John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As the Minister is well aware, the plan was launched on 9 November last year, so we are quickly approaching the first anniversary of its publication in two days' time. Essentially, we are in the month of November. The strategy kicked in in January, so we are nearly one year through a three-year strategy. I ask the Minister to honestly give his assessment as to whether the strategy is working. The statistics do not lie. If we look at the youth homeless statistics from September, they show there are 1,510 homeless young people between the ages of 18 and 24. Over the course of the last year, that figure has actually increased by 20%. We are one third of the way through a three-year strategy and youth homeless figures have gone up one fifth by 20%. I will ask a genuine question as to whether the Minister sees this strategy as actually working. Is it having the positive impact it should or is there a broader issue in terms of the failure to get to grips with the housing crisis overall?

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