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

The difficulty with the Minister's response is it does not suggest that the Government will do anything different in the short to medium term to deal with the two specific problems causing this increase in family homelessness. First, we are seeing a significant exit of landlords from the market. The Minister is right about that. They are going and will not stay. They are availing of high market prices to cease being landlords. I have heard nothing from Government on what we do to prevent the families, particularly families on the housing assistance payment, HAP, and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, who are in those properties and who are at risk of homelessness.

Second, we have seen a collapse in exits from emergency accommodation, particularly in Dublin. The exits last month were 35, down from several hundred per month 18 to 24 months ago. My question does not concern what will happen in two or three years' time, if the Minister's plan works at all. What specific interventions will he make now to try to stop the flow of families into emergency accommodation and speed up exits next month, the month after and the month after that?

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