Ms Ber Grogan:

It is something we raised with the Minister for housing and the Taoiseach earlier this year. Even around rent pressure zones and rent regulation, we are seeing the private rental sector being a driver for people experiencing homelessness. It has been an issue around the country. The Simon Communities, which are doing incredible work, have told me that families not having access to the tenant in situ scheme is an issue. We have been trying to do some advocacy work and lobbying in the background as well. I think what has happened is that maybe there was a blanket decision with some unintended consequences. We are calling on the Minister for housing's Department to revisit that and to listen to what the various charities and local authorities are saying. I completely understand that we need supply and that the tenant in situ scheme is taking supply out of housing but what we would say is that we need to build social and affordable housing on public land. However, this is having an impact on children experiencing homelessness.

Regarding the point on the prevention piece, Galway Simon Community has approximately a 90% success rate with its prevention project. There are other prevention pieces happening around the country but with a much smaller percentage of the overall budget going to it. Sitting here listening to everyone, it is like we have a shopping list or wish list for all the things we are asking for. It might seem like we are asking for a lot. However, prevention and early intervention is not only the morally right thing to do - we all know and agree on that - but it is also the economically beneficial thing to do.

If the Government puts enough into reducing the numbers of poverty and bringing people out of poverty in this first budget, it will have a longer term beneficial impact. We are looking for a much greater prevention investment. There is ongoing work on a homelessness prevention framework, which we would like to see fully costed, resourced and committed to.

The Deputy mentioned child poverty and well-being. There is that unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, which is doing really great work but I do not know if it has budget lines to progress things. This is the kind of area where we are great at policy and coming up with ideas but there needs to be resourcing with timeframes on them.