While Ireland’s homelessness crisis is well-known, some individual situations still manage to slip through the cracks.

Emmet Kelleher told Lunchtime Live that he found himself homeless two years ago due to an accident that left him unable to work.

“I was one of the people caught up with the landlords selling up and I had to move out,” he said.

“[My] marriage broke up, I moved to Cork for just about eighteen months or so and I went couch surfing because of the unavailability of houses.

“Then I was coming back to Dublin to start up acting work again – because I trained in acting years ago in the Gaiety.

“And what happened but I went from the top of the bus to the bottom of a bus, split my knee open and ended up in the James’ hospital for months.”

A busy hospital. Image: Alamy

Mr Kelleher said he was placed in a hostel in June last year, where he has stayed since.

“My key worker in the hostel, she comes in every few weeks, and I was to write down all the stuff that I had to with regards to my illness, because I was diagnosed with a serious illness in hospital,” he said.

“She gave all the information to the housing allocations and they didn’t return anything on it.

“All the details about my illness, how bad it was, etcetera, the housing allocations didn’t even write back, text back – nothing.

“Not even the manners to do it basically, I would have even jumped with glee if they sent me back a rejection – anything.”

'This isn't the Republic'

According to Mr Kelleher, he feels the Government is “personally responsible”.

“It was very difficult but what I do is I look at the kids, thousands upon thousands of children in the so-called Republic,” he said.

“I mean, Dáil Éireann are responsible for so much – and I hold them personally responsible.

“This isn’t the Republic; it’s nothing but a thick Irish joke.”

Mr Kelleher said he had been on the housing list for the last 13 years.

“I was carer to my wife so I had 13 years clocked up, for lack of a better way of putting it,” he said.

Despite this, he is still living in a shared hostel room for the foreseeable future.

Image via Pixabay

Mr Kelleher said that while conditions at the hostel are good, he still longs for his own space.

"I can't say it enough, it's not so much the state of the place - which is lovely and tidy and neat, because the staff keep it that way," he said.

"It's not that - it's the indignity and the lack of space, the lack of privacy, the lack of independence.

"Just being able to do something, live in a normal environment; I think everybody deserves just that, even if it's just one room, every human being in a republic deserves that."

He said it is "not good enough" that the Government cannot provide that to its citizens.

Listen back here:

Main image: Andrea Gilligan (L) and Emmet Kelleher (R) in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk.