Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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It is a very expensive way of delivering homes. I keep saying that.

As I say, I will go across a number of topics. In the area of homelessness, the overall allocation is €317 million for 2023. Mr. Kelly stated that approximately 85% of that is a direct spend on accommodation. If there are 13,179 people being accommodated, according to the homeless figures as of October last, that works out on crude division at €20,445 per annum. Given there are 4,000 children included and they will be in family units, I reckon, on crude division, that would cover the cost of a mortgage to the tune of between €380,000 and €400,000. It is a very expensive way of delivering a substandard type of housing that is damaging for children. It is quite extraordinary, when one looks at it from that point of view. It is like throwing money at a problem rather than sorting it out. I accept some of this has to do with housing supply but it is acknowledged that our housing supply is increasing. The targets are too low. The housing supply is increasing but so is our homelessness. The view is that housing supply will sort it out. If that is the only metric, it certainly is not showing any serious returns. In terms of the kind of risks for the future, particularly to children, in homeless accommodation, there will be another cost in other supports later on because of the damage that is being done. Is there any real targeted approach to driving that down because the bulk of people who end up in homelessness are people coming out of the private rented sector who get an eviction notice or cannot sustain a rent?