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

In response to questions he said: "By international standards, compared with our peers, we have a low level of homelessness. They are the stats and we can provide them for you. Of course it is a good thing that in Ireland we have a low level of homelessness compared with our peer countries." I have in my hand the statistics and the report from the Taoiseach's press office which we all have now. There is not a shred of evidence in this report that allows the Taoiseach to make that claim. It does not allow anybody to say that our level of homelessness is high or low. On that basis, the Taoiseach should withdraw his comments. It is not acceptable for the Taoiseach of the country to deliberately, which is what he is doing in my view, downplay the level of homelessness or to present the picture as something other than what it is. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy's defence of the Taoiseach at the housing committee this morning was, I think, regrettable.

I do not have further time to go through other points I would like to make but I do not think the Government is doing enough. I am not saying it is not doing anything, but it is not doing enough and that is why the problem is getting worse. Until it accepts that, the figures month on month are going to continue to go in the wrong direction.

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