The Workers’ Party has delivered 3,500 Christmas cards to the Dáil, calling on Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien to build public housing to end child homelessness.

The cards, each of which symbolise a child who will spend this Christmas in homelessness, contain thousands of signatures from members of the public in Dublin collected by Workers’ Party housing campaigners in the weeks leading up to the holiday period.

Garrett Greene, Workers’ Party representative for Cabra-Glasnevin, said:

“Instead of waking up to find presents under the tree in their homes, over 3,000 children will find themselves in hotels and hostels on Christmas morning.”

“Child homelessness, and indeed homelessness as a whole, is not a chance occurrence. It is the direct result of a political choice, taken by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Greens, to prioritise the interests of landlords and developers over those of working families.

We find ourselves in a wholly preventable situation to which there is a clear alternative and that alternative is universally-accessible, mixed-income public housing.”

David Gardiner, Workers’ Party representative for Palmerstown-Fonthill, said:

“We are now almost a decade into the housing crisis, with a record 11,000 people homeless this year. How can the Taoiseach or the Minister honestly say their housing policy is working? It isn’t working very well for homeless children or their families.”

“Housing is so fundamental to our wellbeing that our access to it should take priority over private profits. I doubt many people would disagree with that.”

“There needs to be a change in direction in terms of housing policy. The approach of leaving it up to the private market has failed and led us to where we are today. Only by putting public need before private greed can we tackle the housing crisis, and that means building public housing.”