Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The 2016 programme for Government committed to tackling child poverty and preventing family and youth homelessness. Earlier this year, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reported serious concern about the large number of children in Ireland living in poverty, food insecurity and homelessness. The hurt and trauma for homeless children and young people was documented by the Ombudsman for Children in 2012 and repeatedly in the office's annual reports before and after the children's experience of homelessness in Ireland report published more than a decade ago. Indeed, Focus Ireland has set out how children living in homelessness causes such severe trauma which can result in lifelong damage. The Government scored a D on housing in the Children's Rights Alliance report card for this year, the organisation highlighting that a key driver of family homelessness is the lack of affordable secure housing and an over-reliance on private market provision.

In its child guarantee action plan, the Government has committed to the delivery of 90,000 new social homes and 18,000 cost rentals by 2030. Not alone are these targets insufficient, we know well that under a Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Government, these targets will never be met. Will the Taoiseach say if the new unit will prioritise child homelessness in its schedule of work and if this work will include an implementation and monitoring mechanism to ensure past failures to deliver will not be repeated?

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