Game of Thrones star joins Raise the Roof to protest 'breakdown in the social contract'
Game of Thrones start Liam Cunningham was speaking to Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1 today. Picture: Charles McQuillan/Getty
Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham has said he is marching in this afternoon's Raise the Roof protest in Dublin because of what he calls a breakdown in the social contract.
He said that contract states that if you try hard, you do well in school, get a good job "that you should be able to reap the benefits of being able to get a home".
Organisers of the protest are expecting thousands of people to turn out. They are marching from Parnell Square to Leinster House from 1pm.
The latest homelessness figures have now reached an all-time high. 11,397 people, including 3,500 children, are living in emergency accommodation in this country. These figures do not include people living on the streets, persons living with family or sleeping on the couches of friends.
Mr Cunningham told the Brendan O'Connor show on RTÉ Radio 1, that you should be able to kiss your children on the forehead and wrap them up at night and not worry about whether you are going to be made homeless.
"Look at the amount of doctors packing their bags as they wait for their graduation to get out of here because they can't afford a home.
Mr Cunningham said ultimately this crisis is about the welfare of children.
"It is 100% about children. The irony here is that, and I don't want to get on anybody's back because they want to think well of the people they have put in power. But the consecutive Governments are responsible.
"The behaviour of these consecutive coalition Governments specifically are the reason international financial institutions have been able to buy up everything. And their job is to maximise profits. And that has alienated people from being able to afford (homes).
"The thinking was 'pile them high and sell them cheap' to bring them in and get developers here. Give them tax breaks."
The father of three (61) said he grew up in Coolock in Dublin at a time when social housing was also being built in Tallaght and Clondalkin.
"They were built by the Corporation. They were built by the Government. When I was very young we were in a tiny place in the inner city. And it gave us a bit of freedom, a bit of dignity and having the hope to be able to achieve something."
Mr Cunningham said he was part of the generation moved out of the city into social housing in places like Coolock.
"It was incredible. I had never seen a wheat field. It was half built. And then you had Tallaght and Clondalkin. All these places that are new had teething problems. That is why Coolock had a bad name. It doesn't have a bad name now.
"These things settle down. Amenities weren't built at the time. They were always an afterthought. It is incredibly important to give people hope. Hope has been taken from people."
He believes that the country has been handed over to "faceless absentee landlords" who operate in the form of hedge funds and investment funds.
Mr Cunningham stressed that he isn't a member of any political party and is without any political allegiance.
He insists that the crisis in this country isn't limited to any strata in Irish society.
"My daughter and her husband who is an economist, he has a PHD and is a doctor in Economics, they lived with us for seven years. They couldn't get a mortgage.
"I look at them in awe and they are denied the reward for the hours and hours of work they put in. Staying up in the middle of the night. Trying to do degrees. They were laughed at looking for a mortgage.
"They were thinking of possibly going to Canada just so they could have a life. They wanted to put roots down here. They have a real pride in where they live. We nearly lost them. The idea of mothers and fathers seeing their children off because they are denied somewhere to lie down at night.
"This is not just working class people. It is right across every socio-economic bracket. It has been a governmental disaster."
