Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is quite clear that the level of homelessness has escalated, for which there are several reasons. Landlords are cutting off the contracts of people in receipt of rent supplement and the people concerned then have to look for another rent supplement, but they cannot find a rental property anywhere. It is a major crisis and they cannot access a place. If one goes online, one can see that there are no places available. If the people concerned do not find a place, they will end up homeless, which is a tragedy. Rents in the private rental market have increased dramatically across the board and landlords are more inclined to push people out in order to secure higher rents, instead of taking rent supplement or people participating in the rental accommodation scheme. This issue needs to be addressed urgently. The Minister mentioned 450 units, but in three years the Government has delivered only 443 under NAMA.

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