‘I’m Assuming They’re One Of The Families That Didn’t Seek Further Assistance From Us’

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Eileen Gleeson, head of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive; and (top) children sleeping in Tallaght Garda station last night

Further to this morning’s story concerning a young family sleeping in Tallaght Garda station…

Eileen Gleeson, head of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, told Claire Byrne, on RTÉ’s News at One, that no homeless person needs to sleep in a Garda station.

Ms Gleeson’s comment follows the circulation of a photograph (above) last night and this morning of children sleeping in Tallaght Garda station (a mother and her six children, aged from one to 11, slept in the station last night).

Dublin City Council confirmed earlier this morning that 10 homeless families were unable to source accommodation in Dublin last night.

Of these, the council was able to source accommodation for five of the 10 families, while one family “refused the offer of accommodation, two of the families were linked back into their region and two did not seek further assistance”.

Ms Gleeson said homeless families sleeping in Garda stations is not the norm, and that she could not verify how many families presented to Garda stations as she said it’s not the policy of the DRHE to refer homeless people to Garda stations.

She also said it would be “much better” if homeless families in need of help came forward earlier in the day as opposed to late in the evening.

Anthony Flynn, of Inner City Helping Homeless, told RTÉ’s Miriam O’Callaghan this morning that 48 families were referred to Garda stations through statutory bodies last month, and that 47 families were referred in June.

He said homeless families sleeping Garda stations is the norm.

Ms Gleeson also said that the DRHE has a “contingency plan” in place for the forthcoming visit of Pope Francis and that may include moving homeless people to accommodation outside of Dublin for one night.

From Ms Gleeson’s interview with Ms Byrne:

Eileen Gleeson: “We’re challenged on a nightly basis and on a daily basis to ensure we provide emergency accommodation for people who are in crisis situations.”

Claire Byrne: “So did you, at the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, know that this family  was going to sleep in Tallaght Garda station last night?”

Gleeson: “No, we didn’t. And we wouldn’t, it isn’t our policy to refer families to Garda stations. However the reasons for why they might end up in a Garda station or why we might ask them to verify their identity in relation, and we might send them to a Garda station, for that purpose. But we didn’t know that this particular family were going to end up in a Garda station, no.

Byrne: “So how did it happen then?”

Gleeson: “Well, I’m assuming today that they’re one of the families that didn’t seek further assistance from us late last night.”

Byrne: “Are you saying that this family  couldn’t have been accommodated if they had stayed in touch with you?”

Gleeson: “We’re always challenged in relation to finding appropriate accommodation for people and in relation to this particular family, there are large families, so there’s a challenge there as well. But if they had been, kept in touch with us, we would have continued to work with them to find appropriate accommodation for them. We did it for five of the 10 that were in trouble, late in the evening. And the others sorted themselves, one of them actually refused accommodation. So…”

Byrne: “Where did the five go that were stuck late on?”

Gleeson: “We have contingency beds and we have a large number of contingency beds in place, that we fill when families present in situations like this in crisis situations. And that’s where those five families would have gone, into those contingency beds.”

Byrne: “Can we glean from what you’re saying, that there’s no need for any family to spend a night in a Garda station?”

Gleeson: “Yes. There’s no need. We would work with them, continue to work with them, as long as it takes, to find appropriate accommodation for them. Or to link them back with the area in which they’ve come from.”

Byrne: “Sinn Féin has issued a statement today saying that 7 homeless families were referred to Garda stations last night.”

Gleeson: “We can’t verify that. We can’t verify that. We’ve heard that number…”

Byrne: “But surely you should know?”

Gleeson: “We don’t. It’s not our policy to refer families to Garda stations. What happens is the family turns up at a Garda station, the gardai will come the other way and we would know that a family is in a Garda station. But we haven’t verification that 7 families were in Garda stations last night. We have verification in relation to one.”

Byrne: “Given that you said that one family, I think you said, was it one family or two families refused the accommodation, I assume they’re the contingency beds…”

Gleeson: “One…”

Byrne: “One family. Why is that? I mean what are those contingency beds like? What sort of places are they, where families would be expected to go?”

Gleeson: “They’re either B&B type of accommodation or they’re buildings where we have beds in them. Sometimes they are communal facilities with showers adjacent to them, where we will put up emergency beds for them, temporary beds. So that we can deal with them, accommodate them over night and process them, assess them the following day.”

