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

I thank the Deputy for raising this very important issue. I want to say how filled with sadness I was when I read about the killing of Timothy Hourihane in Cork. On behalf of the entire House, I extend my sympathies to his friends, to his family and to all of those who worked with him down the years. An Garda Síochána is treating this death as a homicide and, therefore, a criminal investigation is under way. I encourage anyone who has any information whatsoever about this suspected homicide to give that information to the Garda. We do not know the circumstances of his death and who killed him. I do not think it is right for us to speculate on that, suffice to say that anybody who has any information as to who was responsible for the killing of this poor man should share that information with the Garda.

As the Deputy knows, I am always reluctant to talk about individual cases. However, much information about this case is already in the public domain. When one reads about it, it is a truly sad story. It is a real human tragedy. Mr. Hourihane was treated for addiction for over a year. After that, he was discharged to the care of his family. He was offered an apartment in Nicholas Street in Cork but never took up the apartment. For that reason, it was passed on to somebody else. He was supported by homeless charities on a number of occasions over the course of the past two years. He is somebody whose family really tried to help him, who was helped by the housing charities and who was helped by addiction services. He was also provided with an apartment, all funded by Government. Unfortunately, this demonstrates how complex the problem of homelessness often is, how hard it can be to help people but how we should never give up trying to help people, no matter what the circumstances.

On the wider issue of homelessness, the Government has acknowledged on many occasions that this is a problem which we are really struggling to solve. Homelessness is a stain on our society. Over 100,000 people now live in emergency accommodation, although the numbers rough-sleeping is much lower than that, probably around 150. No level of it is acceptable, however.

In terms of what we are doing, we are increasing funding for homelessness supports and for homelessness agencies. The budget provided a €20 million increase in funding for homelessness agencies and supports, increasing the budget for homelessness to €166 million. I know full well, however, that this is only treating the symptoms and not the underlying problem. To treat the underlying problem, we need to build much more social housing. We have now embarked on the biggest social housing programme in many decades. This year over 10,000 units will be added to the social housing stock, more than any year this century. About 11,000 units will be added next year. It is making a difference, particularly when it is connected to Housing First where we try to ensure people who are rough-sleeping or have difficulty holding down a tenancy are given the supports they need to hold on to that apartment or house if they are given one.

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