Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of child and family homelessness. Assisting individuals and families facing homelessness is a major focus for the Government and increasing the supply of housing, particularly social housing, is critical in responding to homelessness. We are now seeing record levels of investment being provided through Housing for All. In 2024, more than €5 billion is being provided for the provision of housing and we anticipate more social housing will be provided this year than in any year since the 1970s. Budget 2024 also allocated €242 million specifically for homeless services, including prevention. It will help with provision of emergency accommodation for those who need it, as well as increased prevention activity. Local authorities and their service delivery providers will work closely with all households in emergency accommodation to help them secure an exit to a tenancy. Local authorities have been sanctioned to acquire 1,500 social homes, mainly focused on acquiring properties where a social housing tenant has received a notice of termination and is at risk of homelessness. For private tenants at risk of homelessness who are not in receipt of social housing and do not qualify for it, the cost-rental tenant in situscheme has been introduced. The national homelessness action committee, chaired by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was established in quarter 4 of 2021. The overarching objective of the committee is to ensure a renewed emphasis is brought to collaborating across government to implement actions in Housing for All, along with bringing better coherence and co-ordination of homelessness-related services in delivering policy measures and actions to reduce homelessness. In terms of the income limits for social housing and cost rental, we keep them under review. We have raised them and I have no doubt we will raise them again to take into account rising housing costs, as well as inflation and rising incomes.

Deputy Barry raised an issue relating to a particular childcare service in Cork city. I do not have information to hand on that but I will make inquiries with the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman.

Deputy McAuliffe referred to the fact that the Cabinet today approved the establishment of the area intervention task force for the Ballymun area. I am delighted that John Costello, formerly of the Dublin county board, has agreed to take that on. It is a really good choice and I am delighted he has agreed to take on the role. I was in touch with him about it today. A dedicated capital budget is being provided to co-fund the task force by central and local government. I agree with the Deputy. I expect public servants and public bodies, whether that is the council, An Garda Síochána, Tusla or others, to engage fully with this body. It has worked well in Drogheda and the north-east inner city. It requires people to come to the table in a meaningful way. They cannot just show up at the meetings but, rather, must show up and then act on what happens at the meetings. We will monitor that closely and make sure it happens in Ballymun. I recognise the Deputy in particular for raising this issue and advocating for the area consistently in the Chamber for the past four years. I am glad this task force is now up and running. I hope it will demonstrate good results on the ground. We are keen to have an enterprise focus to it as well. It is an area of great social deprivation and relatively high unemployment, yet it is surrounded by an area in which there is a huge amount of employment and jobs available. It is important that we have an enterprise focus to this too.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor referred to funding for food banks. I think the Department of Social Protection and the fund for European aid to the most deprived, FEAD, which is an EU programme, provides funding for that.I will certainly check that. There are different models, however. Crosscare used to provide a food bank in my area of Blanchardstown but it has gone to a very different model. I met the organisation before Christmas and I was really impressed. It has moved away from the model where people queue up for or come in to receive food or food parcels to a model where it delivers the parcels to the house. That is destigmatising. It also sits down to work individually with each household and that has enabled it to find out in many cases that people have entitlements they have not been claiming or, in some cases, all they needed was help with a particular bill or issue. Once that is done, they are able to go back to buying their groceries and other shopping in the shops, just as we all do. It is important that we have models that enable people to avoid becoming dependent on charity provision. That is a very good model to be considered in other areas too. I echo the Deputy's comments on the need to continue to improve our public services to cope with the rising needs of our society and population.

I did not catch everything Deputy Ó Murchú said, but I trust the Garda to make the right decisions on such matters and trust social workers and Tusla to make the right decisions with regard to child protection. Often, they are the only ones who really know what is going on within a family situation and whether taking a child away from a family is the right thing to do. That is always a very big decision to make.

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