Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

There are two issues, the first of which is the general homeless figures. I welcome that they are decreasing. That is a consequence of the eviction ban for which we have called for many years. Unfortunately, it has been largely lifted and I think we will see an increase in general homelessness as a consequence of that because evictions of private tenancies are the number one cause of homelessness and the number one reason for evictions is landlords selling, which will return and will drive that increase. There is a particular issue which should not be lost, namely, the issue about the increase in homeless single adults. The organisations involved are crying out about the crisis in this area. Anthony Flynn of Inner City Helping Homeless says that winter is going to be a major issue for that organisation and that deaths will skyrocket. Simon has warned that the figures in Dublin will go over 3,000 by Christmas and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is getting 15,000 calls a month. Within this general picture, we have a particular crisis in this regard which needs to be addressed.

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