Homeless numbers in Meath doubled since 2017

DCU students’ union activist and inclusion journalist Christine O’Mahony told the gathering that she had studied in Italy and could compare rental prices in that country with those in Ireland. It was €330 a month for herself in Italy and if she shared a room the rent would be €270 a month. These were prices that one could never see in Dublin were prices were of the order of €800 a month.

When it came to student accommodation here, it was "atrocious". Rental accommodation could cost €8,500 a year, with a €1,000 deposit and this money was coming out of the pockets of students or their parents. Even the cheapest accommodation at UCD was €8,201 a month.

At DCU during 2021 there were 500 students on a waiting list for accommodation. Even those who had the money and came from a privileged background could not find a place. The pandemic added to the problems because families who would normally offer accommodation no longer wanted to because they did not want to share. Many students had to defer university and instead went to work. Indeed, some of them could not even work because of the lockdowns, she said.

"Accommodation is a huge barrier to education". In many places there were problems with plumbing and dampness and landlords refused to fix them.

John Regan said there was a rising trend in homelessness in Meath over the last five years. Since 2017, homeless numbers had more than doubled. In the last year it had risen by almost 20 per cent. There were 186 people in State-funded emergency accommodation in Meath in March this year. There were many more sleeping rough or staying with friends or relatives due to the lack of a home, he said.

Anton McCabe said that the housing crisis was not only measured in terms of the human misery it was inflicting on communities but also had major economic costs. Not least of these was the €52 million which had been spent on housing assistance payments in Meath in the last three years.

These payments were essentially a subsidy to private landlords to provide accommodation for those on the housing waiting list and did nothing to solve the crisis.