Byrne: “So why do you think a family would refuse to go to a contingency bed or sleeping area?”

Gleeson: “There’s no good reason why they would refuse it.”

Byrne: “But there has to be if they’re saying ‘I’m not sleeping there’. I mean what reasons are they giving you?”

Gleeson: “They didn’t feel they would go to the accommodation that was offered. That’s their choice. But they were seeking accommodation, we offered them accommodation and they refused it.”

Byrne: “Are they telling you that it’s not safe?”

Gleeson: “What’s not safe about offering somebody accommodation if the alternative is they sleep on the street?”

Byrne: “I suppose what I’m just trying to figure out is why somebody would say to you: I’ve got no bed, I’ve got nowhere to sleep tonight but I’m not going into that contingency bed that you’re offering me. I’m just wondering what it is that they perceive about that contingency space that’s not for them?”

Gleeson: “Well, maybe you should be asking that of the people who refused it because we would be of the view that any of the contingency accommodation we have meets a standard. It’s perfectly adequate and is adequate to meet the accommodation needs of somebody in an emergency situation.”

Later

Byrne: “What do you say to people who saw that picture today and felt morally outraged by it?”

Gleeson: “Well, we saw the picture ourselves. We’re all morally outraged by it. But it’s not, it’s not the norm, it shouldn’t be the norm, we should never accept it as the norm. But the Dublin Region Homeless Executive is working all of the time to ensure that people are adequately accommodated in emergency situations.

“When they arrive late in the evening, in situations like this, where there’s big families, of course we’re challenged to find accommodation that’s big enough to accommodate them. But we work and will continue to work to do that.”

Byrne: “So it would be helpful if they didn’t arrive late in the evening?”

Gleeson: “Well of course it would be. I mean it would be much better if people came earlier in the evening to us – that we could deal with it in that – but we don’t know what’s happening in people’s lives, we don’t know why they’re in a crisis situation late in the evening. But what we do know is that we have a system in place to deal with them, to flag it and to try and find appropriate accommodation for them….”

Listen back in full here

Earlier: Gut Punch

Previously: ‘Years Of Bad Behaviour’

Update:

Update:

From top: Margaret Cash and her partner John McCarthy and their children in 2015 [pic via Tallaght Echo]; Margaret, who slept in Tallaght Garda station with six of her children, last night.

Thanks Maurice at the Tallaght Echo

Sponsored Link

117 thoughts on “‘I’m Assuming They’re One Of The Families That Didn’t Seek Further Assistance From Us’

  1. Ollie Cromwell

    I know it has been mentioned before but why are the kids sleeping in full school uniform on August 9th ?
    Something fishy …

    1. Birdie

      I don’t see them all in school uniforms and maybe that was the only clean clothes they had to dress them in.

      Let’s focus on the bigger picture – homelessness when apparently our economy is booming.

      1. Spud

        The irony being that homelessness wasn’t much of an issue when the economy was in the poo poo.
        Plenty of available cheap emergency accommodation available – so many hotels survived because of it.
        The Regency in Drumcondra being one – I see recent rates are around €200 per night!!

        But that emergency strategy couldn’t be relied on, especially when things picked up.
        Landlords also ‘to blame’, but they’re just part of the same market.

    2. Jimbob

      I thought the same but I think they are just matching clothes. One of them seems to have something printed on the front

      However, if they are school uniforms, I would think its an even more troubling situation that these children dont have access to appropriate clothing.

    3. Dr.Fart MD

      look closer. they aren’t in uniform .. you’re unreal. That’s what you take from all this. Turn the spotlight back on the kids “now hold on a second, are these to be trusted?’ .. sack

    4. Barry the Hatchet

      Take the time to look at the photo properly, you melon. They’re not wearing school uniforms.

    5. george

      There is something seriously wrong with you. They aren’t wearing school uniforms. You can see one of the kids in blue is wearing a printed t-shirt. If they were wearing uniforms maybe there would be a better explanation like they don’t have access to a washing machine. Why would you assume this is a scam?!

      If I were a moderator I would ban every IP address you’ve ever posted from. Salt the earth.

      1. Ollie Cromwell

        Well with grey school trousers and polished black shoes they’re certainly well-dressed homeless children.
        Top marks to them for maintaining high standards in a difficult situation.

