Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What I know is that last month almost 4,000 people across the State were in emergency accommodation. I know and the Tánaiste knows that this includes more than 1,000 families and more than 2,000 children. What we now know is that we have a crisis in the crisis management of homelessness. It is not simply that families are in emergency accommodation, which is scandalous in itself, but in fact now the pressure is such and the crisis so deep that families cannot access emergency accommodation. I have told the Tánaiste Áine's story. She was sent to the streets. Let me emphasise that this is not the fault of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive or the local councils. As I have said, they are left in an impossible situation in which they simply do not have access to enough emergency accommodation. It is of cold comfort to Áine and others that the Tánaiste says that this is a matter of priority. I ask her to demonstrate that. What will she do now, this week and this month to address the issue of emergency accommodation in order that Áine is not similarly sent back out onto the streets tonight?

See this speech in context