Tallaght Garda station last night

Homeless family of seven forced to sleep in garda station (RTÉ)

Earlier: The Mask of Sorrow

UPDATE:

This morning.

On RTÉ Radio One’s Today with Miriam O’Callaghan.

Ms O’Callaghan spoke to Anthony Flynn, of Inner City Helping Homeless.

Before starting Ms O’Callaghan said RTE had confirmed that three homeless families, including 16 children, slept in Garda stations last night.

Mr Flynn said:

“Your confirmation on families that slept in Garda stations – those are the families that actually chose to attend the Garda stations last night. The other families didn’t choose. Some may have slept in cars, some of them may have slept with relatives but there was up to eight families last night that were refused accommodation.

“…The pictures have shocked people that have seen them over the last couple of hours, particularly this morning. But this is the norm, Miriam. And people don’t realise that this is the norm.

Last month, 48 families were referred to Garda stations through the statutory bodies. The month before, 47 families were referred to Garda stations throughout the month through the statutory bodies. And what’s happening is we have an over reliance now on the private hotel sector and B&Bs in order to accommodate families throughout the summer period or indeed through any period of the year.

“The fact is that this over reliance is about to burst. And more and more people are entering Dublin. The hotel trade is booming, you know, tourist trade is booming. The hotels don’t really want these families here any more. It’s a case that they need to be moved on.

“We’ve a papal visit in two weeks’ time. We’ve 500,000 people that are going to enter the country and we have a major fear that this is going to continue to happen over the coming weeks.

What people need to realise is that this is not uncommon to us, this is stuff that we’ve been seeing and had been forecasted now for a long time in regard to the end of hotel usage or hotels getting busier and not enough hotel space to accommodate people.

“And I suppose last night was just an indictment really on the fact that we’re not moving people out of services quick enough and that 7 young children have to end up sleeping in a garda station last night.”

Ms O’Callaghan later read out a statement she had just received from the Dublin City Council. It said:

“On the night of the 8th of August 2018, an unprecedented number of families presented out of hours, seeking emergency accommodation. We were notified by the family homeless action team that they were actively engaged with 10 families who were unable to source their own accommodation.

“Our central placement team were able to source emergency accommodation for five of those families – one family refused the offer of accommodation, two of their families were linked back into their region and two did not seek further assistance.”

Listen back in full here

UPDATE: “I’m Assuming They’re One Of The Families That Didn’t Seek Further Assistance”

 

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135 thoughts on “Gut Punch

  1. Bertie blenkinsop

    Jesus, that’s a shameful and deeply upsetting photo.
    Poor little things, that’s truly awful.

    1. Rob_G

      Is there any school still open at this time of year?

      Any child sleeping in any garda station is awful, and it’s not that don’t believe it has happened, but the use of this (I presume) old photo to sensationalise what is already an awful enough stat seems kind of cynical and dishonest.

        1. curmudgeon

          Childs benefit paid to the mother is 840 per month, that doesnt include all the other social welfare like HAP so if you could maybe stop insulting posters here who pay taxes and maybe start asking questions as to where this money paid to the parent is going that would be great.

          1. Christopher

            I agree with this- too often people are helpless on purpose so they get more stuff. She is already getting help from the state and I would ask where the fathers of these 5 kids are? This whole photo op stinks of someone trying to game the system and getting a free house.

          2. Starina

            judging by how much you’ve been posting on here, curmudgeon, i can only assume you don’t have a job and are relying on taxpayers to fund your bile.

          3. Rob_G

            Frequent poster calls out other frequent poster for frequent posting – looks like you are running out of arguments, Starina.

      1. Paul Flynn

        “…but the use of this (I presume) old photo to sensationalise…”
        You presume wrong.

      2. martco

        slow your horses @Rob_G with your 1+4=57 there

        I can tell you for a fact this kind of scene happens regularly (via a direct relative)

        also (not that it’s really important) but where exactly are you seeing the school uniform in these photos or evidence of when they were taken? I PRESUME that you haven’t really examined them properly but when you’re busy making defensive noise it doesn’t really matter does it?

        I’d ask you to consider this if you are a FG supporter/fanboy/conservative:
        I’d presume that inside you personally are disappointed if not horrified by what you see here. Your minister for nice folks from Ranelagh with his arts degree is at the steering wheel & this is happening on his watch continuing to build on the nonsense of his predecessor sailor simon. HE IS RESPONSIBLE and should be accountable.

