Tommy Bowe is trending after confronting Leo Varadkar on Ireland AM

Fiona Frawley

Leo was expecting light news.

Ireland AM presenter Tommy Bowe is trending on Twitter after challenging the Tánaiste on the fact that there are 3,700 homeless children in Ireland today.

The former rugby player has been praised for putting forthright questions to Varadkar regarding the homelessness crisis and how so many people, particularly children, are becoming homeless.

Bowe and fellow Ireland AM host Muireann O’Connell asked why the Government hadn’t opted to bring in rent freezes as part of the budget as opposed to the one-off €500 payment for renters, as rent prices continue to soar and fewer and fewer properties become available.

Horror stories of renters being forced to stay in crowded hostels in order to work in Dublin, students having no choice but to sleep in their cars and tents being advertised for rent are regular occurrences in Ireland today.

In the now viral interview, Bowe presses:

We imagine there’s going to be another rent increase. We’re seeing pictures of students camping out beside the road, beside universities in Dublin and in Galway.

It actually makes me think of Philly McMahon, the Dublin footballer we had on yesterday. His brother died homeless. He said there’s ten thousand people who are homeless or in emergency accommodation at the minute.

Three thousand seven hundred of them are children, it’s frightening. When we think of the windfall taxes that are coming into this country.

I think of my own kids, the pressures we have, and we have a roof over our head. With your government, there are 3,700 children without a home and there is more people going to fall into this because they can’t afford rent.

Varadkar responded that homelessness is “a lot more complicated than just building houses or money”, and that he “hope(s) we see homelessness falling again over the course of the year – it was falling for quite some time. It’s started going up again.”

You can watch the interview below.

"With your government, there are 3,700 children without a home and there is more people going to fall into this because they can't afford rent"

Tommy confronts @LeoVaradkar on #Budget2023 supports pic.twitter.com/Qs8UoD9P8q

— Ireland AM (@IrelandAMVMTV) September 28, 2022