Ms Mary Hayes:

I appreciate the Senator's point, but it is difficult for us to prioritise in that way, as we would be excluding someone who had a child and needed that second bedroom. Dublin City Council requires two-bedroom accommodation for people who need it. To be fair to the Department, and as the Senator will see from the circular, it has pushed heavily with all local authorities for acquisitions for single people. One-bedroom accommodation has been the category where we have been able to make acquisitions all the way along regardless of termination notices and even before the Department was pushing heavily with us, both for Housing First and for the general one-bedroom list, but giving individuals two-bedroom accommodation would be difficult for me to justify in light of how there are families in hotel rooms with two or three children who also have a need for two-bedroom accommodation.