Clare’s Fianna Fáil TD is expressing concern that no indent has been made in eliminating what he’s describing as the ‘scourge of homelessness’.
Timmy Dooley is hitting out at the government’s handling of the current crisis but Clare’s Senator Martin Conway insists progress is being made – albeit slowly.
Latest figures from the Department of Housing show that the number of homeless adults and children across Clare and Limerick now stands at 538.
That’s a slight reduction on the previous month but questions have also been asked about the figures themselves, with the Department re-classifying over 1,600 people who they claim were wrongly counted as being in emergency accommodation.
Nevertheless, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley says measures to address the problem are making little difference.
Clare Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway is, however, defending his party colleagues’ work on the issue.
Senator Conway is pointing to a number of social housing developments here in the coming months, in areas including Feakle, Quilty and Clonlara, as evidence of improvement.
But he also acknowledges that the pace of action needs to be upped.
