Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last year, 88 families and 166 children entered emergency accommodation in Cork city. In April, after the Government cruelly lifted the eviction ban, 32 children were forced to leave their homes and to sleep in a hotel, almost double the number in March. Cork city Accommodation Placement Service saw a 26% increase in the number of presentations, and a total of 938 individuals. It saw a 49% increase in 2022, with more than 5,000 repeat representations. Can the Minister of State please ask the Minister the straightforward question that I asked him last year? How many children must become homeless before he will resign and before he, the Minister of State and this Government will accept its policies have failed? There are now 4,150 homeless children. Must it be 4,500 or 5,000 children? How many children must become homeless before the Government admits it is wrong and its strategy does not work? Those are the figures. The Minister of State has listed figures and talked about all the different schemes that are available. We have an all-time high of people and children using homeless services, an all-time high in rents and an all-time high in relation to house prices. Looking at the homeless figures we have, they are only a fraction of the real figures we get when we talk to the Simon Community and other organisations.

I will provide a couple of examples. I know of a woman who is 34 weeks pregnant. She was in my office on Monday. When she comes out of hospital - God is good and when the child is born hopefully everything will be fine - she will be homeless. Can you imagine that? She will be homeless. I know of another person who has a four-year-old daughter who has been couch-surfing between friends and family since 2022. She is not even part of the statistics. The Government does not even know who she is. Finally, I know of a mother with two young sons who has been 15 months in emergency accommodation. The only thing those boys will remember is growing up in a hotel. For all the Minister of State's statistics and figures, these are real life people.

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