Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are a lot of comments and questions there. I first want to give a little bit of good news. We have a lot of work still to do to respond comprehensively to the homeless crisis we face in this city and in other parts of the State. Today we have the November figures on homelessness in Dublin and for the first time in a very long time the number of adults and families who are homeless in Dublin has actually reduced, month on month. That is not to say that we do not still have a mountain to climb - we do. We still have far too many people without a home to go to or a bed to sleep in. Yesterday the Taoiseach and I visited a new homeless shelter that will open tomorrow. Three of these will be ready to open tomorrow providing 210 new beds for emergency accommodation in Dublin, to make sure that everybody who needs a bed will get one this winter. When we look at the numbers, we have provided more than 17,000 new social housing solutions this year. This is a record. There will be 2,700 housing solutions put in place for homeless individuals and families this year. That is 500 more than has ever been achieved before. The previous record was last year when the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly was very focused on this area.

There is a lot that we are doing. In the budget we increased the budget for housing by 50% for 2017, an increase from some €800 million to nearly €1.3 billion. I believe we have outstripped all of the targets set for 2016 in actually trying to get people in to sustainable homes. With regard to the homeless HAP scheme in Dublin, the target for this year was 550 people. We will have probably hit the figure of 800 solutions there.

I fully accept that homelessness needs to be a big priority in finance and policy direction and we need to take radical decisions if necessary to try to prevent the stream of people and families coming in to homelessness.

Next week I will bring to Cabinet a new rental strategy which I hope we will have a chance to debate in the House afterwards. Many of the parties in the House contributed to the consultation process to get this right and I thank them for it.

There is a lot happening but there is still a lot more to do. I want to say to the House very clearly that from my perspective this is my number one priority as Minister. If the State cannot look after people who literally do not have a roof over their heads we have to ask ourselves some very serious questions. This is why in our homeless and housing strategy the first chapter, or pillar, focuses on homelessness and the need for a comprehensive response, whereby Ministers, such as Deputies Zappone, Harris and Varadkar, work in partnership with me to ensure we have a whole-of-Government approach towards not only helping people make the transition from homelessness into a stable home, but also to try to help them get over what are often mental health, addiction or family breakdown issues to ensure a permanent success story for them.

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