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

I absolutely understand the damage that is being done to families, children and individuals because of the housing crisis. I do not need any more data to understand that. I have met families in hotels and hubs. Thankfully, I have also met families going into their new homes. The scale of this challenge is incredibly significant. It is not just that not enough homes were built for several years. We also have net immigration because the economy is doing so well, which puts us under even more pressure to ramp up the delivery of new homes. Regarding the scale of our response, by the end of this year 100,000 households will have been supported since the beginning of Rebuilding Ireland because of the work local authorities, my Department, housing bodies and NGOs have done across the country to help people. That includes preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place, supports like the housing assistance payment, HAP, and getting people into social housing. The important thing we have to do is drive the delivery of new homes. The new data shows that the number of families exiting emergency accommodation into homes is up by something like 45% on the same period for last year. That is important. The number of families exiting emergency accommodation into social housing homes is also up by more than 50% on the previous period. That is important too. That tells people that this is a huge challenge but a huge response is under way as well. We are only increasing the response every year as we build more homes to meet that challenge.