Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions for the Minister, and then I want to raise something on the housing adaptation grants.

With these Supplementary Estimates, the combination for homelessness, subhead A13, will be €385 million in 2024 and the amount budgeted for 2025 is just €303 million in comparison. This seems to be happening every year, where the amount budgeted for homeless services is insufficient and then the Supplementary Estimates bring it up. What is happening most years is that the end-of-year total is more than what is budgeted for the next year. In budgeting terms, is this not a mistake that is being repeated every year? Should the 2025 figure not reflect more accurately the cost of supporting homeless accommodation in 2024? Should that not be our baseline? Why is this happening every year? Obviously, if the trajectory were going in the other direction, as we would all hope it will, we might expect a smaller figure.