Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Just before Leaders' Questions, we had an hour and a half of questions on housing, many of which related to the situation of those in homeless emergency accommodation. As I said in reply to Deputies then, it remains the number one challenge we have. I have engaged directly with our local authorities with regard to allocations and, particularly, allocating families permanent social homes to enable people to exit emergency accommodation. In quarter 2 this year, 630 families exited emergency accommodation into safe and secure homes. We see a continued increase in social housing output. Last year, we built 8,110 new social homes and delivered more than 11,000 in total, and we will do more than that this year. It is very important we do that. They are the permanent solutions for people, but homelessness is complex. Looking at the data we publish every month, there are many reasons people come into emergency accommodation. Our job is to make sure that they are supported when that happens and can exit as quickly as possible from that situation, with a particular focus on children.

See this speech in context