System is failing thousands

It is little comfort for Health Minister Micheál Martin to say that the death of an evicted man in freezing weather outside his own flat represented “a failure of the system.”

The ubiquitous system is failing too many thousands of unfortunate people on the margins in this country.

Noel Cahill was an alcoholic who was evicted by Dublin City Council, for, among other things, allowing anti-social behaviour by youths in the flat.

Such was Mr Cahill’s state, that he was not responsible for the behaviour of the young people, who, in turn had left their own homes and were sleeping rough.

The Simon Community has criticised a strategy put in place three years ago to tackle the problem of homelessness because the funds were not put in place to sustain it.

The organisation insists the problem of homelessness has reached crisis point and demands practical action to be taken.