Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is hard not to feel utterly depressed at having this same conversation at yet another meeting of the Oireachtas housing committee. The child and family homelessness crisis really kicked off in 2014. I was on South Dublin County Council at the time. The total number of children in section 10-funded emergency accommodation at that point was 880. It has increased 442% in the intervening decade. I know numbers do not convey the points Ms Ward has made. I understand that completely but thousands upon thousands of children have been forced into long-term stays in emergency accommodation during that period. As somebody who has sat at lots of these meetings, I know all of the witnesses have come in before and that they and their staff do great work but the ever-deepening scale of this has to be acknowledged.

I have one question. There will be legislation before the committee relatively soon, the housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill. We are still not sure of the final shape of that Bill but, if the ombudsman or his team have any observations they would like to share with us, I ask them to do so.