        Now @Rob_G I thought that in general the politicians you vote for & support actively are supposed to represent & relate to your point of view, correct? Is what’s happening here your point of view, are you in agreement with it? I can’t believe it is, I really can’t. Assuming it’s not he’s defrauding you on a daily basis & you should be angry & upset about that. And for that if nothing else you should be seeking to have him SACKED. I imagine you should also be angry at Fianna Gael for pursuing the bullshit antisocial policy that causes this.

        1. Rob_G

          Fair enough re: the school uniforms comment – another poster thought they looked like school uniforms, I thought so, too.

          In answer to your other presumptions – indeed FG should be doing more solve the housing crisis. But I am not sure what any political party would be able to ever, in 100% of instances, protect people from the consequences of their poor decisions.

          I didn’t hear the piece on the radio myself, so can’t 100% confirm it, but apparently Eileen Gleason, head of the Dublin Homeless Executive, provided an offer of accomodation to the family in question, but they turned it down. Aside from having the Gardaí forcibly bring them to the emergency accomadation and forcibly detaining them there, I am not sure, in this instance, what more the authorities could have done.

      3. ollie

        They are not school uniforms Rob_G, you absolute goon.
        Two are dressed the same, maybe twins?

        1. cupofteaanyone

          I thought they were uniforms too. The boy with the disk over his face has some design on the front of his jumper. So definitely not a school jumper.

      1. D

        He will nitpick with the number, saying the correct numbers are not available. We have no way of knowing etc etc. Later that day a picture of him and Leo will emerge in hardhats with clipboards with shirt sleeves rolled up, pointing at something other than their own incompetence and culpability.

  2. BobbyJ

    This is a big bag of wrong. We have the finances to sort this s**t out, what we are lacking is a political class with the compassion to do so.

    Just build public housing

    1. ollie

      We don;t have the finances to sort this because Europe dictates what we spend money on,
      In order of priority:

      Service bank debt
      Reducing our deficit
      “Rainy day fund” so Europe won;t have to bail out our next bank collapse
      Public Service salaries and pensions

      This is what happnes when government build 3 bed town houses in Dublin City with front and back gardens, charge nominal rent and then sell the property for a song to the tenant, or allow LA housing to be bequeathed from parents to children with no assessment of need.
      Then, tax landlords so heavily that 1,000 properties leave the rental market every week, that’s about 300,000 so far.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        “1,000 properties leave the rental market every week, that’s about 300,000 so far”

        that would be AMAZING if it wasn’t utter bu11 sh1t

        1. Frilly Keane

          em

          its not all that far off Brudder

          from about ’06 to ’12
          1000s of domestic

          ie local small time, part-time, one man show type landlords exited the activity

          because of case vi tax
          and that still remains the case

          the only opportunity in that sector is for the big Reit type landlords with tax exemptions and allowances

          not so for Paddy who is willing to let out the house his aunty left him

          1. Brother Barnabas

            nope

            2006: 106,000 local authority rental properties & 196,000 private rental properties in Ireland

            2011: 129,000 local authority rental properties & 320,000 private rental properties in Ireland

            2016: 143,000 local authority rental properties & 326,000 private rental properties in Ireland

          2. Frilly Keane

            off the private rental properties
            what %s are Irish Sole Trader types v Reits and Vulture “charity Trusts”

            because I can tell ya
            not one extra unit has been made available to HAP schemes / tenants
            despite Government announcements saying they are putting more funds into it
            nice all the same
            but if it isn’t drawn down then its a load of oul’ guff

          3. Brother Barnabas

            i don’t know what point you’re trying to make, frillz

            charger posted the silly claim that 300,000 properties have left the rental market in recent years. i said that was nonsense. you said “it’s not far off”. i posted CSO figures to show that it’s very far off. it’s got nothing to do with HAP schemes etc.

          4. Donal

            Whether or not the property is a small one house landlord or a big institution matters not a jot, what matters is if it is available to be lived in by someone or not.

            HAP scheme properties are simply those in which the council is paying the rent to the private landlord (tenant can’t afford the rent, council pays instead, tenant pays council a portion of that). HAP means all non-social housing (within reason, HAP won’t cover 5k per month for a mansion in D4) is available to both people able to afford the market rent, and people who cannot afford the market rent.

            I personally don’t give a damn whether or not the majority of private houses available for rent are owned by big investment co’s or by small-time landlords, what matters is that the overall stock of housing available is sufficient to keep private rents affordable and includes a good dollop of social housing. The gov has failed to ensure these two things

        1. ollie

          They go to people who can afford to buy leaving a shortage of rental accomodation, no use to those who have to rent.
          Is that hard for your brain to comprehend?

