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Updated at 8.15pm
THERE WERE over 2,500 homeless children living in emergency accommodation last month.
Latest figures from the Housing Department show that there were 1,256 families homeless in Ireland in March, a rise of 32% since last year, and up 17 families on the previous month.
The number of single homeless adults also rose from 4,875 in February to 4,909 last month.
Commenting on the figures, Housing Minister Simon Coveney said they were a “stark indicator of the challenges we face as we remain focussed and determined to address this problem”.
He pointed to measures being taken to reduce the number of homeless people.
Homelessness charity Focus Ireland called for the Government to publish a strategy to deal with the issue of family homelessness specifically.
Rough sleepers
Rough sleeper figures for Dublin were also released today. They showed 138 homeless people sleeping rough in Dublin on a single night this month, an increase in over 30% since last year.
The spring rough sleeper count for the Dublin region was carried out on the night of 4 April and the morning of 5 April.
The count found a total of 138 people sleeping rough in this period. Of these, the majority (72%) were discovered within the Dublin City area (north and south).
The remaining 28% were found in Dublin’s other local areas: Fingal, South Dublin and Dún Laoghaire.
Rough sleeper counts are carried out by officials working on behalf of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DRHE) twice a year. One count is carried out in spring and the other in winter.
The DRHE manages homeless services for the entirety of Dublin.
The latest count shows a drop of four people since the winter count, which took place in November.
It is up by 30% on last year’s spring count, during which 102 people were found to be sleeping rough.
The highest single count of rough sleepers in recent times occurred in winter 2014, when 168 people were found to be sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin.
The DRHE said it was working with Dublin City Council to bring another 150 emergency hostel beds on stream in the city for homeless people.
The council said it had housed 150 single persons in DCC rented accommodation in 2016 and 42 in the first quarter of 2017.
Breakdown
Of the 138 rough sleepers, 85 had previously accessed homeless services. Seven people had never accessed services and not enough info was available for the remaining 46 people.
85 of the people were Irish nationals, 13 were non-Irish. The nationalities of the remaining 40 could not be identified.
On top of the people sleeping rough outside on the night of the count, an additional 57 people slept in the Merchant’s Quay Night Café.
The Night Café provides mats on the floor for people to sleep, as well as support services.
Taking into account this figure, the total number of people counted without beds for the night in Dublin was 195. The Night Café first opened in January, 2015.
There were also 186 placements for beds in emergency hostels made through Homeless Freephone and Dublin’s Housing First on the night of the count.
The Housing First is made up of workers from charities the Peter McVerry trust and Focus Ireland and funded by the DRHE. Part of its work is to liaise with rough sleepers in Dublin on a regular basis, sourcing beds for them and maintaining a level of contact.
“Unique group”
The DRHE also said that a “unique group” of individuals who had arrived in Dublin in recent weeks from Romania were encountered on the night of the count.
The people had arrived here either seeking employment or having been promised work.
Half of this group have been repatriated to Romania since the night of the count.
The rough sleeper count has been carried out under the jurisdiction of the DRHE since 2007.
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Hurrah for the genius who decreed that new houses should not have a chimney.
@paulinlavally@gmail.com: IMO the lives saved from not having polluted towns outweigh the lives lost due to not burning stuff during a temporary power outage.
@Name: A few days fire to save old people from freezing to death would hardly cause a major problem.
@paulinlavally@gmail.com: issue is people don’t just use fire places and stoves in emergencies
@Name: More people with dementia due from taking anti psychotic drugs in the UK alone (1,800) per year than people in Ireland who die from so-called air pollution related effects.
Please get your facts right, I have been measuring air quality in various places over the last year, it’s astonishing how many ‘leisure’ areas which encourage visiting and physical exercise have far worse readings (by a multiple of up to 7) than a congested street during school traffic.
@Athena: not outright dismissing what you say, but there are so many non sequiturs and false comparisons in your comment, I’m not sure where to start
@Name: tell China and India that then.
