The Social Democrats have called for a cross-party delegation to come together with a singular focus on addressing the homelessness emergency across the country. The party\u2019s Co-Leaders said that the situation was growing increasingly out of control and the tragic events of the last two days mean it is simply inhumane to continue along with a \u2018business as usual\u2019 approach to the both the election campaign and the homelessness emergency. The party asked at what point enough becomes enough and said surely we\u2019ve long since passed that stage. They said politics must be parked so that real cooperation can occur in order to find a resolution to the emergency.<\/p>\n
Catherine Murphy said
\n\u201cThis is not who we are as people. We are fundamentally more decent than this. People and their belongings being heartlessly swept from our streets, people dying in lonely hostels or emergency accommodation \u2013 that is not an Ireland we should recognise or accept. It is unfortunate that it has taken the tragic events of recent days to catapult the emergency into the narrative of the General Election campaign but if anything should come from it, it must be that no longer will we accept a \u2018business as usual\u2019 approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall said
\n\u201cWe know that the homeless emergency is the sharp end of the housing emergency and there is a raft of policy solutions needed for all aspects of the wider housing emergency but as an immediate measure we must all come together \u2013 across the political divide \u2013 to agree a resolution to what is a simply unacceptable situation on our streets across Ireland. It is unthinkable that the General Election campaign should continue as if nothing has happened. All of us in politics have a responsibility to step-up and try change things. That has got to happen without party politics or point-scoring. We manged to pull it together on Slaintecare and I can\u2019t see why we couldn\u2019t do the same for an issue of such gravity.\u201d<\/p>\n
16th Jan 2019
\n[ENDS]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Social Democrats have called for a cross-party delegation to come together with a singular focus on addressing the homelessness emergency across the country. The party\u2019s Co-Leaders said that the situation was growing increasingly out of control and the tragic events of the last two days mean it is simply inhumane to continue along with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catherine-murphy","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n