The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Brendan Carr, has called upon the Home Sweet Home campaign to donate its remaining funds to existing housing charities which have decades of experience in assisting the homeless.

The Lord Mayor said: “It has been reported today (Tuesday, 2^nd May) that the Home Sweet Home campaign has approximately €129,000 remaining of monies donated to it by members of the public. It has also been reported that leading figures in the campaign have declared it dormant and planned actions by it in recent months have not occurred.

“Rather than letting this money lie in an account it should be immediately put to use assisting people in housing need. This was the reason it was given to the Home Sweet Home campaign and to not put it to such a use immediately, I believe, is an abuse of peoples’ wishes to ensure the dire housing crisis in our city is effectively dealt with.”

He added: “At the time of the Home Sweet Home occupation of Apollo House in Dublin, I questioned whether the campaign had the necessary abilities to make a long term and effective contribution to ending the housing crisis. Since January there has been no evidence of the group doing anything constructive with the public good will and the funds it raised in late December 2016 and January this year.

“I am calling upon those with authority over the Home Sweet Home funds to do the right thing. These monies should be given to any of the several charities and organisations which have for many decades been doing all they can to both raise awareness and effectively deal with the cycle of crises provoked by the deep seated structural issues in our country’s approach housing provision.

“These monies need to put to use now, they should not be kept unproductively in an account or used for other political purposes. There is a housing crisis in our city – I believe it is immoral and indefensible that funds that are available to assist those in dire need are not being put to use doing that.”