Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I thank the witnesses for being here; it is much appreciated. I wish to address Threshold on the gutting of the tenant in situ scheme and the limiting of funding. To me, that scheme was the best method the Government and the local authorities had for preventing homelessness. I have dealt with loads of landlords in Cork who were willing to sell and wanted to keep their tenants in the property. The council wanted to buy the properties and the tenants wanted to stay in them. It was one of the few things where everyone was on the one page. In Cork this scheme prevented 100 children and 65 adults from entering homelessness last year. Councillor Michelle Gould put in a question to Cork City Council and the response was that in 2021 a total of 110 families, including 224 children, went into homeless emergency accommodation. In 2022 it was 127 families with 235 children. To skip ahead, for the first six months of this year, with 149 families with 292 children in emergency accommodation, this will be highest figure of all time. Do the witnesses feel that given what has happened with the tenant in situ scheme, which is virtually at a stop, this will lead to more homelessness?