Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has rejected a proposal by a Fine Gael councillor to house homeless families on a cruise ship on the River Liffey in Dublin.

Speaking during a lively debate on RTE’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme, Fine Gael Councillor Paddy Smith said that the idea, which he first proposed to the housing department back in 2016, was used in other jurisdictions.

“In other jurisdictions people are housed on barges and on decommissioned cruise ships so it is a way of housing people and if it’s done right and for the right type of families I think it could make a dent in the numbers.”

Cllr Smith admitted that it was an “imperfect idea” but insisted it should not be ruled out and made his case for the use of a cruise ship to alleviate the housing crisis.

“If you think about a large vessel, even a medium sized cruise ship you could house thousands of people, it would have room for facilities like creche’s, GP’s, social workers in-house, recreational facilities and it would give families a place to stay while we try and build the houses where they need to be living in the long run.”

Cllr Smith proposal was dismissed as an “off the wall” idea by housing activist Fr Peter McVerry.

Expand Close Battling on: Tom Roche, from Rhode, Offaly, takes part in the Raise the Roof housing rally. Photo: Caroline Quinn / Facebook

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Whatsapp Battling on: Tom Roche, from Rhode, Offaly, takes part in the Raise the Roof housing rally. Photo: Caroline Quinn

“If they were to guarantee people six months on the ship and go off on a cruise around the Mediterranean then I think it would be very attractive but otherwise I think it’s off the wall, really it’s not a runner,” Mr McVerry said on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke.

Fr McVerry added that it was unnecessary to house people on a cruise ship when there are so many vacant properties in the capital.

“The elephant in the room here is always the tens of thousands of empty buildings that blight every street in every town, we’ve got to look at that. We have got to find ways of utilising those, bringing them back into use and if necessary through Compulsory Purchase Orders.”

Fr McVerry added that a cruise ship "would cost a fortune".

“We’re not going to be able to locate it anywhere near the city centre, which would be necessary, it’s simply not going to happen. I don’t agree with it there are other solutions,” he said.

“Until we stop the flow of families coming into homelessness we’re going to come up with all of these mad solutions. The way to stop the vast majority of families being made homeless is to legislate to make it illegal for banks, vulture funds or landlords to put families out onto the street."

Expand Close Wrong turn: People protest the housing crisis in a ‘Raise the Roof’ rally in Dublin. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne REUTERS / Facebook

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Whatsapp Wrong turn: People protest the housing crisis in a ‘Raise the Roof’ rally in Dublin. Photo: REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Cllr Smith dismissed the idea of legislation forbidding the eviction of people into homelessness and questioned the “unintended consequences” of such laws.

He said that if such laws were to come into effect then “less houses would be built” because “if you have a market where essentially you don’t have to pay a mortgage, or you don’t have to pay rent, for whatever reason and there’s no recourse for that, people who would build housing or provide houses will not do that in that market and that is reality. That seems cold-hearted by that is the reality of the situation.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Fr McVerry replied. “What I’m suggesting is a three-year moratorium, it’s going to take three years to build a house anyway so it’s not going to affect anybody who is planning on building. If the banks want to sell a house that they’ve repossessed, they should do so with people living in it paying a rent to whoever buys that house.”

Following the debate, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy said that the cruise ship idea is not suitable for homeless families in need.

"Better, more appropriate, solutions are being pursued every day by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive," Mr Murphy said.

The cruise ship idea is not suitable for homeless families in need. Better, more appropriate, solutions are being pursued every day by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. — Eoghan Murphy (@MurphyEoghan) October 4, 2018

"The DRHE is also pursuing additional properties to deliver emergency accommodation facilities for homeless individuals in the Dublin region. A total of 200+ permanent bed spaces were introduced in 2017. The cold weather strategy for 2018 is in preparation."

Upwards of 10,000 people marched on Leinster House yesterday demanding the Government take radical action on housing as public anger visibly grows over the crisis.

A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: "The possibility of leasing a cruise ship to be berthed in Dublin Port in order to provide emergency accommodation for homeless single adults/rough sleepers in Dublin has been considered by the City Council/Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

"It was felt that this approach would offer a number of advantages relative to other single person emergency accommodation options including speed of delivery and access to higher quality self -contained apartment type accommodation at a competitive cost.

"However, the option is not currently being pursued as the Council/DRHE are confident they will be able to source sufficient additional emergency accommodation to address the requirement of rough sleepers this winter without the need to lease a cruise ship."

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