Coveney must act on recommendations

THE ink was barely dry on the special Oireachtas committee report on how the Government should set about resolving the housing and homelessness crisis when doubts were being raised about whether the more radical recommendations of this 160-page document would see the light of day. 

One member, Ruth Coppinger, said it does not go far enough to sort out social housing, and has written a minority report.

When the far-reaching main document finally landed on the desk of Housing Minister Simon Coveney, it brought home the sheer enormity of the challenge he faces in preparing a workable policy containing realistic ways of dealing with this national crisis which has dealt Irish society a hammer blow, leaving tens of thousands of families in dread of being evicted and thrown onto the streets because they cannot afford to keep up mortgage payments or are unable to meet soaring rent demands.