‘We should not be begging for shelter’
Many of the people most affected by the housing crisis are too afraid to speak out or attend public protests like the one planned for Cork on Saturday.
That’s according to Cork-based Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) member Janet Baby Joseph who said migrant nurses in Ireland have no choice but to live in poor conditions due to increasing rent and a lack of housing.
Ms Joseph, who is from India and is on the board of the Cork Indian Nurses Association, said migrant nurses, which make up 54% of Ireland’s nursing workforce, are “begging” and “pleading” for safe and comfortable accommodation.
“It's a shame to be talking about this. It's a human basic need to have air, water, food, and shelter,” said Ms Joseph.
“We should not be begging for shelter,” she added.
On Saturday, trade union-led campaign network Raise the Roof will stage a rally calling for immediate Government action to address the ongoing housing crisis in Ireland.
The rally will take place from 2pm on the Grand Parade in Cork city.
Though the situation is grim and getting worse for migrant nurses, Ms Joseph said those who find themselves in poor living conditions are terrified to speak out in fear of losing their home.
“The people who are really in trouble, who are renting in difficult places, will be reluctant to come out for protest or will be reluctant to talk to the public because they are afraid that they will lose their space,” she explained.
“I have tried myself to speak to the people who are really in trouble so that they can voice out to the public and the media but they're afraid.
“I'm speaking for them because they are afraid to speak,” she added.
Ms Joseph also said the lack of affordable housing in Ireland is forcing migrant nurses and their families to share rented accommodation with each other.
She said the accommodation is often very expensive and of poor standard which is impacting nurses’ mental and physical health.
Ms Joseph said: “There are many kids getting respiratory infections one after the other, they are getting skin infections one after the other, so the health of the kids and obviously the parents, mental and physical, is deteriorating.
“Then they will be calling in sick which will affect our health sector. We are always short of nurses.
“It's a vicious circle, one after the other, it's affecting everything,” she added.
If unable to find a better quality of living, Ms Joseph said many nurses, both migrant and Irish, are leaving the county in search of a better standard of living, which is leading to huge understaffing issues in the Irish health sector.
“They're going to New Zealand and Australia and England because they need better living standards and they don't want to be paying this huge amount of money for rent,” she said.
“We're not asking for luxury; it's only the necessities. It's just one fix: the accommodation. If you fix that one problem, you're fixing the whole nation,” she concluded.
Ahead of Saturday’s rally, Cork city councillor and President of the Worker’s Party, Ted Tynan, said the only solution to the housing crisis is the creation of a state construction company using the infrastructure of local authority systems such as Cork City Council.
“A state construction company would directly employ building workers with decent pay and conditions and would therefore attract workers, many of whom currently are forced to work as sub-contractors for private builders, and workers who have emigrated, to work for it,” said the longstanding city councillor.