Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A pre-budget submission from Focus Ireland has highlighted some pretty damning figures for the Government on the issue of family homelessness. The number of families falling into homelessness has risen by more than tenfold since 2011. This means that when Fine Gael came to power, eight families were becoming homeless every month. Eight years later, that figure has risen to 90 families per month. It is not new to state the Government has failed to get to grips with the scale of the housing crisis. It has not delivered solutions for ordinary families who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. The first thing the Minister must do to solve this crisis is to have the political will to do so. Does the Minister agree that the rate of family homelessness in this State constitutes a national emergency, and can he outline precisely the measures that will be taken in budget 2020 to address this dire situation?

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