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

Monday is the second anniversary of the formation of this Government and of the Minister being elevated to his portfolio. In these two years, homelessness has increased by 16%. Since the Covid-19 related ban on evictions was ended last April, we have seen a 24% increase in the official figures for homelessness. We are perilously close to having 5,000 single adults in emergency accommodation, which would be the highest figure since records began. We have also had an alarming increase, not under the auspices of the Minister’s Department, but that of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, of former asylum applicants who got their leave to remain here but who are now trapped in direct provision, which is essentially being used as emergency accommodation. Our hotel system is also enormously overstretched.

The modest changes the Minister has made to the HAP are welcome, but they can only work if there are HAP properties available to rent, which there are not. Likewise, the changes to the notice-to-quit period, while welcome, are not going to change the fundamental problem of an accelerating level of notices to quit and presentations in this regard. What I would like to hear from the Minister is something that gives an indication of the urgency of the crisis we are facing over the summer, and the minor measures the Minister has announced so far do not do that. Therefore, is anything else under consideration to help us reverse this trend in the coming months?

See this speech in context