        1. BoJo The Clown

          @Ollie Cromwell You’re a troll. And using kids as a vehicle for your contrived Myers-style narrative about Brit conservatism is just sick.

          Ironically, they’re wearing Tory blue.

          Regardless, take your toxic trolling and shove it up your letter box until Fresher’s Week comes along and you can faff away at a maiden speakers debate in some university or other.

          1. Ollie Cromwell

            I’m not quite sure about an observation about what the children are wearing is a ” vehicle for your contrived Myers-style narrative about Brit conservatism ”
            It’s just an observation which others have also made that this thing has a bit of a stunt about it.
            But as a metaphor for increased pressure on an already bursting low cost accomodation infrastructure made worse by 20,000+ immigrants a year it couldn’t be better.

          2. ReproButina

            “The immigrants are coming! The immigrants are coming!” screams the racist fear-mongering son of an immigrant.

          3. Ollie Cromwell

            You’re making the same mistake the British Establishment made about Brexit and Clinton made about the American electorate by calling them a basket of deplorables.
            Having strict quotas on allowing in migrants to work is not racist – it’s the long-established border policy of many democracies around the world including Australia,Canada and the USA.
            It’s also the views of the majority of people who voted in the Brexit referendum including,I’ll vouchsafe,a fair number of Irish people.
            As usual liberals who shout racist the quickest are the most intolerant of other people’s views.It is also entirely predictable.

          4. ReproButina

            It’s very obvious that, as the UK government stockpiles food and medicines and refuses to issue reports on how bad Sasamach is going to get, you’re moving away from the “benefits” and resorting to racist dog whistling about immigrants.

            Oh it’s all very reasonable of course. You just want to highlight the risks and have no ulterior motive and it’s important to sound out the community to see what the support for Irexit, I mean border controls, is like.

            You’re fooling nobody.

          5. Ollie Cromwell

            What is racist about saying if you bring in 20,000 people to a country every year and don’t provide the housing,hospital beds and school places for them there are going to be even more pressures on infrastructure ?
            500 people were on hospital trolleys in corridors instead of a bed on Tuesday – that’s worse than the worst day of the entire NHS winter bed crisis.
            As the blessed Margaret Thatcher once said – socialism is great until you run out of other people’s money to spend.

          6. ReproButina

            You see how you try to present your fear mongering about immigrants as reasonable?

            “The immigrants are coming! The immigrants are coming!” screams the racist fear-mongering son of an immigrant.

          7. ReproButina

            No, no. You’re a racist because you spread hate and fear about immigrants flooding Ireland, overwhelming our public services and changing Irish culture.

          1. BoJo The Clown

            Ah, the classic… “So, if (doing/saying X) makes me a ….. / is …” line.”

            Give yourself enough rope, mate.

            And, since you’re in the regurgitation game, here you go, just in case you didn’t get it:

            “@Ollie Cromwell You’re a troll. And using kids as a vehicle for your contrived Myers-style narrative about Brit conservatism is just sick.”

            Regardless, take your Torygraph toxicity and shove it as far into your BoJo Major Bufton Tufton letter box as you can …

    6. JLK

      They’re not uniforms, zoom in. Long sleeve t shirts look like blue Minecraft ones I’ve seen on other kids. They have trousers and shoes on which are not maybe typical but likely all they had to wear.

  2. Birdie

    The Pope is coming so let’s clear out all the unsightly homeless folks. Quick haste, hide that homeless baba as we have a visitor in the good room.

    Facebook, Google, LinkedIn (so amazing we named a street after you)… just carry on with your disregard for tax as we really don’t care, we’re just happy you took pity on us and hired so many of our people in low skilled jobs – you’re the best!

    WTF lads. This is so messed up.

    1. Donal

      I assume the issue is that as there will be a large number of visitors in the city, the usual number of hotel and B&B rooms won’t be available for DHRE to put people in for a night or two, and thus they will have to put them in similar accommodation further away for that night or two.
      This should not be confused with rounding up rough sleepers and shipping them elsewhere out of sight

      1. b

        it’s a family with seven children – far from hiding them from the Pope they are a testament to Catholic teaching

  3. Elron

    After 104 comments of outrage in the earlier thread, I can hear the groan of disappointment at how reasonable Ms Gleeson is. Youre such a fickle bunch of caring compassionates people BS!

