Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Here we go again. Another year, another Christmas, and another record for the Minister's Government for all the wrong reasons. There are 13,179 people in emergency accommodation and 3,991 of them are children. This is a shocking increase of 1,782 people since October 2022.

The Minister tells us that the Housing For All plan is working, so how have we gotten to this point? It cannot be working with more and more people entering homelessness, month after month after month. The people know who caused this absolute mess and crisis for ordinary working families. It is the Minister's party, Fianna Fáil, and it is Fine Gael.

I want to ask the Minister a few questions tonight. What does the Minister say to people who contact him desperate to put a roof over their heads this Christmas? What does the Minister say to the mother whose child is asking how Santa will come into the hotel room with the presents? What does the Minister say to the family asking themselves as they face Christmas dinner sitting in a hub how they got there? This is a Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policy disaster that will live in the memory of people the Minister has failed.

This no-fault eviction ban will keep people in their rented accommodation and will stop children and families entering homelessness. We believe the Minister is not opposing this legislation but I ask him to act on it by progressing it on Committee Stage quickly and introducing it as law.

Otherwise, we will have the same old cynical Fianna Fáil: another stroke, especially at Christmastime, to save face. People need certainty, a roof over their head and no more no-fault evictions.

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