Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think it is heart-breaking that so many children are living in emergency accommodation at any time of year, but particularly at this time of year. Even though they may go in and out of it quite quickly, as the Deputy said - perhaps six months or a year in some cases - that is still far too long and there are far too many cases.

I am unsure where the Deputy's projected figures come from. We know that in the most recent monthly figures the number of families who are homeless and the number of children who are homeless fell slightly. I hope that will continue in the coming months. The number of rough sleepers is also down. I recall the week when across the road from here on Molesworth Street John Corrie died in a doorway. At that time there were approximately 168 rough sleepers in Dublin. The most recent figures show that this figure has fallen to approximately 92. Many of these are people who need a great deal of support and it is hard to get them in.

However, it demonstrates some of the progress that has been made. The rough sleeping is now down to its lowest level in approximately five years, but this is certainly a problem that is a real blight on our society, as the Deputy described.

When one talks about the fact that there are 10,000 people living in emergency accommodation, we should not forget that 14,000 people have been brought out of emergency accommodation, have been housed by the Government and are now in secure accommodation, and it is not the same 10,000 all the time. In fact, more people have been taken out of homelessness into secure housing now than are homeless but, unfortunately, people continue to become homeless every day and every week.

Deputy Harty asked how we respond. We respond in two ways. Provided in budget 2020, which the Deputy did not vote for, is €160 million in funding for the charities and agencies that work with us, both to prevent people becoming homeless in the first place - half of people are now prevented from becoming homeless in the first place - but also to help them through emergency accommodation, to run the family hubs and to then get out of emergency accommodation. That is not something the Deputy supported or voted for.

The second way is in stepping up our investment in social housing. Three years ago when this Government came to office, maybe 3,000 or 4,000 were being added to the social housing stock every year. That is up to 10,000 this year. It will be 11,000 next year and 12,000 the year after that. Not in any year this century have more houses been added to the social housing stock than this year. We will do better again next year and better again the year after. However, as the Central Bank pointed out today, we are catching up on a massive deficit. A country, such as Ireland, with our population and demographics should be adding 35,000 houses to its housing stock every year. We are not there yet. We have trebled the amount of supply, up from 7,000 a year three and a half years ago to more than 20,000 now. We will get to 25,000 next year. We will get up to 35,000. If we could do it quicker, if there was a cheque I could sign, a button I could press or a lever I could pull, we would have done it by now.

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