          1. Owen C

            Its a zero sum game. If someone buys, they are presumably people who were previously renting, so there is an extra spot in the rental market then. Simply changing in between privately owned vs privately rental vs socially supplied/owned won’t make a difference if there isn’t new net supply. This seems too difficult for your brain to comprehend.

          2. Andrew

            As Owen C says Ollie, those people who can afford to buy where do they come from Ollie? presumably they were renting therefore freeing up the rental they were in. Is that so hard for you to understand Ollie?
            Zero sum game Ollie. Get that in to your wee noggin.

  3. cupofteaanyone

    Is school back on or are they just wearing uniforms because that’s all they have?

    Imagine going into class for a full day of learning after sleeping on plastic chairs all night.

      1. cupofteaanyone

        No not at all. I just don’t know if some schools or summer schools are open again.
        It can’t be easy on the kids wearing school uniforms in the summer. They might not understand why they have to wear them but they will be embarrassed if their friends ask.

        the second part will apply when they start back in September. By the time they get sorted with an actual home how far will they be behind in school. You can’t tell what toll this will take on them going forward.

        1. Brother Barnabas

          theyre not wearing school uniforms- two of the kids are dressed the same, nothing unusual about that. nothing else. it was tallaght garda station. gardai statement on it already, confirming authenticity.

          1. Ronan

            I’m sorry but there are are clearly 3 boys in school uniforms here, supposedly on the night of August 8th. One lad isn’t wearing his school jumper, but his shirt. One of the lads in a jumper is wearing smart black shoes – hardly with his summer clothes.

            I don’t doubt this happened at some point during the year, and I don’t doubt that someone slept in a garda station last night, but I’m happy to conclude that this photo is not from last night.

  4. Jeffrey

    Very sad… I see some news outlets tagged, don’t suppose any will RT / Comment / Investigate either? We’ll see something in The Guardian perhaps, usually the place to find pertinent Irish News.

    1. b

      it’s already on both the Indo and Times websites with more detail

      sorry that your conspiracy theory didn’t have legs

  5. GentrifiedD8

    Why is this @MurphyEoghan’s fault?

    Why not Airbnb, G-entrification, and property porn mania?
    Why not developer’s and landlord’s pursuit of greed and laws and revenue policies that enable that?
    Why not that over-privileged toxic 3T winner takes all triumvirate of tech, talent and so-called tolerance that also destroyed San Francisco and parts of Berlin? Pop-up poetry, my behind.

    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/winner-takes-all-urbanism-brought-dublin-a-housing-crisis-1.3584667

    We need a conversation about this shameful state that takes into account all the stakeholders responsible.

    1. Barry the Hatchet

      This is Eoghan Murphy’s fault because he is the Minister for Housing. It is literally his job to address the diverse causes of this crisis and to ensure that children do not have to sleep in Garda waiting rooms.

      1. curmudgeon

        Maybe the problem is unfit mothers and absent fathers? Six kids and no way to pay for them except taxpayer handouts – dont lay that at the door of the govt please, whatever happened to personal responsibility.

          1. curmudgeon

            Exactly whats right and proper about registering for a free house at age 17. That’s what she (Margaret Cash member of the travelling community did), and then proceeded to have six kids at the ripe old age of 28.

        1. Barry the Hatchet

          In a civilised society we should not allow children to sleep on hard chairs in public waiting rooms in order to punish them for their parents alleged bad choices. This is basic human decency.

          1. Rob_G

            How many 5-bedroom houses should local authorities keep unoccupied and on standby, on the off-chance that a family of 8 will turn up in the middle of the night looking for shelter?

          2. Barry the Hatchet

            You’re right Rob, that’s the ONLY possible alternative that could have been offered.

          3. Rob_G

            “This is Eoghan Murphy’s fault because he is the Minister for Housing. It is literally his job to … ensure that children do not have to sleep in Garda waiting rooms.”

            What other policies should Murphy have implemented that would have prevented a family of 8, who contacted the homeless executive, were offered accomodation but then made no further contact with executive, and then turned up a Garda station saying they had nowhere to stay, sleeping in the Garda station?

      2. Andrew

        You could say it is the result of learned helplessness/infantilisation made possible by promises of welfare no matter what. Propagated by the left, as that is what their solution is. Keep people down as they deserve and want no better than that. The socialists in Ranelagh feel better about themselves and also don’t have to encounter them everyday.
        The middle class left, well represented on this site, hate the rich but despise the poor.

