A major conference on homelessness is to take place in Letterkenny next week.
The event will be co-chaired by Deputy Thomas Pringle and includes speakers Peter McVerry of McVerry Trust, David Hall CEO of Irish Mortgage Holders Association and Declan Dunne CEO of Respond Housing.
The event takes place in the Radisson Blu, Letterkenny next Thursday 26th October at 7:30pm.
Speaking ahead of the conference Deputy Pringle said “homelessness has now reached every part of Ireland and is on the rise in Donegal as rents and house prices continue to increase alongside the rate of distressed mortgages.
“We can no longer ignore it and must hold the government to account for their wholly inadequate response to the crisis and their wholly inadequate policies which have caused homelessness in the first place.”
Pringle continues, “homelessness is a direct result of the accumulative effects of Fine Gael’s love story with the private sector. Their policies to date have failed to provide for the basic need of people in Ireland to be housed in safe and affordable accommodation. Still, there is no sign of any substantial social housing programme to help address this ongoing crisis.”
“It’s time to have a conversation on the need for a social housing programme alongside the right to housing as a means to prevent such a crisis from developing again. However, Fine Gael are slow to move on this as they perceive fundamental human rights to be in direct conflict with private sector interests”.
“Due to the frustrating lack of urgency by Fine Gael to act on this issue, myself and the other speakers felt compelled to respond in part by facilitating a conversation in Donegal where so many people have expressed anger at the Government’s failure. “
“The conference is open to all who can attend. I look forward to their contributions as well as those of our excellent speakers about what can be done to address the homelessness crisis and to prevent something like this from happening again” concludes Pringle.