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

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. Without doubt, children are the most valuable citizens we have in the country. That is why we introduced free GP care for all children under six years in order that parents would not have to worry about where they would find the money to take their children to see the doctor. It is why we introduced two full years of free pre-school. It is why we extended maternity benefit and introduced paternity benefit. It is why we invest so much in the affordable childcare scheme which will be expanded this year to include middle income families, thus making childcare much more affordable. It is why we have improved child protection, established Tusla and introduced measures such as mandatory reporting. It is why we have worked so hard to increase the number of parents who have jobs, increase living standards and pay, improve the welfare system by increasing the child dependant allowance and improving the system for one-parent families. It is why we have seen the incidence of child poverty decrease in each of the past four years, for which we have numbers. It is why we have seen the number of children suffering deprivation decrease in each of the past four years, for which we have numbers. It is due to the improvement in the economy and the social policies pursued by the Government.

On the question raised by the Deputy, I do not have a figure for the other hospitals. The Government does not collect those figures but perhaps those hospitals have the numbers if the Deputy wishes to seek them from them. I know going to an accident and emergency department is a very stressful experience for any parent and I am sure that it compounded if someone is also living in emergency accommodation. None of us wants to see children forced to live in emergency accommodation and none of us likes the idea of children having to do their homework on a hotel bed or sharing a room with a parent or many other children.

That is why we have invested in the family hubs of which there are now 26. It is not a long-term solution but it is certainly better than a hotel or a bed and breakfast. It means that children have an address, play facilities, washing facilities and somewhere to store their belongings. I have been to visit those family hubs and have spoken with the families who live there. None of them is a place such as what the Deputy described in her contribution. That is also why we are ramping up the provision of social housing. We do not have the exact figures yet, we will have them in a few weeks, but we believe that we have increased our stock of social housing by roughly 8,000 houses last year.

That means there are 8,000 individuals and families living in a social housing home that was not part of the housing stock only one year ago. More than 4,000 of those homes are new builds erected by local authorities and councils. Supply is the solution and we are providing additional housing, including social housing, in order that we can get those families out of emergency accommodation and into secure tenancies. We are doing in housing what we have already done in health, childcare and education and on social welfare and incomes. We have delivered on reducing child poverty, child deprivation and all those things and we need to apply the same to housing now as well.

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