Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Let me clarify what exceptional circumstances refers to and that is where there is an exceptional circumstance for a family that is already being looked after in a hotel and we are not going to move as quickly or as easily with that particular family because of a unique consideration that might be there that will require a tailored response. The policy commitment was always to make sure that families that were presenting as homeless would go into hotels by the middle of this year and that those already in hotels would be out of hotels, apart from those exceptional circumstances where we are working very hard to find those tailored solutions.

When one talks about presentations, there has been a spike in the number. At the end of May, the figure was 650. In terms of the increases we have seen in the past couple of months, between March and May 600 new families presented as homeless. If we step back, however, and look at the figures at the end of March and at the end of May, we see a decrease in homeless families in hotels, down from 847 to 650. The actual number is much higher because, in that period, 600 additional families presented as homeless and what happened with those additional families was that some were prevented from going into hotels directly, which was a good intervention, but others had to go to hotels. Far more people have been accommodated and if it were not for this spike in the past couple of months, the target would have been met.