  6. Termagant

    Remember citizens, the recession is over and we are all on our respective gravy boats once again.

    1. curmudgeon

      980 euro per month paid to her on child benefit (excludes all other social welfare paid). Might explain why I’m taxed so high, doesnt explain why she’s got homeless kids

  7. Spaghetti Hoop

    Poor little mites. I know they had a breakfast this morning – hopefully they have somewhere suitable to sleep this evening. This government has really failed its most needy.

    1. Frilly Keane

      its not just failure

      its complete neglect

      failure suggests they attempted something
      when they’ve done eff’ all only put carrots in-front of the Private Sector to bite

      1. Christopher

        I would say they were failed by their parents too- do you think they attempted to get a home for their children or did they just decide to have children and then the government would give them a free house?

  8. Ollie Cromwell

    Early signs of Irexit are strong this week.
    Gradually the population wakes up to the fact that net immigration of 20,000 people every single year without the commensurate numbers of loc cost houses,hospitals and schools being built will start to affect the social environment of all citizens.
    It’s Brexit Groundhog Day all over again.

    1. ReproButina

      Irexit won’t happen mushroom boy, no matter what racist scaremongering you invest your time in.

      I see Sterling is hitting new lows.

      1. Brother Barnabas

        the slamming of sterling is due to the UK government masterful management of its currency to better serve UK exports (and the buying up on the cheap of UK assets by foreign investors, but ssshhhh on that one)

        have you not been reading charger’s posts?

        1. Ollie Cromwell

          Record exports,record tourism figures,record employment numbers old chum.
          Get it right.
          Sterling at the same level it was a year ago,two years ago and five years ago.
          It goes up as well as down over the years which unfortunately can’t be said about your IQ.

          1. Brother Barnabas

            so says some tool on the internet

            however, according to the governor of the bank of the england, mark carney:

            “If you look at where the economy is today relative to that forecast, it is more than 1 per cent below where it was, despite very large stimulus provided by the Bank of England, a fiscal easing by the government, and global and European economies that are much, much stronger than they were previously. “If you adjust for those factors, and one should not be too precise about it, the economy is about 1.5 per cent, 1.75 per cent, up to potentially 2 per cent lower than it would have been”

          2. Ollie Cromwell

            We all remember Carney’s predictions over the original Project Fear.
            The Governor lost all credibility on that one along with legions of other Remain doom-merchant so-called ” experts .”

          3. ReproButina

            Sasamachs don’t like facts, they like bluster and bold statements. The more optimistic and removed from reality the better. They like things like claiming the free trade agreement between the UK and EU post Sasamach would be “one of the easiest in human history”. If their leaders are lying to them then it’s fine for them to deny the truth and lie to themselves.

          4. Brother Barnabas

            the above isn’t a prediction – it’s an analysis. and it’s not from carney – it’s from two of the bank of england’s most senior economic analysts (william francis and michael straughan). carney was merely relaying it to parliament (if i recall correctly) in his capacity as governor. you don’t have confidence in the bank of england?

  9. Anomanomanom

    After seeing the 3 news at 12:30 I feel even more sorry for those kids, the mother was one of their problems.

    1. cupofteaanyone

      I just heard it on the radio in the shop. No idea what station.

      What was up with the mother? Are they all part of the one family?

    2. millie st murderlark

      While certainly an issue, I don’t think that’s the biggest one on they face.

      They’re sleeping on chairs in a Garda station without even a blanket. What the fuxk are our government doing?

      I am tearful with rage. How dare they let this happen.

      1. curmudgeon

        Maybe ask the parents? And are they planning to have any more children/ did they plan on any in the first place?

    3. cupofteaanyone

      Actually I just saw the Irish Times article.
      The Mother has been on the housing list since she was 17. She had her first child at 17 and proceeded to have another 6 kids when she couldn’t afford to take care of the first.

      I pity her Kids who have to deal with this. They are so much more likely to grow up expecting a free gaff.

      1. Starina

        Grand, I expect you’ll be down at Phoenix Park to protest against the Pope, seeing as how the tight grip the Church has on the working class influences their use of birth control? And I assume you were with us marching for abortion rights as many can’t afford the trip to England for a termination? I also hope you donate to the Rape Crisis services as they provide a lot of free support to those who have suffered molestation and assault, a high danger to those sleeping rough or growing up in state care.

