A HOMELESS charity has urged the Irish Government to declare a national emergency after a Cork woman became the third rough sleeper to die on Ireland’s streets since last week.
The 40-year-old’s body was discovered this morning on Lower Oliver Plunkett Street near the Cork Simon Shelter on Anderson’s Quay.
Gardaí are investigating the circumstances of her death.
It comes just days after two homeless people passed away in the Irish capital last week.
A rough sleeper was found dead in Dublin city centre nine days ago, while another was pronounced dead the next day after being discovered unresponsive in a tent in Ranelagh.
Following news of the Cork death, the Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) charity urged the Government to take action in the wake of Met Éireann issuing a snow and ice warning for the coming days.
In a statement, the charity said: “Yet another person with a name, a family and a story that died alone on the streets of our country.
“This cannot be allowed to continue, how many more human beings have to die before the government call a National Homeless Emergency.”
The Government has pledged to bring over 200 emergency beds into usage across Ireland by December 18 – but the ICHH warned that the beds should have been introduced far sooner.
Chief executive of the ICHH, Anthony Flynn, said the death in Cork was an “indictment” on the Government for their “failure to introduce emergency beds right up and down the country”.
He added that “we will have more deaths on our streets” without emergency action.
“We hear a lot of talk at the moment about Dublin and the overflow of rough sleepers in Dublin at the moment but our colleagues in Cork, Galway and Limerick are telling us that the exact same problems are happening right up and down the country."
