Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to elaborate upon the comments that were made by the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, at the weekend in respect of lreland's rate of homelessness and to clarify the technical issues associated with making international comparisons. The Taoiseach is very well informed about the situation relating to housing and homelessness. He has immersed himself fully in our Department's brief, along with the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in the past number of months and has attended a housing summit. He has worked with the Minister to ensure that we get extra money, with over €500 million allocated in the budget. We have secured over €6 billion of taxpayers' money to spend on this matter in the years ahead. The spend next year will be close to €2 billion. The Taoiseach is very well informed and very much aware that the position is not acceptable.

The Taoiseach and the Minister are correct that Ireland's rate of homelessness is low by international standards, including among EU member states and by comparison to our nearest neighbours. It is also important to acknowledge that bringing clarification to this issue is not to suggest that any excuses are being made for the number of households that are currently without permanent accommodation. Let me be crystal clear: the levels of homelessness we are currently experiencing in this country, including recent increases, are absolutely unacceptable. No one is disputing that and the Taoiseach, the Minister, the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Phelan, and I have said it repeatedly.

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The figures are there for everyone to see and no one is hiding from this. We have consistently said we will spend money on fixing this over a period but we cannot fix it in a week. We are certainly not hiding from the facts.

It is not good enough that more than 3,000 children are without permanent homes, that families are residing in hotels or that individuals are sleeping on the streets of our cities. However, neither is it acceptable to hear commentators talking down our country. Over the past two years we have seen this narrative reflected in the national media. It has been claimed that homelessness in Ireland is at its worst since the Famine and that we have a crisis that is the worst in Europe. Assertions have been made to the effect that homelessness in Ireland is at such crisis levels that we should be excused from the requirements of EU law in responding.

Some of this narrative has seeped into international coverage of our housing system, and it is damaging to Ireland’s international reputation that our social response to this issue is being portrayed as dysfunctional. As Teachtaí Dála we have a responsibility in this regard, and the good work being done in difficult circumstances needs to be recognised. We compliment the good work that is being done through all our local authorities, housing agencies, approved housing bodies and NGOs working in the sector, which spend a great deal of money tackling this issue. Some of it is taxpayers' money but some they raise themselves. They work night after night to provide services to people who are homeless and to help us find solutions for them. We cannot consistently undermine the great work they do.

There are a number of readily available international comparative studies on homelessness, which illustrate Ireland's position in this regard. One such report is that produced recently by the OECD, which sees Ireland in the top tier of 30 international nations. One of the most comprehensive EU comparisons ever carried out by the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless found Ireland to have one of the lowest rates of homelessness among member states. Of course, these comparisons need to be contextualised. Direct international comparisons are difficult because of the availability, type, quality and consistency of data in different countries. Some commentators say this lack of international uniformity means that we should not view Ireland’s favourable position in a positive light. However, Ireland is a world leader in the production of consistent and timely quality data. The homelessness data that is available for Ireland is not contested by our homeless services sector, as it is for many other nations where governments are accused of ignoring homelessness or underplaying the figures, which we certainly do not. When we accept the fact the data available for Ireland is timely, consistent and comprehensive then we can understand that, even despite the definitional variations that may arise in comparisons, it is clear that Ireland’s homeless rate is not extraordinary, and is actually considerably lower than many other countries that are comparable in socioeconomic and cultural terms.

I will now provide a direct comparison between our homeless rates and those in England and Scotland. These two nations also put considerable effort into monitoring homelessness and producing data, and so a direct comparison is possible. Based on the most recent reports, which were for September, there are 8,374 individuals, men, women and children, residing in emergency accommodation. These individuals equate to approximately 4,600 households. Based on census data from 2016, we had a national population of 4.76 million, broken down into 1.7 million households. A household can be a single person living alone or two or more persons living together.

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