Senator Aubrey McCarthy

There were 6,000 people on the homeless emergency accommodation.

I brought in a chap that I knew from the streets.

He'd been given three houses from the state but no support.

So he kept losing them.

you know, they turn into whatever, he lost the keys, it got boarded up, one turned into a crack, whatever happened.

So anyway, I said to the minister, with the proper supports, we can solve this.

The minister said, on record, that homelessness would be eradicated by 2020.

Since that, homelessness has trebled.

The guy I brought in is now a productive member of society, he has his own mortgage, he's married,

So I'm thinking if the government don't join up with joint up thinking like we did with COVID, like we did when the Ukrainian war broke out, we got 120,000 people housed in Ireland during the Ukraine when that started.

We can do this.

The numbers are high, but they're not insurmountable.

And unfortunately, that's why the homeless numbers have trebled.

Come down any evening, Pat, to our Lighthouse Cafe, and even the view of a person being homeless, and you have a particular picture in your mind, I'm telling you, your mind would be blown if you come down to our cafe.

Now, at the Lighthouse, there's a chap that manages for me.

He was a homeless guy himself.

I met him on the streets.

Then we got him into college.

He did a degree, did a master's, did a second master's.

He won the Person of the Year with the Lord Mayor.