Paddy Clancy column: Leaving coats for the homeless on the Ha'penny Bridge is wonderful, but it's not enough

"Every politician in Leinster House must accept some blame"

What a wonderful gesture by Dubliners and what a woeful message all politicians, not just the government, has been presented by pictures of coats for the homeless on the Ha’penny Bridge.

OK, Dublin city council moved them for health and safety reasons after a couple of days and housed them in a distribution centre for the needy.

But pictures had already zoomed around the world of Dubliners’ desperate bid to protect the homeless from the cold and the rain.

The bridge, used by thousands of pedestrians every day, often features on postcards sent around the world.

I suspect not many new cards will carry the shots of the bridge in winter with coats for the homeless. It’s not the kind of thing Ireland-loving holidaymakers are likely to send home.

So, thank heavens for the Internet. Social media users are able to view what in bygone days might never have been seen abroad.

Much as we like the image of Ireland that visitors love, a dose of reality could be beneficial.

No politician or serious business person fancies telling the world that in our small population we have more than 10,500 homeless people. Nobody wants to broadcast that the best we can do is to hang a few used overcoats on the busiest bridge in Ireland to attempt to protect them from the winter cold.

It’s just not good enough!

It’s easy to blame the government, and they deserve our anger.

But every politician in Leinster House must accept some blame as well.

When there was a vote of no confidence in Housing Minster Eoghan Murphy last week 35 politicians abstained.

For crying out loud, just a few weeks before Christmas, about a quarter of our national politicians couldn’t bother to vote on the most burning issue of our time!

The pretext those in Fianna Fail used was they didn’t want to bring the government down for now because of confusion with a looming Brexit.

Britain’s exit from the European Union with the inevitable damaging consequences for Ireland is a matter of major concern.

But just as worrying is the crisis of the homeless. What’s happening in Britain won’t alter that. The catastrophe is Ireland’s and only Ireland can find a solution.

Hanging old clothes out to prevent thousands of homeless freezing on the streets was well-intentioned even if officials moved them off the bridge. But it’s not going to solve the problem that Ireland has the highest number of homeless people ever recorded.

Maybe, however, the images that spread around the world on the Internet, will shame our politicians into making the right decision and finally put housing at the top of their list of priorities.

They know the problems, so I will give only a brief synopsis of the crisis.

The government is well behind schedule for social housing. Even struggling families who saved hard, find it impossible to raise mortgages for house prices continually spiralling upwards to a level only the very rich can afford.

An off-shoot of all that is demand for rented apartments has soared, and greedy landlords operate without sustainable control on prices, especially in the Dublin area.

In a nutshell, soaring prices in rent and for properties, in addition to an amazing absence of real consideration for the homeless in Leinster House, has put thousands on the streets or in unsuitable temporary accommodation.

Eoghan Murphy’s position survived by three votes! Questions could be asked of those who voted to keep him in; but whatever their reasons they at least cast a vote on a burning issued of the day.

What about the 35 who abstained? Have they no thoughts on the matter?

With ordinary people trying desperately to do what they can by leaving out old clothes to save someone from freezing to death, the least all politicians should do is get their priorities right and vote.

And, with Christmas only two weeks away, the number one priority is helping the homeless and remembering coats on the Ha’penny Bridge or in a council “safe” storage place are unlikely to add to the merriment of the season.

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