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

The Deputy started the question by referring to the annual report card on Government performance that the Children's Rights Alliance produces. This is an independent body and issues its report card every year. It might be useful for people to know that of the 16 measures the Children's Rights Alliance rates the Government on, our grades are up in four, the same in 12 and not down in any category. It is important to put that fact before the House. The impression the Deputy created would have somebody outside believing that we got a fail grade, which would be dishonest politics. What is here in front of me is not something I am delighted about, but the fact is, of the 16 measures the Children's Rights Alliance looks at, our grades are up in four, the same in 12 and have not gone down in any.

In reform of the childcare system, we have gone from a B to an A. When it comes to the free schoolbook scheme, we have gone from a B to an A. When it comes to children in special education getting an appropriate place, we have gone from a C to a B. When it comes to addressing food poverty in children, we have gone from a C to a B. Overall, looking at it objectively, it is a story of progress, not a story of going backwards. This is not my view. That is the view of the Children's Rights Alliance. As I am sure that group would say, it is not enough and not soon enough and we need to do more. Obviously, I take that on board and agree that we need to do more.

On the issue of child homelessness, as we all know, there are many drivers of homelessness in our society. From the Deputy's question, one would be led to believe that the main cause of homelessness is people being evicted from private rented accommodation. That would be misleading because it is not the case. The main cause of homelessness in Ireland, unfortunately, is family breakdown. No matter who is in government, it is very hard to reduce the number of families that are breaking down at any given time. This happens for all sorts of different reasons. There is also an increasing spillover from migration as well. More than 40% of people now in emergency accommodation are not Irish citizens. This is also something that is not particularly under our control.

Where homelessness occurs, our objective is to make sure it is rare, short lived and is not repeated. We do our best to make sure that if anybody experiences homelessness, it is for less than a few months. In many cases it is less than six months, and in most cases, less than a year. That being said, I appreciate that a few months can be a very long time in a child's life and can stick with them forever. This is why we are redoubling our efforts to reduce family homelessness. We have increased resources for prevention in particular, which is really important, and we are ramping up the amount of social housing being built. More was built last year than any year since the 1970s, before either the Deputy or I were born. We will build even more this year. We do not have the exact numbers for last year yet but we should have them in the next few weeks.

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