Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The housing crisis, as we know, continues to worsen and Mike Allen warned on “News at One” of the growing shortage of accommodation. Last week, Threshold warned that the majority of tenants it had helped towards the end of 2022 were at risk of homelessness due to the landlord selling their property. When the eviction ban was being introduced, I repeatedly raised with the Government the urgent need to ramp up the tenant in situscheme to secure people's homes and prevent homelessness. As there is likely to be a flood of evictions after the ban ends in April, now is the time when the Government should act. We ask that the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage publish monthly figures, for the duration of the eviction ban, from local authorities on how many tenant in situschemes they have been able to complete or how many are being processed. We have asked this previously and the Minister has failed to provide this information. There is a massive underspend in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage of almost €1 billion and we know the target of 8,000 social homes in 2022 will not be met.

Will the Taoiseach publish monthly figures on the tenant in situscheme? Has he yet been briefed on how many social homes were built last year, and will the targets be met?

See this speech in context