Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely accept that a core responsibility of Government is to ensure there is a safety net for people who, for whatever reason, find themselves without a home, without income and often with many other challenges, from addiction to family break-up to all sorts of individual personal challenges. This is why we work with people such as Brother Kevin, who is a great person and there are many others like him, who are working for people who are very vulnerable. We spend more than €160 million a year working with organisations to provide homeless services in better emergency accommodation while we help people transition back into a home of their own. There are far too many people homeless in Ireland. We know this. The way to solve it is to continue to improve the quality of the supports available in emergency accommodation. The core way in which this will be solved is to increase significantly the supply of social housing, affordable housing and affordable rental. All of these are happening. They cannot happen quickly enough but they are happening at a pace that the Government will continue to prioritise.

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