Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We certainly met the Minister. I cannot remember exactly which meeting he attended or did not attend but we certainly met him. He almost certainly was there but there was more than one meeting on this, as the Deputy can imagine. The very strong assessment from the officials was to go for the option of ending the moratorium as planned on 31 March.

In terms of statistical modelling, the view is that it is impossible for anyone to do accurate statistical modelling on something like this. When the eviction ban was put in place, most of us expected to see a fall in the number of people in emergency accommodation because that is what happened when it was previously in place during the pandemic. We now understand better that there are many other factors at play. We always understood that there were entries and exits and that exits had to be taken into account as well as the entries. The entries into homelessness are manifold. The reason we have seen the numbers of people in emergency accommodation continue to rise even while the eviction ban has been in place is that there have not been enough exits but also that there have been continuing entries. The biggest reason for people becoming homeless in the last number of months is family breakdown. I am not sure what statistician can model how many families will break down in any particular period.

There is also the issue of rising numbers of non-citizens and non-citizen families who are becoming homeless. That has increased from 14% or 15% in 2014 to nearly 40% now. It is impossible to model accurately how many people from outside the State will seek emergency accommodation.

See this speech in context