Mr. Eamonn Waters:

To address the question around the 90,000 social housing units, my understanding is that they are scheduled to be delivered and have been costed out. The expectation is that they will not be affected by any other factors. Resources have been earmarked for them. Perhaps the Deputy can take the issue up with the Minister, but that is my understanding of it.

On homelessness, we have seen a significant reduction in family homelessness. Different factors played a role in this, some of which the Deputy mentioned. Certainly, the moratorium on evictions helped. During the Covid period, we also saw greater availability of rental accommodation from other sectors, such as short-term lets. Recently, we have seen issues around student accommodation. Some of that accommodation also became available in a different market. We also saw a lot of work being done through HAP place-finder and tenancy sustainment support services.

Many of the programmes that were put in place in recent years have also been bearing fruit. We saw policy work coming to fruition. However, that is not to say that the time ahead of us is not going to be challenging. Senator Joe O'Reilly mentioned the challenges in the housing market currently. It is very difficult in the rental market at the moment. That feeds through into the availability of HAP properties in achieving exits from homelessness. I would not be too pessimistic. I do not want to give the impression that because the moratorium on evictions has been lifted, things will get bad. There is no doubt that it will be difficult to keep up and sustain what has been achieved. We have difficult times ahead.