  4. Elron

    After 104 comments of outrage on the previous thread, I can hear the groans of disappointment from the BS massive that Ms Gleeson was so reasonable. Who will you focus the hate of your compassion on now?

      1. George

        “They are b&b style accommodation or BUILDINGS WE HAVE BEDS IN”

        What does this mean? We know there were beds in a building. That is a given.

        We need to see this accommodation that was refused. If it is of such a high standard they should be proud to show us

        1. rotide

          It’s emergency accommodation. It’s not buckingham palace. However, it seems to be suitable for the many other families that did avail of the services , we’re talking about one family here.

          1. george

            Big assumption. There are people living in tents in alleyways. Just because someone is desperate enough to stay there doesn’t make it suitable.

          2. rotide

            Well I had assumed that most people would understand that living in a tent in an alley qualified as ‘on the streets’ but I guess i was wrong on that

          3. dylad

            So suck it up, you’re to blame for your own mess? Is that what I’m hearing from you. Seems to only apply to some people though.

        2. Rob_G

          I don’t know what it was like, but I will wager dollars to doughnuts that it was probably nicer than some hard plastic stacking chairs in a Garda station.

      1. Elron

        I know. So bloody reasonable! Hopefully you’ll find someone better to blame for everything today.

  5. Christopher

    I see the mother has already started her parade of 6 of her kids for the cameras (where the other one is I dont know) as she demands her free house. Her stunt looks like it will do the trick- the comments on twitter are almost all fauning over the terrible situation and blaming Leo Varadakar- as a leftie myself who detests FG, even I can see through this stunt for what it is.

      1. Rob_G

        When did left-wing thought begin to focus less on things like fair pay and fair welfare benefits for actual workers, and begin to focus more on unlimited resources for people who have never worked and have no intention of ever contributing anything?

        (I am not a lefty, but have a great deal of sympathy with the former, but cannot fathom unswerving left-wing/progressive support for the latter).

        1. George

          When did we find out this woman doesn’t or didn’t work? Maybe her partner died or was abusive and was the main earner. Why are so many people so quick to blame the homeless? I could not afford to house and feed 6 kids and I work. Don’t say “don’t have them then” because the cost of housing keeps going up continually.

          Have you not seen the crying chair posts?
          There is a serious empathy problem in the world today. Either the internet has made it a lot worse or it just exposes me to the views of horrible people who I keep clear of in real life.

          1. cupofteaanyone

            She has been on the housing list for 11 years so since she was 17. her eldest is 11 years old and the youngest is 1. She has 7 kids so spent over 5 years pregnant since she was 17 and 3.5 years on Maternity leave.

            So at 17 she was on the housing list because she had a child and she couldn’t afford a place to live. Then she decided to have 6 more kids that she still cant afford.

          2. Rob_G

            “Have you not seen the crying chair posts?

            I have all the sympathy in the world for ordinary working people who end up paying through the nose for substandard accomodation due to the current housing crisis.

            I have less sympathy for people who don’t work, and who that have child after child in order to get a free house (paid for, incidentally, from the taxes of the person who paying €950 for a crying chair hovel).

          3. george

            If she’s on the housing list 11 years there is something very wrong with the housing list.

          4. cupofteaanyone

            Maybe the problem is that we have too many people who feel they are entitled to a free house without ever worrying about paying for it.

          5. curmudgeon

            “If she’s on the housing list 11 years there is something very wrong with the housing list.” Yeah nah actually signing on the housing list at 17 is wrong. Entitlement in the extreme.

          6. Daisy Chainsaw

            It’s not a free house. It was never a free house and I say that as one who grew up in a free house estate surrounded by many other free house estates (aka social housing where people were means assessed and placed in a house where they paid weekly rent.). My dad worked between short periods of unemployment when he signed on, all my neighbours had at least one working parent and I suspect an awful lot of the “free house” complainers grew up in one too.

  6. Teamocil

    Not going to be a popular opinion on here – I agree that it’s awful that these kids are suffering & having to sleep in a Garda station/strange places overnight – but it begs the question – why is their mother still having children when she’s been on the housing list for 11 years (the age of her first child). Contraception is freely available. Sympathy for the kids, not for their irresponsible mother

    1. cupofteaanyone

      Well as someone pointed out she gets nearly a grand in childrens allowance. Then the dole on top of that. Once she gets her free house she will be sorted for life. The eldest is almost old enough to take out of school to mind the youngest.

