SIPTU members joined hundreds of housing activists from across the country for a national demonstration on the housing and homeless crisis in Dublin on Tuesday (1st December).

The march began at the GPO, O’Connell Street, and concluded outside Leinster House, Kildare Street, with a rally. At the event, speakers outlined the scale of the housing crisis and what actions the Government should take to alleviate it.

The march took place on the first anniversary of the death of Jonathan Corrie, a homeless man whose body was found on Molesworth Street, close to Leinster House.

SIPTU National Campaigns and Equality Organiser, Karan O'Loughlin, said: “The issue of housing is one of the most critical social issues of our time. The long term failure of successive governments to ensure an adequate social housing supply has created an emergency. Despite the efforts by the Government to solve the housing crisis, the empirical evidence shows that more needs to be done.”

Housing activists say the homeless crisis is continuing to escalate with a recent report by the Children’s Rights Alliance stating that at least 3,000 children in the State are living in emergency accommodation.