Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Of course. It is a fair point, and I had flagged that in the past two years. When we negotiated the budget for last year, I negotiated a certain amount with a commitment that, if more was required, we would review it at mid-year, seek a Supplementary Estimate and any additional costs would be covered. We are seeing, not just in regard to the number of beds that need to be provided, because we have the required number of beds and the capacity to help people, a significant increase in the cost of the accommodation from accommodation providers.

I get the Deputy's point but we might disagree on this. We have set an amount which is above the beginning of last year. We review it mid-year because my ambition - and, I think, all of ours - is to see those numbers fall. We are still seeing cost increases. We are seeing relatively small net increases in respect of those in emergency accommodation. I am not getting away from the fact, as the Deputy does not either, that behind all of those numbers are people, families and kids. I know that very well but we have to be ambitious as we deliver more homes. The Deputy might have heard Pat Dennehy from Focus Ireland talking about this a couple of weeks ago. We have more options now for people because we are delivering more social homes. We are exiting people from emergency accommodation into safe and secure homes more quickly. I want to see that number decrease.

I assure the Deputy my agreement for budget 2025 is on exactly the same basis as it was for 2024 and 2023. We have set an allocation for homeless emergency services. Should we require more moneys, we will get them. That agreement has been made at Government and we have been good to our word on that. Our ambition is to see numbers of people in emergency accommodation reduce. Costs have increased, though, above and beyond the increase in numbers going into emergency accommodation.