Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for their follow-up questions. The tenants in Tallaght Cross are not at risk of being de-tenanted. Deputy Ó Broin is using the terms "temporary" and "precarious" but the tenants have been in those tenancies for a very long period and are at no risk of entering emergency accommodation. No decision has been made about people in Tallaght Cross. This is something we must address as a Dáil, a Government and a society. It is not fair on people in emergency accommodation who are experiencing that crisis in their lives to be described as being in the same situation as those who might be in the private rental sector, who have never gone into emergency accommodation and who are not at risk of having to do so. If we are to have the right supports and targets to achieve sustainable exits from emergency accommodation, we have to understand exactly who is there and why. I am not responsible for direct provision or women's refuges. These are different difficulties that are being experienced depending on where the person has come from in Irish life. What I am responsible for is getting people off the streets and into emergency accommodation and from emergency accommodation into homes. We need to understand exactly who those people are and why they are there to make we can provide those exits.

There was a report in the newspapers at the weekend that we were going to recategorise non-EU nationals who did not have permission to be here. Nobody is talking about recategorising non-EU nationals but we must face up to the fact that if they do not have tenancy rights, they will be trapped permanently in emergency accommodation. In such circumstances, what is the proper way to support those people? These are the things we must look at and have an honest and open debate with ourselves and the public about the challenges we face. If we reach the figure of 10,000, it tells us nothing that the figure of 9,600 does not already tell us, which is that we are in a crisis. We know we are in a crisis but I am concerned about how we best help people facing this crisis in their lives.

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