      1. George

        Are you insane. “Take out of school”?!! Firstly how do you know how old they are. I doubt that child is 16 and even if they are they are a child. Secondly what kind of a life is that child going to have with only a junior cert? They’ll be trapped in a poverty cycle and virtually unemployable.

        Evil is the absence of empathy.

        1. cupofteaanyone

          Sorry. My friend is a teacher in a disadvantaged area. They have problems getting travellers even to the Junior Cert. Every year she has to fight with the parents to let the kids get an education but every year many drop out to help take care of the younger kids.

          The eldest is only 11. My comment was in jest but was ment to outline how a number of these families do end up.

          There are some travellers who do get the leaving cert in that school but not many.

      2. Otis Blue

        No need for that, shur won’t Lord Ross be paying the grandparents for the child minding shift.

  7. Ian-O

    Gleeson: “What’s not safe about offering somebody accommodation if the alternative is they sleep on the street?”

    Em…..I think this says it all really.

    Sometimes, the streets are a better option.

    1. Donal

      Unless you think that a family with 7 kids were being offered accommodation in a hostel full of alcoholics and drug users (which I think you can be pretty sure wasn’t the case) then how on earth can you think that the streets is a better option than a load of beds in a dry warm secure location (perhaps a room within a DCC sports centre or similar)?

      1. Ian-O

        Well I don’t know what the case is, but I was thinking along those lines and why would I be pretty sure that wasn’t the case?

        Nothing surprises me with this country anymore.

        1. curmudgeon

          You’re just another clueless idiot that should learn not to post if you don’t kniow what you’re talking about. Family offered HAP in 2015 but refuesed it because then they wouldnt get a free house. Offered accomodation last night but turned it down in favour of this photo op in garda station.

          1. Ian-O

            I see.

            So your line is: accept the states version at all times because they are always right, insult anyone who makes a suggestion that perhaps the accommodation is not up standard, bring in an offer from 2015 and then portray them as being attention seekers? Yeah?

            Good lad. Your opinion has been noted and subsequently discarded.

          2. Rob_G

            @ Ian-O

            Yourself and george are exactly the ‘useful idiots’ that this cynical stunt was aimed at: kindhearted, and sympathetic, but completely gullible. You are really bending over backwards to offer every excuse under the sun for this lady’s use of her kids as pawns in her quest for a free house.

          1. rotide

            Actually she didn’t. It was the other subject of that interview that declined HAP.

            You might want to stop shouting that from the rooftops.

          2. cupofteaanyone

            In the interview she says “Where will we go with 6 children”
            Well if 6 wont get her a house surely 7 will.

            rent allowance is capped at a €1000. Children’s allowance obviously isn’t capped.

        2. Donal

          I don’t know exactly what the case is either, but your assumption of the worst case (hostel full of adult drug users) made it easy for you to make a negative comment about the overall situation. If my assumption is correct (room in a sports hall or similar), then the responsibility falls back on the responsible adult who made the decision to turn it down.

          I’m simply arguing that it’s unfair to blame a crisis management body (DHRE) for the failures of government policy. It is government where anger and blame should be directed

      2. George

        Presumably they’ll show us the accommodation since it is suitable and we will be reassured

          1. Ian-O

            Oh I’m sorry, I’m too much of a clueless idiot to use the internet to search for stuff.

            (If you want to get into a debate with someone, try not start it by insulting them, not interested in any further discussions with you. Have a lovely day.)

        1. Ian-O

          Hey, the state would NEVER put children into unsuitable situations and certainly never, especially on the intervention of a senior politician, leave them in a dangerous situation?

          Nothing to see here folks but attention seeking poor people.

  8. Ian-O

    @Rob_G – can you point out exactly where I am doing the following:

    ”You are really bending over backwards to offer every excuse under the sun for this lady’s use of her kids as pawns in her quest for a free house.”

    I look forward to you quoting where I was ”bending over backwards to offer every excuse under the sun” (rather than expressing some skepticism as to the quality of the accommodation they were offered which is what I really said but hey, that doesn’t fit with your desire to have a pop off someone, so yeah, sure we can stick to your ‘every excuse under the sun’ line.)

