23 thoughts on “De Saturday Papers

  1. Shayna

    “A Housing Summit On Homelessness”? Maybe I’m crazy – but, the delegates are staying in 5 star hotels, it all seems a tad incongruous?
    Jack, who died, in Dublin. He died from hypothermia in August. (2 days ago)
    No-one really has an answer to homelessness, but isn’t that what government is for – to answer difficult problems?
    The Dutch have this thing – in Amsterdam, if you’re homeless, you can crawl into a tube under a bridge and be safe during the night. The Dutch police patrol these tubes. so everyone is safe.
    As outrageous as it may sound, but – why couldn’t this work in Dublin?
    I already know why.

      1. Shayna

        Could I just add, perhaps a little money from Government could be offered to homeless organisations. Fr. McVerry relies on charitable donations – minimal help from the Government.
        I’m not ashamed to say that @30 years ago, I squatted in London (it was legal then) – not so much now.
        Perhaps mass squatting of ghost estates is an answer? Call me naive, but, perhaps the Gov could relax the whole squatting thing, until it thought about another way to cope?

        1. Phelem Mooney

          Sorry Shayna, it’s always the most vocal that have things wrong.

          Peter McVerry Trust accounts of 2016.
          Page 5:

          State commissioned Services Funding: 10.3 M
          Donations and fund-raising: 5 M

          1. Kdoc1

            With that type of money sloshing around the various homeless charities they could build palaces for the rough sleepers. I understand there are over 20 homeless charities in Dublin. Maybe if resources were directed to providing more psychiatric and addiction services there would be less rough sleepers on the streets. In the haste to reduce psychiatric institutions, without adequate services and facilities to replace them, the authorities may have helped to grow the rough sleeping problem.

          2. Nigel

            It”s weird that the homeless charities are getting it in the neck for being on the front line of a growing homeless crisis while the government flails and fails in its efforts to take any meaningful measures. Homeless charities requiring that level of funding and still falling short is not a sign that the ‘homeless industry’ is living high on the hog, but that the government has no effective policies to deal with the crisis. And yes, cuts to mental and addiction services have made things worse. People who didn’t have mental or addiction problems before they became homeless are going to trapped in a situation where both are endemic. What the children will endure is almost unthinkable.

          3. Bookworm

            I don’t think it’s weird at all Nigel

            For a start the buck stops with these guys if they can’t even keep people from doing the things that lead to their deaths in August FFS, how are they going to cope with their problems in December?
            It seems to me many homeless people should be living in Kerry, Donegal or Sligo where there are numerous empty homes. They should be given bus tickets and told to get out there and build a new life.

          4. Kdoc1

            Nigel, there has to be questions asked of the ‘homeless industry’ (a term courtesy of Bishop Diarmuid Martin) and also, of course, of the politicians. So many charities involved with CEO’s, policy advisers, admin etc. it borders on the ridiculous. There are fewer than 170 rough sleepers in Dublin. I know homelessness extends far beyond rough sleepers and housing for the population should be a matter for government, not for charities.

          5. Nigel

            Some of those questions should involve why homeless charity services, which were neither designed nor intended nor supposed to deal with this sheer volume, are bearing the brunt of it and creaking at the seams while the government is happy to let them and people are happy to attack them even though they are essentially NOT there to solve the homeless crisis but to help people who are homeless, and that is not the same thing. If homelessness is happening on an industrial scale it is because of government policy, not because of the homeless charities.

          6. Nigel

            Christ Bookworm they’ve been saying they can’t cope for well over a year now. They’re not a relocation service and I don’t know why you think they should be shipping people to empty homes in Donegal when there are a ton of empty homes in Dublin and all the major cities.

        2. Yep

          “even though they are essentially NOT there to solve the homeless crisis but to help people who are homeless, and that is not the same thing”

          Very important point which seems lost on some commenting.

    1. Brother Barnabas

      “He died from hyperthermia in August”

      Shayna, you have a tendency to present your assumptions as facts.

  2. Jocky

    No more politicising of homeless deaths. Its disgusting.
    Not unless we know the answers to these two questions.
    1. Why were they homeless?
    2. What did they die from?

    1. petey

      1: because the current economic system demands profit though the resources are plentiful to provide basic shelter for every last man and woman on earth; that people are dying homeless is a political statement in itself.
      2: doesn’t matter really, see 1. this does not ignore that there are cases of mental and emotional disorder., and ultimately one will face the question of compulsion vs. autonomy.

      still, it is wearisome when self-styled champions attach themselves to a (genuine, mind) victim class as a platform to dictate that “we” “must” “do” “more”. the true solution is international proletarian revolution. until then…

  3. bisted

    …I used to love my newspapers, especially at the weekend…over the years I’ve gone from armfuls to none on a Sunday and just the Irish Times on a Saturday…for the first time I can remember I won’t buy it today…it’s been going downhill for years but interviewing Eamon Dunphy…ffs…

    1. bisted

      …just when I thought at least the day couldn’t get any worse there’s Brendan O’Connor on the radio…and in his first breath he’s recommending the interview with Dunphy in the Irish Times…what an endorsment…gone fishing…

      1. Topsy

        Not a fan of O’ Connor but I enjoyed the interview with Jim McGuinness, who’s now assistant manager at a football club in Beijing.

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