Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. It is an important one. A priority for me as Minister is to continue tackling the serious problem that is homelessness. The continuing increase in the numbers, which I flagged a number of months ago and which was to be expected, is of serious concern to me as I know it is to the Deputy. The Government, local authorities and others are making every effort to reduce homelessness. I will go through some more details shortly. Key to this is the delivery of new social housing and boosting overall supply. I want a housing-led response to homelessness. That is what we are focused on.

We are investing significantly in social and affordable housing, with record funding allocated for current and capital expenditure this year alone. This year, funding is in place to deliver 11,800 new social homes, including 9,000 new builds. That is the highest number in any given year in the history of the State and is thus building on the progress we made last year when, even with Covid, we delivered 9,183 new social homes, a 17% increase on 2020.

More specifically, I have established the national homeless action committee, a standing committee within Government made up of NGOs, me and representatives from other relevant Departments, reflecting a whole-of-government approach. Its initial key priorities are the advancement of additional measures to prevent homelessness and work on the youth homelessness strategy. There will be a voids programme for 2022 with an emphasis on quick turnaround and reletting of vacant social housing stock to those on social housing waiting lists, including those in emergency accommodation. I want a specific focus on that and discussed it with our main local authorities recently. I also reinstated the delegated sanction to local authorities in respect of social housing acquisitions that meet certain criteria. This will allow local authorities more flexibility to secure acquisitions that support a household to exit homelessness or to prevent homelessness.

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