    :)

    1. Rob_G

      You had an excuse for their not accepting emergency accomodation last night, you brushed aside their offer of accomodatoin of 3 years’ ago, and then it was something about only accepting the state’s version of events at all times, when it seems that the lady herself stated that she turned it down in an interview.

      I will say it again – this lady is preying upon the goodwill of decent people, people such as yourself, in this cynical stunt to get a free house.

      1. Ian-O

        So not the below Rob_G?

        ”You are really bending over backwards to offer every excuse under the sun for this lady’s use of her kids as pawns in her quest for a free house.”

        You are right though Rob_G, I am a decent person. Are you?

        1. Rob_G

          Yes, the below (well, the above, now).

          I am a decent person, but I know when I am being taken for a ride. And this lady is taking you and I, and every working person for a ride, but I am not sure that you realise that.

    2. Airey Naïve

      RE: “use of her kids as pawns in her quest for a free house.” – just like Rob_Googler uses someone else’s kids as pawn in his/her quest for a smart alec comment that resonates with the prejudiced and privileged commentators on here who’ve had every opportunity that woman and her kids have not – and won’t..

  9. george

    Just realized she is a traveler. Now the exceptional vileness of the comments makes sense.

    1. Ian-O

      Apparently me and you are kind hearted, sympathetic and most importantly ‘useful’ idiots (also great to see someone use that expression with no real understanding of what it actually means, but hey, it’s nice to be considered useful, the wife is always calling me useless so I’m already ahead today!)

    2. curmudgeon

      Is being a traveller and having 7 children you cannot afford ok or what? Would commenters feel differently if they werent travellers? Is signing on the social housing list at 17 ok if you are a traveller or not? The anger I feel when I see parents in receipt of an extreme amount of social welfare force their children to sleep in a garda station must purely because I hate them cos they’re travellers is it?

      1. Ian-O

        The rest of us decent people feel anger towards a country that cannot even control rents to the point they cannot even be afforded by WORKING people, let alone those on social welfare.

        But carry on curmudgeon, you need to focus all that righteous anger somewhere, doncha?

        1. Andrew

          George/Ian at least you can take comfort from the fact that after a hard day down the internet mineshaft, you can go home and feel all better about yourselves
          Well done you are truly courageous heroes of the internet.
          Give yourself a pat on the back.
          As long as guys like you are around people can expect to stay on welfare for as long as they want and their children will aspire to the same. That’s the life you expect for them
          Well done boys.

          1. Ian-O

            All I want is for, at the very least, working people to able to afford to have secure housing. But sher whatever yer havin there with your fabulous analogies about mines n stuff….

          2. Nigel

            Andrew it’s guys like you who stand up to the real villains – large poor families – that are the true heroes.

        2. Rob_G

          @ Ian-O

          Think how much money there would be for things like affordable housing for people on low-incomes if there weren’t other people having child after child and expecting the state to provide for them.

          1. Ollie Cromwell

            Nigel doesn’t do soul searching.
            In the brave,tinfoil hat world of internet Nigel there is no room for the slightest doubt.
            Just the puffed-up indignation and self-righteous verbal preen.

          2. Nigel

            Yeah Andrew oh for those heady days before the social safety net when there were no poor people.

            Ollie, you unapologetically look forward to a resurgent hard right driven by anti-immigration hysteria driving this country onto the same rocks Brexit has the UK. There are drug addicts getting ready to mug grandmothers for their pension books that look self-righteous next to you.

          3. Andrew

            Nigel and all the rest of you. Have a look at this woman’s Facebook page.
            No surprise to me, she’s an utter chancer using her kids.
            I care more about the children of people like her than you do.
            What ‘decent’ people you are.

          4. Nigel

            Yes, Andrew, your caring comes through in waves of care. The woman was practically a child herself when she had her first baby. You know what’s not going to get anyone out of that kind of poverty trap? Throwing them out on the streets. You know what might work? A stable home, access to education and employment opportunities, and chances of social mobility.

            Ollie – that’s not going to get you your pack of baying hard right xenopphobic populist Irexiteers, though, is it?

          5. Andrew

            Nigel, this woman has been offered housing.She has access to free medical care and education for her children. What she is putting them through should result in those kids removed from her ‘care’.

