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

Pages 26 and 27 of the programme for Government contain a series of commitments to tackle the homelessness crisis. Obviously having accurate data for the numbers of people in emergency accommodation is vital to track the progress or otherwise of these commitments. On Monday the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government alleged that local authorities had wrongly included 600 people in their homeless person figures. However, it now appears that none of the people in question is in private rented accommodation or a council tenancy and they are all in emergency or temporary accommodation. Will the Minister explain why, on his instructions, councils were told to remove homeless families from the March report? Is this not a case of deliberately manipulating the figures? Will the Minister apologise to homeless families for treating them in this way and give a commitment to publish updated and accurate figures for March as a matter of urgency?

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