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

I thank all Members for their contributions, both those with whom I agree and those I do not. I will make some brief concluding remarks.

I am grateful for the Minister's concern for my reputation, but none of what I said yesterday is beneath me and I stand over all of it. I am firmly of the view that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, through pursuing the wrong policy options on housing, are conspiring to make things worse. Those remarks apply not just to the Government but also historical ones. Whether they are doing it knowingly, intentionally or unintentionally is a separate issue, but if the same broad policy consensus is pursued, Government after Government, with the same flawed results, what am I to assume? The basis of those policies is straightforward. It is under-investment in public housing to meet a need for social and affordable housing. That is why the numbers on housing lists go up, with rent supplement, the level of dependence on the housing assistant payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and homelessness. There has been a decades long over-reliance on the private sector to meet the need for social and affordable housing. The figures are clear over a lengthy period.

I also stand over my remarks about the figures. Ms Eileen Gleeson, the most senior homeless services official in the State; Mr. Eoin O'Sullivan, the Trinity College Dublin academic who helped to design the homeless reporting system, and Mr. Brendan Kenny all told us in committee meetings and on the airwaves that the vast majority of adults and children who had been removed from the homeless figures over the course of 2018 were homeless, accessing homeless services and had priority at the time they were removed. They should not have been removed from the figures. There was a small number in County Louth who were wrongly categorised, but according to Mr. Brendan Kenny, Ms Eileen Gleeson and Mr. Eoin O'Sullivan - the record of the Dáil shows this clearly - the vast majority of the 1,606 people were homeless and in homeless services at the time they were removed from the figures. The Minister can respond afterwards, but he should listen to the point I am making.

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