Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is the kind of spin I am referring to when I say that people feel that sense of hopelessness, because the Taoiseach is talking about going from an A to a B in all of these different categories. As I said, child homelessness is up by 55% since this Government took office. This is the main figure that needs to be addressed.

On the eviction ban, in almost every single month since the Taoiseach has been in office, child homelessness has increased. The biggest decreases we saw were while the eviction ban was in place. They are the facts and the ban was lifted anyway.

If we look at the numbers for the six months prior to the eviction ban, child homelessness increased by 14.9% and during the eviction ban, child homeless decreased by 0.6%.

A large part of the problem in respect of housing is that the targets have set us up for failure. For a start, they are too low and then the Government is failing to meet them. They are nowhere near what we need to meet demand. According to the leak to The Irish Times, the Housing Commission report states that Ireland needs between 42,000 and 62,000 homes each year. The Minister has had this report since November 2022. Is the Government going to publish that report? I will stick with the one question to try to get an answer to it.

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