Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We spoke about housing and homelessness earlier on Leaders' Questions and I do not wish to repeat anything I said. I simply draw Deputies' attention to my remarks at the time. International statistics always come with a health warning and different countries collect statistics in different ways and have different definitions, whether for unemployment, GDP and pretty much everything. Some countries have a wider definition of homelessness and others have a lesser definition. The reason we have a body like the OECD is that it compares like with like, to the extent that it is possible. Deputies are very happy to use OECD statistics on other occasions and I am not going to be selective about it. I am willing to use OECD numbers whether they are good or bad. In a recentThe Irish Timesarticle I read of a person living in one of the family hubs with her family, who was so satisfied with the accommodation she did not now feel homeless yet our statistics regard her as homeless. On "Morning Ireland" this morning I heard that some people believe that children in their adult years and who are living at home with their parents while saving up for a deposit should be considered homeless but I would not agree that somebody living with his or her parents was in the same category as somebody sleeping rough, with both considered homeless. I was asked a definite question about Ireland being among the highest for homelessness, which it is not. Nobody is now making that assertion. It was not an attempt to do anything or to normalise anything or play it down but a simple answer to a straightforward question, something I am often accused of not doing. I am certainly not interested in debating statistics here with anyone. I have heard other people doing it in the past few days but I have not got involved.

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