Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is a very disappointing response. The Minister is essentially admitting these figures are not accurate but he is not willing to change their method of collation. None of the three categories of people I talked about pertains to people in care. If a family is put out of its home as a result of domestic violence, it is put into a domestic violence emergency accommodation shelter. That is emergency accommodation for the homeless. If a family or individuals are put into emergency accommodation or bed-and-breakfast accommodation funded through the new communities unit, they are put into emergency accommodation.

The 400 families in direct provision that have stamp 4 status are not in care.

I am not saying that the figures would make a difference - there is no reason that the Minister could not have his Department's figures alongside those from Tusla and so on - but we do not have an adequate picture of the number of adults and children who are homeless. How can the Minister then develop a strategy for combating the long-term housing needs of these categories, which is the primary responsibility of his Department, without including them? The figures that the Minister has provided to the House are substantially better than those of some years ago. The fact that we get them monthly and in this form is good, but these three categories of family are homeless. Unless they are mentioned in the overall figures, we will not have an adequate picture and our response will not be adequate.

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