Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Three years into the Government's term, the housing crisis shows no sign of abating. In that time, homelessness figures have increased by 47%. There has also been an ever-increasing number of evictions. The cost of renting a house or apartment has increased, quarter by quarter, by 25% State-wide. Rents are increasing and record numbers of young people are still living at home with their parents. It is shocking. Every way you look at it, the housing crisis has gotten worse and worse. Failed plans and missed targets have exacerbated the issue. The failures of this Government and the Minister have left a generation behind. The high rate of homelessness is a direct consequence of the Minister's choices. He chose to end the no-fault eviction ban in March. What have we seen since then? In the last quarter, 4,518 eviction notices were served across the State, bringing the 2023 total to in excess of 15,000, yet the Minister still has not, cannot and will not answer the question we asked at that time, which was: where are these people supposed to go?

We talk about housing and the different facets and issues to do with it. I want to mention in particular a massive problem that is emerging in homeless services. The Government's failure has exacerbated the issue of homeless services, which simply cannot cope with the demands being placed on them. The 2022 annual notice report launched last month in Limerick highlights the challenge most starkly. The temporary emergency provision we had in Limerick in 2022 saw 18,095 people presenting to emergency accommodation. Some 794 presentations, or 43% of people who presented to homeless services, were unable to access accommodation. Where do they go? I will tell the Minister where they went. Until recently, people were not sleeping rough on the streets in Limerick. We now see it every day in the core of the city centre. We see it morning, noon and night. We have never seen it before. It was not the case three years ago. The Minister has been in his position for three years and he is directly responsible for the situation because he has not funded emergency accommodation in Limerick. I told him previously that we had this problem. The staff in Novas do the best they can do but they cannot do magic stuff with money they do not have. They cannot provide beds they do not have.

There are things we could do and other things the Minister could do better. One of those is the tenant in situscheme, which is working slightly well. The scheme needs to be implemented quicker. It needs to give more comfort to people. We also need to consider people who are not on the social housing list. I know from dealing with people who are slightly over the income threshold for the social housing list that they have nowhere to go.

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