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

When the December figures were published, Simon Communities stated that homelessness is poised to increase in the coming months. They would know because they are on the front line.

The problem is there is a growing gap between the answers that the Minister gives to these questions on the floor of the Dáil and the reality for many thousands of adults and children who are experiencing homelessness. Since Deputy O'Brien has been Minister, homelessness has gone up a shocking 61%. Child homelessness has increased by 74%. I do not accept, even if all of the actions that the Minister has outlined come to pass, that this, in and of itself, will start to have homeless numbers reduce. Will the Minister do anything new or different this year to last year to address this escalating crisis? Even if the Minister meets his 9,100 new build social housing target for last year, homelessness increased by 20% over the past year. Moreover, increasing social housing output this year by an extra 200 units to 9,300 will not tackle this. Will the Minister do anything different or will homeless continue to rise month on month under his watch?

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