        1. cupofteaanyone

          There are people who are homeless because of pure misfortune. The Government has let them down.
          This is a different situation where a woman has 7 kids at 28 and she had no intention of ever providing for them herself. the first may have been the result of a poor decision but if she cannot afford the kids she has and decides to have another regardless, she is putting her kids in this situation.

          1. Starina

            *deep breath* Grand, I expect you’ll be down at Phoenix Park to protest against the Pope, seeing as how the tight grip the Church has on the working class influences their use of birth control?

          2. cupofteaanyone

            The church believe that good Catholics only have sex for procreation. That is why birth control was considered a sin. So either they are as a community choosing to have loads of kids OR picking part of the Catholic belief (no birth control) and ignoring the other (sex only for procreation).

            That has nothing to do with the pope.

          3. Rob_G

            @ Starina – I don’t agree with the RCC’s position on contraception either, but I think your effort at putting the majority of the blame on Frankie rather than on the parents is a bit of a reach.

          4. rotide

            I’m sorry Starina, we all must have missed the part where she had the 7 kids in the mid 1960’s.

      2. millie st murderlark

        I think we can all safely say a free house is certainly not a given nowadays.

        1. Dhaughton99

          It certainly is. 18 new house built within our estate and new residents given the keys 2 weeks ago. The little toe rag from across the road got a key to a 3 bed house for him and his 2 babies. He’s 22. The extended family now have 4 houses out of 40 in this estate.

          1. millie st murderlark

            Those 4 families are the rule so? There is a housing shortage. A free house is not a given, unless you’re happy to risk years of homelessness and living out of hotel rooms and bnbs etc.

            That’s not ‘free housing’ and is nowhere near guaranteed.

  10. curmudgeon

    TheJournal.ie failing to mention any of that – especially the Traveller part. This is a publicity stunt to bag a free house and continue the lifestyle of having far too many children to ensure you never have to work like everyone else.

    1. Starina

      As per my comment just above — the Church’s vice-like grip on Travellers has quite a bearing on their use of birth control.

      1. curmudgeon

        Does it also stop them sending their children to school after age 12 too? Really love that you’ve just stripped them of any and all agency. I can’t tell if you’re just naive or stupid but I suppose it’s mixture of both since this is hardly an isloated case.

          1. curmudgeon

            So you haven’t addressed any of my points and have put the whole thing down to Travellers being religious. Wow

          2. Anomanomanom

            You can’t argue with a completely non logic argument. Its like saying “its not my fault (insert what ever you want) happened because I have no control what so ever because the religion I believe in told me to do it.

  11. small ads

    The “free house” terminology is the 21st-century equivalent of the post-American-Civil-War trop “pampered negroes”.

    1. curmudgeon

      So you think its ok she went on the housing list at 17? And then went on to have 7 kids she had no intention of working to pay for???

      1. Daisy Chainsaw

        “In particular, the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved. The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.”

        1. rotide

          So what you’re saying is that a woman’s place is in the home.

          Always knew you were a good girl really Daisy

          1. Daisy Chainsaw

            Exercising her rights under the constitution to bear children. Excercising her choice to have them.

            Would you prefer if she’d had abortions after the second pregnancy?

  12. D

    I know how to spin this!
    The Government ARE doing something! They are paying for the Garda station! Let it not be said they are doing nothing!

    I think it’s time for a referendum to give everyone on social welfare the right to a roof over their head in the constitution.

    1. curmudgeon

      And us workers get what exactly -how can i afford a mortgage or plan to have any children when this woman at 28 has 7 children and is handed 980 euro permonth from taxes plus social welfare which at least is going to be HAP at approx 1650 per month also. And now you wqant her to have a free house too – which is what she wanted originally so she signed up for one at 17.

      1. cupofteaanyone

        What size of a house does she need. 7 Kids need at least 3 bedrooms and she needs one for herself.

        And that’s before the next child. The youngest baby is already 1 and she is probably still fertile at 28 so she must be due to get pregnant again soon. Are there any 5 bed social housing projects going on?

      2. D

        Yes, I don’t care about you. Or your hard work. I don’t care if you can afford a mortgage. I don’t care if you plan to have children responsibly.

        I value housing existing children over your prospects.

        1. Andrew

          You don’t care about those children. You talk like you care but you don’t really ‘care’ You pity, that’s different. Your pity isn’t much use to those kids. Your type of pity keeps kids in these situations.
          You don’t actually expect a better life for them at all. You condemn them to repeating the mistakes of their mother and father.

