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

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

As the Minister knows, this Christmas morning more than 4,000 children will wake up in emergency accommodation. They will not wake up in a home of their own but in a hub, hostel or bed and breakfast. Other children will wake up in the accommodation of family and friends. Astonishingly, some may even wake up rough sleeping. This is the single highest number of children in Government-funded emergency accommodation since any records began, not just the recent series released by the Department but, in fact, since the census recorded these figures. As the Minister knows, the most recent figures show that more than 13,000 adults and children were in emergency accommodation funded by the Department. That is an increase of almost 20% on last year.

However, when the length of time the Minister's partners in government, Fine Gael, have been in office is considered, or his own time through confidence and supply and as Minister, it can be seen that no matter what the starting point, the number of adults, children, singles, families and pensioners in emergency accommodation on his watch and that of his partners in government has increased substantially. In fact, in 2011, when Fine Gael first took office, just over 600 children were recorded as being in emergency accommodation in that year's census. That was at the depth of the recession after several years of harsh austerity budgets implemented by the Minister's party, in the first instance. Since then, the economy, at a macroeconomic level, has rebounded. We are now at a stage of almost full employment, tax revenues are buoyant and we have huge surpluses. Yet, year on year and month on month, under the Minister's watch, homelessness increases.

The question "Why?" has to be asked. This is not a force of nature. This is not something that can be blamed on anything else bar Government policy. Remarkably, the Government had lower social housing targets in its housing plan than those in the previous Fine Gael NDP by approximately 1,000 units a year. Also, year on year, the Government has consistently missed those targets and is likely to miss those targets again, even if it does slightly better than last year. It is not just that the Government is missing its social housing targets. Its affordable housing targets are the most embarrassing. I spoke to a member of a leading NGO dealing with homelessness last week, who said that research it is working on, which it will publish next year, is showing that the number of people whose incomes are above the threshold for social housing, who are in full-time employment and are now in emergency accommodation, has grown very significantly. The Government continues to rely on the private rental sector to meet social and affordable housing need at a time when that sector is in deep crisis and fails to deliver social and affordable housing. That is the reason these numbers are going in the direction they are.

One of the most remarkable things about budget 2024 is that it does not have a single additional measure to try to tackle the rise in families becoming homeless or to accelerate the exit of those people from emergency accommodation. There is not a single measure above what the Government was going to do anyway. That is in stark contrast to the Sinn Féin alternative budget. When I listen to the Minister, he never seems to know which document he is talking about because he tells us it was published before the budget and then after. He tells us it is two pages long and then it is something more. I remind him, as we do every year, that the Sinn Féin document sets out very clearly how a government that is serious about building social and affordable homes at scale could deliver 20,000 of those homes next year. The problem is not that the Minister cannot do it. He lacks the ambition and the support from his Cabinet colleagues to do it.

We also outlined very clearly how, through using emergency planning and procurement powers, new building technologies, and vacant and derelict homes, at least an additional 1,000 units could be supplied to end homelessness for the over-55s in a single year and dramatically reduce the number of adults and children in emergency accommodation. The Government has signed up to the Lisbon declaration, which is very laudable, but it has no plan to reduce year on year the number of people in emergency accommodation. We have long called on the Minister to double the number of Housing First tenancies for those 6,000 single people, many of whom are not currently eligible for the scheme because the threshold is set too high and there are not enough places, to deliver at least 500.

The Minister likes to take credit for the tenant in situscheme even though he sat on his hands for two years and refused to open the scheme. The number of families or single people who would not have become homeless if he had acted in 2020 and 2021, when we urged him to, can be imagined. I acknowledge, because it is the right thing to do, that the tenant in situscheme for social housing is now working in most local authorities, although there are still problems in some, but cost-rental tenant in situcontinues to underperform. It is in the same place tenant in situwas in April last year and needs more attention.

Our alternative budget shows there are choices. We do not have to allow homelessness to increase year on year and we do not have to allow more children and pensioners to spend Christmas in emergency accommodation, but all of that will only be possible if the Government takes the kind of emergency action we are proposing. The Minister will know the Bill very well. It is an exact replica, with some minor changes, of legislation the Minister introduced last year. As we said then and I say now, we are not saying that this Bill fixes the problem but it gives crucial breathing space. First, it gives breathing space to those adults and children who are currently at imminent risk of presenting into emergency accommodation and will spend Christmas and the new year in homeless accommodation unless something is done. It also provides emergency breathing space for the Minister to take the kinds of actions that I, along with other members of the Opposition and NGOs dealing with homelessness, have been asking for since the start. The Minister squandered that opportunity last year. That is why a ban on evictions where tenants had done nothing wrong was not as effective as it would have otherwise been, but it had an impact last year. Family presentations fell month on month while the ban was in place and singles were soon to follow. We are here, therefore, at the mouth of Christmas to ask the Minister not to let homelessness rise over the coming weeks and months, and to support this Bill.

As I am sure the Minister's officials have told him, there are some drafting errors on page 4 of the Bill. These would be easily dealt with through expedited Committee and Remaining Stages. If the Government is serious, it will not only allow this Bill to go through but will discuss with the Opposition the provision of additional time tomorrow and Thursday to get it through Committee and Remaining Stages.

We do not need scrutiny, as this was done last year with the Minister's legislation. We could then get it through the Seanad on Friday for the President to be able to enact next year. If the Minister does not do that, what will happen is on the watch of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. It will be more women, more men, more children and more pensioners in emergency accommodation. It is not acceptable and it does not have to happen. On that basis I commend this Bill to the House.

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