In the lead-up to the General Election 2024, we call on all candidates, if elected, to use their position to:
- Invest in homelessness prevention to stop the flow of people into homelessness.
- Provide for the basic needs of International Protection applicants, including shelter.
- End youth homelessness.
- Address harmful drug use.
- Reform the formal education system.
- Increase investment in youth mental health services.
- Address the crisis in our care system.
- Increase welfare payments in line with inflation and, in all state service provision, use plain English language, make applications easier and simpler, and provide in-person support to people who need it.
In addition, as a member of the National Youth Council of Ireland, we support NYCI’s calls that the new Government:
- Ensures that youth work and young people are prioritised by ensuring that they commit to the establishment of a Ministry for Youth
- provide cross-governmental focus and resources to address cost of living impacts, including those related to housing and transport, threats to the viability of services and structures that support young people
- restores youth work funding to pre-austerity levels, adjusts it in line with inflation and population growth, and includes the cost of providing pay parity for youth workers.
Guidance Notes
- Invest in homelessness prevention to stop the flow of people into homelessness.
Crosscare runs six residential services for people who are homeless – one is for people under the age of 18 years, and one is for homeless families. We also run projects that focus on homelessness prevention and that support newly arrived people staying in state asylum seeker accommodation. Every day, we see the damage caused by homelessness. In our existing prevention work, we work with people with problems that, if not solved early, could lead to homelessness. While the homeless crisis needs to be addressed through building, greater investment in homelessness prevention nationwide is also essential.
- Provide for the basic needs of international protection applicants, including shelter.
Crosscare meets migrants through all of its work, specifically through its refugee, migrant, diaspora and in-reach projects. We have a long history of working with migrants in vulnerable situations. We are increasingly distressed about the treatment of one cohort of migrants: male International Protection applicants from countries other than Ukraine. So far this year, almost 3,000 men seeking International Protection have not been offered accommodation – unfairly decided based on nationality and gender. People who have sought refuge in our country are now sleeping rough in Dublin and are exceptionally vulnerable. We are calling on the Irish Government to fulfil our legal obligations to provide for the basic needs of all International Protection applicants, including shelter, food and access to hygiene facilities.
- End youth homelessness.
‘Youth homeless’ refers to people aged 18-24 years. Every day in our homeless services, we see the damage caused by youth homelessness. The Youth Homelessness Strategy is a 3-year whole-of-government strategy working towards ending youth homelessness through:
- prevention and exits
- improving the experience of young people accessing emergency accommodation.
We call for continued resources to implement the Youth Homelessness Strategy fully. See the strategy here: https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/69597-youth-homelessness-strategy/
- Address harmful drug use.
Crosscare sees the impact of drug use in all of its services. We welcome and call for the implementation of the recommendations of the Citizens’ Assembly on Drug Use, including:
- significant changes to existing laws governing penalties for the possession of drugs for personal use
- greater funding for and resourcing of services
- broader focus on prevention measures and education about the harmful impact of drug use.
See a summary of the recommendations here: https://citizensassembly.ie/citizens-assembly-on-drugs-use-publishes-summary-36-recommendations/
- Reform the formal education system.
Crosscare works with young people through youth projects, summer projects, counselling and addiction services and specific services for young people leaving care and travellers, among others. We meet young people who, for various reasons, do not thrive within the existing education system. We have a lot to feed into the planned Citizens’ Assembly on the Future of Education (CAFE), which was scheduled to, but did not, take place within the lifetime of the last Government. We are calling for the new government to prioritise it. See the Minister of Education’s most recent comments on the CAFE here: https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/question/2024-03-05/265/
- Increase investment in youth mental health services.
Crosscare works with young people through youth projects, summer projects, counselling and addiction services and specific services for young people leaving care and travellers, among others. Often, we meet young people experiencing mental health difficulties and call for targeted investment by the Government in youth mental health services. In addition, we call for significant research into the impact of young people’s social media and phone use to be funded, to inform public policy and programmes on this emerging issue.
- Address the crisis in our care system.
Crosscare runs a residential service for children in care and a service that supports people after they leave care. Through the CRAVA campaign (Children’s Residential and Aftercare Voluntary Association), we are calling on the government to address ongoing problems in the care system by:
- providing appropriate funding to the voluntary sector
- restoring pay and pension conditions to allow for staff retention and recruitment
- Carrying out an independent review of our care system and developing a cost-effective and time-limited plan to implement all recommendations from this review.
See CRAVA statement here: https://crosscare.ie/vulnerable-children-in-care-at-risk-crava-statement/
- Increase welfare payments in line with inflation and, in all state service provision, use plain English language, make applications easier and simpler, and provide in-person support to people who need it.
Most key state services are moving to making people apply online only. For people who have literacy or language issues or who are not confident using computers, this can mean they are unable to access critical supports like medical cards or social protection. Even in receipt of state support, some people cannot move beyond dependence on charity support because state support is not in line with inflation.