          1. D

            Oh no – you must be devastated, they will never learn the error of their ways now!

            https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2018/0816/985507-margaret-cash/

            Pity about you, Jesus wept, if only these children could show some of your pull-your-self-up-by-the-boot-straps ladder climbing. The world would be a better place!

            Would you consider going in there and passing on some go getter advice? Maybe a motivational speech?

            You total mong.

    1. b

      “…The pictures have shocked people that have seen them over the last couple of hours, particularly this morning. But this is the norm, Miriam. And people don’t realise that this is the norm.

      you’re getting awful confused

    2. curmudgeon

      And us workers get what exactly -how can i afford a mortgage or plan to have any children when this woman at 28 has 7 children and is handed 980 euro permonth from taxes plus social welfare which at least is going to be HAP at approx 1650 per month also. And now you wqant her to have a free house too – which is what she wanted originally so she signed up for one at 17.

  13. Friscondo

    When I heard about this earlier, I thought, “terrible.” But to actually see a child in a school uniform sleeping on metal seats in a Garda station shocked me to my core. This, in a wealthy western society is truly shameful. There are the resources to tackle this, but not the will. What have we become?

    1. curmudgeon

      You are a sucker if you take this as a failing of the state. This is an exploitation of the children and of the taxpayers generosity.

      1. dav

        but it’s ok to bail out the banks/ developers and let vulture funds claim tax free charity status..

        1. curmudgeon

          Could you point out where I advocated that? Or even better could you address the points I made – you know the stuff that’s relevent to this story?

  14. rotide

    So as far as I can tell from all the subsequent stuff published and broadcast in the media, this is NOT the norm and this is one particular family where the mother didn’t bother going to the actual homeless agency and sort of pulled a stunt?

    Even if what i wrote there is even half true, this is why i get so annoyed at people calling broadsheet a news source. The post started out as a single tweet which shocked everyone because there was precisely zero context around it. Subsequent reports which clarify everything are from actual news sources.

    1. curmudgeon

      BS have zero journalisitic integrity. There is no detail/fact checking in this story. They posted a tweet, got their clicks and won’t comment on it. All the goodwil they garnered from the Maurice McCabe coverage is being quickly wiped out. Deleting comments that they don’t agree with and posting fake stories from anonymous authors is not how you bolster credibility.

    2. Bertie Blenkinsop

      Rotide –
      regardless of who is at fault, young children sleeping in a Garda station is a shocking photo

      1. rotide

        Obviously it is, but generally news sources try to contextualise such things to prevent things such as this story getting twisted one way and another.

        It’s exactly this sort of thing that leads to Paediatrician offices getting firebombed.

  15. small ads

    Do the people complaining about the seven children think the unemployed should be sterilised after one child? Two? Three? Or not allowed to get pregnant? Forced abortions?

    1. Rob_G

      No, I don’t – but do you think we should continue offering continually increasing financial incentives to have more and more children to people that have shown themselves incapable and/or not bothered in looking after the children they already have? I personally think that this harmful in the long run.

      1. Steph Pinker

        Rob_G: how is having a child a financial incentive? How do you know whether a parent is incapable or not bothered regarding the children they already have? What makes you different or better to any other person who lives on this planet?

        Bear in mind Rob_G, none of us ever know how, when, or if we will ever need to rely on the state to keep us alive so we can survive another day and improve our lives for the betterment of ourselves, our families and society.

        Don’t be mean-spirited; life is a cruel master and it has a way of catching up with us all and teaching us lessons – just be glad you are not in a position whereby you need to avail of state services – yet.

        1. Rob_G

          “how is having a child a financial incentive?”

          Another poster guesstimated some figures above – 840 child benefit per month, add 800 per month jobseekers each for both her and her partner, and now angling for a free “forever home” (wouldn’t accept HAP, as another poster pointed out above).

          “How do you know whether a parent is incapable or not bothered regarding the children they already have”

          She already was on the housing list at 17 when she had her first child – so, already at this point, she was not able to provide for the one child that she had. So, what does she do then – she goes and has a further SIX kids(!)

          I believe in the social welfare state, but this is not the case of someone losing their job and falling on hard times – this is someone deciding that it would be handier to let everyone else provide for the child after child after child that they keep producing.

          Another poster on the other thread that he and his partner were in their 30s, trying to save for a mortgage and agonising over whether it would ever be the right time to have kids; when you consider that it is their tax money that is paying to bring up this woman’s kids, you can appreciate the unfairness of the situation.

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