    3. rotide

      In this case, her being a traveller actually makes no difference to anything. The problem people have is continuing to have 6 more kids after you sign up for social housing on your first

  10. Bort

    I am 36, as is my wife. We both work full time, a combined pre tax total of 80k per year. We’ve been renting privately in Dublin for over ten years, share an old car. I figure we’ll need to save for another 2 years until we get a deposit for a house together, as we watch the cost of houses rise. I genuinely fear that we will miss the boat on having children because we can’t afford it. The cost of child care would cripple any hope we have to save up for a deposit. A huge amount of my friends are in the same boat. One child seems achievable, 2 maybe 3+ = madness!

    If hard workers can’t afford to have hard working children, who is going to pay tax in the future?

    1. Andrew

      Bort ,ask ‘decent’ Ian and George who is going to pay.
      First though, shut up and pay your taxes to fund people who use their kids as a meal ticket and chastise yourself for being ‘heartless’

    2. anne

      3 kids = madness is not the fault of these people. We’d all die out if it were left to FG and their policies..scrimping by to pay rent.

    3. diddy

      Exactly. Start with those who are paying their way by rewarding them with qualified affordable housing. The helpless and hopeless can wait for the trickle down.. Taxpayers first

  11. ollie

    I’m curious, where did this family spend the previous night? What changed in their circumstances so suddenly that they had to sleep in a Garda Station?

  12. Dr.Fart MD

    she couldn’t be a worse fit for that job. SHe’s been in the news before showing disdain for the homeless. remember her last instance? where she said homeless people are people who made bad decisions in life. What a weapon.

    1. Ian-O

      Stop now Doc, or like me you will be accused of all sorts. Because expecting to have a home is so much lefty clap trap.

      While I’m at it, I’d like to apologise for ebola and Trump, cos, ye know, travellers n all.

      1. Andrew

        You should apologise for defending scammers who put their children through this kind of shyte. Her children should be in care after this.

        1. Dr.Fart MD

          Andrew, if you read the article it said “48 families were referred to Garda stations through statutory bodies last month, and that 47 families were referred in June.” so this is something that happens. So no need for your Trumpian ‘fake news’ attitude to seeing this.

          1. Andrew

            From the transcript:
            “Eileen Gleeson, head of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, told Claire Byrne, on RTÉ’s News at One, that no homeless person needs to sleep in a Garda station”

            So give over with the tired Trump fake news trope. It’s lazy and inaccurate.
            I’ll take anything Anthony Flynn says with a pinch of salt.

          2. Rob_G

            It doesn’t mention anything about any of the 47 or 48 families actually spending the entire night in the Garda station (and I am sure that Flynn would have mentioned it if it were the case).

          3. Dr.Fart MD

            Trump is the king of whataboutery, and you just responded with whataboutery. You’re just choosing to believe her over the actual facts. Of course she’s not going to let on she knows about it, she’s not going to say in an interview “yea, it happens quite a lot actually. We really are failing here. so next question?” .. but the fact is 48 families were referred to Garda stations, but for some reason you don’t want to believe that, so you just believe the woman who’s lying to save face. You’re a rotten f****r of a human being, to look at this and somehow think it’s people scamming. Based on NO proof whatsoever.

          4. Andrew

            DR. Fart M.D. I must say, you disappoint me.
            I responded with a direct quote. That is not whataboutery Dr. Fart that is just a statement of fact.
            Your reposne is to say Ms.Gleeson is lying. You don’t have any evidence for that.
            You have insulted me and accused Eileen Gleeson of lying.
            Yes, I’ll take the word of Eileen Gleeson over Anthony Flynn every day of the week.

  13. Lilly

    Travellers tend to be religious so my guess is brainwashing about the evils of contraception could account for the six children. Those poor kids.

      1. Rob_G

        I don’t know if ‘castigated’ is the right word; more ‘dispensed with as being overly simplistic’.

  14. issiev

    As Peter McVerry has said, there is no precedent for the levels of homelessness. 1300 families, 10,000 people is beyond crisis.

    In this case, leaving it so late is presumably because the usual phone calls to tell people where they can stay don’t come until c.9- 9:30 pm. Asking families to find somewhere to stay on a nightly basis is a pretty messy system anyway – it must be hard enough to even have a shower/do a shop with 6 kids let alone ring around hotels etc. In all this…where the hell is Eoghan Murphy? He hasn’t appeared on TV/radio, made a statement etc…

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