19 hours ago
Labour TD calls housing crisis 'a national scandal' as protest takes place in Cork today
A TD SAYS the housing crisis is a 'national scandal' affecting young and old ahead of a housing rally taking place in Cork city later this afternoon.
An 'All Out for Housing' rally is taking place at the National Monument on Grand Parade at 2pm, as political parties try to mount a public campaign on the issue.
Labour TD Eoghan Kenny noted that the average rent in Cork city is now over €2,200 per month, adding that people are at risk of being 'squeezed out' of the private rental sector into homelessness.
The 25-year-old Kenny, who was elected to the Dáil for the first time last year at the general election, said the issue affects various groups in different ways.
Earlier this week
, hundreds of people gathered for a rally outside Leinster House calling for urgent government action on the housing crisis.
A
challenge facing campaigners
is how to capture the public mood in a way that could mobilise similar numbers to the water charges protests or the 'Repeal the 8th' movements of the past decade.
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'It's difficult to capture every single group and personal story that you have come across, because there's so many different ones,' Kenny told
The Journal
.
'I suppose the main focus is on the issue of policy – ultimately, the policies of the two main government parties that have been in power for the best part of ten years and the fact that homelessness figures are only increasing, house prices are only increasing,' Kenny said.
'From a very personal point of view on, I'm 25 living at home with my grandmother. Albeit the fact that I'm on a good wage now, the reality for me is over the next five years or so, until I'm at least 30, I probably won't be able to move out home, and that's a difficult position for me to be in.'
The 'Raise the Roof' protest in Dublin this week was coordinated by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Today's rally is also organised by the Raise the Roof coalition and Kenny hopes that it will help get people out on the streets.
'During the week of 21-27 April of this year, 888 men, women and children were depending on emergency accommodation in Cork and Kerry, 193 of whom were children,' he said.
'We know that it is people squeezed out of the private rental sector who are most vulnerable to entering homelessness. It's a national scandal.'
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