@paulinlavally@gmail.com: chimneys were not banned but you wouldn’t get planning with a open fireplace in the plan’s but you could put a stove it’s a closed fireplace.
@Name: nah bull
@Name: so you think people should live in the cold to sate your perception? Not go8ng to happen.
@brendan C5: nothing to do with Planning.
We should thank the people freezing in their A-rated homes and stuck at home with their EVs for saving the planet. A covid style round of applause should be organised
@common sense: I’m fairly sure that those enjoying the comfort of an A-rated home and convenience of an EV will not think or care a iota about your envy.
@common sense: lots of them can run their homes off the ev car battery haha
@Name: They’re currently running their A rated homes using their EVs
@Thesaltyurchin: what happens when the power in the EV goes ya won’t have enough to get to the charging station that would be out of power, alot Filling stations have backup generators.
what happens if you lose your keys and fall in a well?’… I cant account for morons who don’t now how to tie their own laces can I
@common sense: I dont think anyone living in a very well insulated home with a giant backup battery parked in the driveway and solar panels on the roof is too worried about power cuts during a storm..
The people in the worst position during a power cut are those living in older houses with poor insulation and heating from a back boiler in their fireplace. Back boilers can get explodey if the electric pump isn’t running and you light the fire.
@Name: A rated homes get cold if you don’t put heat into them. Heat isn’t magicked from the air, no matter what Eamonn Ryan told you.
The green agenda has wrecked this country. I have my stove. No one will make me part with it but carbon taxes means I pay more to run it. I would have frozen without it. I will be putting it on again shortly as power gone again. Estimated time it will be back: Saturday 1pm.
@Rita McCarthy: no need to be overdramatic. The so-called “green agenda” wants better insulated and more energy efficient homes. This means your stove would go a lot further, using up less fuel. You’d also receive subsidies for your solar/battery/EV setup, which can keep your lights on and fridge running. It’s about more than just carbon taxes.
@Rita McCarthy: you wouldn’t be freezing without it if they built your home with better insulation, something these green agenda folks are advocating for.
@Name: No government subsidies for battery storage any more, power companies lobbied against it. They want you to sell your excess power to the them instead of storing it. So they can sell it back to you for 2x the price.
I always have a supply of candles and matches also candle stick holders, , batteries for flash lamp and radio, a small 2 ring gas breakfast cooker with full sized gas cylinder ,a bag of coal, fire lighters, kindling and logs for my open fire.
@Anne: It’s common sense.
@Athena: I was born in 1945. Learned to be resourceful and resilient.
Diesel generator. Job sorted
@Shimo F: not everyone has one, wants one or has the space for one. It also sits idle most of the time. My mate’s one wouldn’t kick as it wasn’t used for so long.
Modern EVe can now supply your home grid. This has been deployed by people around the country apparently.
@Name: “your mate” should have serviced it like you do any appliance or vehicle. It’s not rocket science.
@Tony: yet another appliance to buy/service/store and one that is almost never used. TBH, I prefer the EV solution. Less noisy and polluting also.
@Name: An EV is less polluting than a diesel generator? Lol. Don’t think so bud.
@Name: you have to charge an EV , pray tell how you do that if you have no electricity?
@Chop Chop: please sit half an hour in a garage with a running diesel generator. I’ll do the same with an EV. Looking forward to the results.
@Ollie Fitzpatrick: drive to a location where they do have electricity? You can run your house 3-5 days on an EV battery. You’d probably have to drive more to get diesel for your generator.
@Name: oh well, fail to prepare, prepare to fail. My genny kept the house warm and the lights on while waiting for ESB to fix fault. I also discovered the gunny was very cheap to run on the green desiel
@Shimo F: each to their own. I’d prefer not to have to think about it. Genuine question, what’s the deal with hooking up the house to a generator? Can you isolate the house from the grid? Live in the city myself, so haven’t had the storm-related power outages.
