Laois Sinn Fein TD Brian Stanley has labelled the funding provided by the Government to battle homelessness as pathetic.
He made the comment after receiving a parliamentary question response from the Minister for Housing, Eoghan Murphy, showing the Midlands received only 1.3% of the total State funding for homelessness.
Deputy Stanley commented: “The Minister has informed me that there was total funding of €109 million for homelessness, with only €1.4 million going to the Midlands for 2017.
“The Simon Community have been highlighting this consistently and said the gap is being filled with voluntary fund raising, it is not sustainable and it can’t continue.
“Homeless figures in the Midlands continue to rise and are at record levels. There are 105 people homeless in the Midlands up to April according to figures released yesterday by the Department of Housing. There are 30 families homeless in the Midlands with 75 dependents.
“We need more emergency accommodation in the Midlands. We do not need local authorities using B&B’s and should not people sharing the same room with people with addition issues.
“There is an urgent need now to ramp up the number of housing and a need to rent controls.”
Deputy Stanley made these comments in a recent sitting of the Dáil, where he also criticised the cutting of home help hours in Laois and Offaly.
He labelled the cut as “shameful” at a time when there is a need for an increase in the hours, calling on the HSE and Government to explain their thinking behind this action.
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