The Government has dismissed a proposal to house some of the capital's homeless people on a cruise ship as "unsuitable".
Dublin City Council explored the possibility of renting a ship to house up to 150 single homeless people in response to pressure from the Government to ramp up efforts to get rough sleepers off the streets, the Irish Times reported.
The newspaper report quoted correspondence between the council and Government.
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 cruise ship idea is not suitable for homeless families in need," Minister Eoghan for Housing Murphy has said on Twitter.
Mr Murphy said the Dublin Regional Housing Executive was looking at other properties to deliver emergency accommodation facilities for homeless individuals in the Dublin region.
The council has confirmed that the possibility of leasing a cruise ship to be berthed in Dublin Port to accommodate homeless single adults was considered.
In a statement, the council said: "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, they added that the idea is not being pursued currently as both the council and the DRHE are "confident they will be able to source sufficient additional emergency accommodation to address the requirement of rough sleepers this winter."
According to the Government's latest figures, there were almost 10,000 people, including children, in emergency accommodation at the end of August.
Thousands of people marched to the Dáil yesterday in protest at the dearth of housing and resultant sharp increase in rental costs.
Fianna Fáil Councillor Paddy Smyth said housing people on barges and decommissioned cruise ships could ease the accommodation crisis if it is done properly.
He said he first made the suggestion in 2016 and while it is not a perfect practice it should not be dismissed out of hand and is one that is used in other jurisdictions.
Mr Smyth said a cruise ship could house thousands of people with room for a creche, medical and recreational facilities and could potentially be docked outside the Customs House in Dublin.
Labour Senator Aodhán Ó Riordáin described the suggestion of housing people on ships as a "disgusting, outrageous idea" and said he could not believe anyone in their right mind would give such an idea any consideration.
He said he agreed with homeless campaigner Fr Peter McVerry that Dublin City Council could make empty properties available for homeless people.
Fr McVerry said housing homeless people on ships would only be an attractive prospect if people were being offered a six-month cruise around the Mediterranean.
He said efforts should be made to use empty properties around the city to house families adding that the way to stop the vast majority of people becoming homeless is to legislate to make it illegal for banks or vulture funds to put families out on the streets.