@Name: I’m talking carbon footprint of both, including manufacture.
@Shimo F: Natural gas apparently will be ‘easier to get in a disaster situation’, tho I don’t believe it, diesel all the way. Well, solar or wind when cheaper/better but for now Diesel.
Watching people streaming back to where their homes were in Gaza,whole place blitzed and listening to Irish citizens without power or water for a period expecting someone to appear at their door with a hot meal.Two different worlds
@Ray Martin: Such whataboutry.
@Ray Martin: maybe if more of us particularly politicians paid more attention to our own country, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Estimated time for power back where I live Sat 1pm. That might be trivial to you but not to me or my neighbours.
@Harry Paisley: I do.
The consequences of Eamonn Ryan’s delusional world view laid bare. Even though they got what they deserved at the polls people will still vote for this nonsense.
@Matt D:
No question Ryan can come up with some fairly delusional stuff but 90% of the environmental rules brought in by the last government came from the EU and Paris climate agreement. Pretty much all of those laws will stay and there are plenty more coming, including further increases to carbon taxes agreed in the programme for government.
@Matt D: so the subsidies to insulate your house, use solar power/batteries for your home and buy an EV with which you can now power your home were a bad idea?
@Name: Solar oanels are rarely mentioned, trusting that they weren’t damaged by the storm then surely you still have electricity and the ESB wants to buy excess energy created off of people with solar panels. There are other choices to fires etc but some focus completely on the negatives. Scientists don’t have an agenda but to share their research and we saw exactly what is happening with the last storm and it will only get worse unless we change our ways as a collective. What I don’t understand is why we’re doing it so last when this was known as far back as at least the ’70′s, we’re paying for delaying in reacting to the damage we’ve caused to this planet.
@P. J.: yes, but we shouldn’t have signed up to the Paris Agreement. Certainly not without a referendum.
Also anyone who doesn’t have an open fire should consider a Superser gas heater. Can be got fairly cheap.
“Climate science tells us that storms like Éowyn are not just a one-off. They’re a preview of what is to come.”
Misinformation. Data from Met Eireann shows that wind gusts are decreasing overall.
Malin Head for example: https://x.com/SnowbieWx/status/1883590345772199980/photo/1
Dublin Airport another example: https://x.com/SnowbieWx/status/1882488201954378195/photo/1
Day counts of 100kmph+ at these two stations with a long history shows there is a decrease.
@Laois Weather: hmm, I’d rather listen to meteorologists than X-users with an agenda TBH
@Laois Weather: Quoting X as a source really helps show your credibility
@Name: “data from Met Eireann”… Duh
@Chop Chop: selectively chosen and presented data. Come on, you’re not that stupid
@Name: You must be new here. He is.
@Jack Hayes: How rude.
@Chop Chop: I just said “you’re not that stupid”. Pretty kind of me IMO
@Laois Weather: …climate science is more complicated than this. Individual gusts of winds vs extreme weather events becoming more common and more extreme is kind of different.
@Laois Weather: I have seen the interesting graph that Sryan posted but strangely I’ve been seeing an increase in power cuts in my area of east Galway in the last 10 years.
That could be due to less esb maintenance though? Or could we be seeing a recent increase in wind speeds?
@Laois Weather: Honestly, study windy.com for a few weeks, the ocean in front of us gets some wild storms.
@Name: he is
This is what happens when an ideology trumps practicality. The fact that people are only talking about this now after the event shows the groupthink behind decisions made by our public sector and government. We were told there would be more frequent and more powerful storms due to climate change and yet none of the very well paid people sitting on all these committees could see where problems could arise. The government in their wisdom even got rid of the grants for battery storage.
It’s sort of bonkers really, for all the beautifully worded rhetoric we are still shoeless in the bog, lol!… The irony of this article is that society does not want people to live like Mr. Gardner, they want you buying off plans, a walk from your work.
