business.
@Colin Morris: None of that is true.
In the gresham are they for real absolute joke I would love to stay there but couldn’t afford it because I’m one of the sucker’s working
The homeless crisis is a disgrace. Nobody in this day and age should be out on the streets especially not young children. However I am aware of certain ppl who have refused accommodation as it would bring them outside of Dublin away from family and friends. Somebody genuinely desperate shouldn’t think twice about accepting accommodation elsewhere! I had to relocate 160 miles away from my family and friends for employment to support myself. I didn’t have a choice! If I had to do it then why shouldn’t somebody who is homeless?
@Shane Cusack: agree – taxpayers should be vocal that people who need state support to be housed should not be allowed refuse decent quality accommodation because its not located in the most expensive central locations in the country – the capital city is expensive to live in anywhere – if the only ‘hardship’ is you are not next door to your family and friends then you need to toughen up to the realities of life – people have to work too damn hard to be able to afford be selective about where they live – if your unfortunate to need state support then you should not be in a position to be selective – the phrase beggars cant be choosers should apply.
If the council have alternatives, the
@Lionel Nashe: then they shouldn’t have been paying for hotels.
Hmmm… What do I need to do to become homeless? The Gresham!!!!
I live abroad and currently pay tax in Ireland and I have to pay the difference over here because I am a resident. I had a real desire to quite what I do to help the homeless because I feel that everybody should have a home. This is just absurd. I literally cannot believe wtf I am reading. The Gresham!
Child allowance and single parents, well she is rich ,she has to buy 2 meals a day for the kids , a lot more expensive than cooking and paying electric,
can you actually blame these people the “cute hoors” sure dont they learn from the best i.e our politicians? This situation the more I think about it, becomes even more scandalous! thousands not working or working, can get homes for virtually free, free if you are on welfare! the other hundreds of thousands, even on relatively low incomes , have to pay insane private market rates to rent or buy or rent a bedroom! They marched in their droves against water against a euro a day, yet we allow this scandal to continue and to be fleeced! prices for homes rose by €107 a day in Dublin in the past 12 months and €57 excluding Dublin, factor in interest over the course of 30 years and you can double those figures! Dont worry though you early risers and hard workers, if you are on roughly the average industrial wage, FG will be giving a €5 weekly USC cut… Thats enough to buy the support of the masses! We are some f**cking idiots in this country! https://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/revealed-heres-how-much-house-prices-are-rising-every-day-around-the-country-with-no-slowdown-in-sight-36187401.html
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