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Life

10th Jan 2020

81-year-old woman discharged from hospital found on streets by homelessness charity

Carl Kinsella

Homelessness

“Shame on the government.”

An 81-year-old woman was found on O’Connell Street by a homelessness charity on Thursday, after she had been discharged from hospital earlier in the day.

Independent Dublin City Councillor and former Lord Mayor of Dublin Christy Burke posted about the incident on his Facebook page, saying that a volunteer from Reaching Out Homeless Outreach was called off a soup run to assist with an emergency on O’Connell Street.

Volunteer Irene Coady Murphy brought the woman to a hotel and “had a cup of tea with her”. Burke also praised the quick work of Dublin City Council, whom he said booked a bed for the woman “within minutes”.

Burke ended his statement by saying: “It should not be happening, shame on the government.”

Burke followed up with another statement on homelessness this morning, saying: “Micheál Martin if you had any balls you’d put it to Leo Varadkar to remove Eoin Murphy from the position as minister but you won’t!

“No leadership skills, both parties are now only interested in weighing up who can be the coalition party in the next government.

“I’m go (sic) to be straight and up front, you’ll only understand HOMELESSNESS by volunteering on the frontline.”

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