Depending on the type of EV you can run the basics of your house from it for 4-5 days.
@Me Me: Except it wouldn’t.
@Ger Whelan: you missed the news article where EV owners around the country were doing exactly this
@Me Me: is it easy to recharge your EV from a generator if you drained it too much after the 5 days?
@Me Me: what about if it wasn’t charged?
@Hector turtlehead: cant account for dopers
@Hector turtlehead: I don’t know about you but the fact that they gave us the warning about the storm 4 days in advance meant that I charged my EV, power banks for recharging phones etc. I did what was suggested & you know, prepared.
@Me Me: not at a 3kw limit you’re not. A few appliances, yes, but far from a whole house.
Some reasonably sensible recommendations in the article, with the exception of installing a gas hob instead of electric one. The harm to your health and potential dangers from a gas hob outweigh the low risk and inconvenience of a power outage. There was an article about how people are now using their EVs to power their home. That is pretty sustainable. You can literally drive your sizeable battery to a place you can charge it and bring it home again.
@Name: Halfords sell very handy camping gas stoves that I use for cooking in power cuts.
@Name: the house uses most of the power and you mightn’t have enough to get to a charger and then it might be busy and you will be waiting for an hour or two.
@brendan C5: You under estimate how much power an EV battery holds. The average Irish household uses 14kwh per day. A Hyundai Ioniq 5 (a popular EV in Ireland) for example comes with a 63 or 84kwh battery. That’s 4-6 days of backup power. Easily power your house for 3 days and have enough power left to go refill the batteries at a charge station.
@Name: nope. You’re forgetting the public chargers don’t work in a power cut either. At least with an ICE vehicle the fuel is portable and can come to it, if required, in a can or tank. You can’t do that with an EV
Well, I believe we are importing Peat from Brazil to run the generators that we are supposedly running on green energy. Only a bum would believe it’s good. It’s a fad. As someone who had no power for the same reason.
Overall, a few good ideas such as solar to battery, water etc… however these are easiest to integrate at the house design stage.
I live in a heat pump house. If the electrics go I’m screwed.
@michael powell: get a generator. A family I know have a heat pump but got a generator as a backup it’s been used a lot in the last few years during winter blackouts over the last few years.
So you have a family with a 50k EV car. Yet the electric is delivered by overhead wire that is regularly knocked over by bad weather.
Put the cables underground you simpletons.
@Hector turtlehead: all new built estates the last 20 odd years have all electricity cables under ground, the problem is getting the power from stations/sub stations requires over head csbles,as to run them under ground would mean crossing over huge amounts of private owned land, so getting a pilon on private land is alot easier and cost effective.
100% the ESB should be the back up.
This guy is a bit of an idiot to be perfectly honest. Look, we need to face up to the fact that there is no “climate crisis.” NASA has said that there is no increase in the strength and frequency of storms and hurricanes and the EPA’s own Palmer Index has shown that there is no increase in the frequency of droughts either. The temperatures went up first and then there was the increase in carbon dioxide. You can’t say that A causes B if B happened first. Whether it was the crippling energy inflation in 2022 or the collapse of our power grid response during the current storm season, it’s pretty clear that full steam ahead with fossil fuels is the only correct answer. Scrap the carbon tax, scrap the energy regulations for houses and allow people to freely cut turf again and buy any car.
See Global hotspots of climate-related disasters 2024 International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction Donatti et al.
“The percentage of countries’ populations impacted by all types of climate-related disasters did not significantly change through time…” “……countries with a low and very high level of development, showed a significant decrease in the number of events through time, whereas countries with medium and high levels of human development did not. Countries in Africa, Europe and North America showed significant decreases in the number of events from climate-related disasters through time, whereas the number of events from climate-related disasters that happened in countries in Asia, Australia and South America did not significantly change through time.”
have your say