Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

In 2019, when the number of people living in homeless emergency accommodation exceeded 10,000 for the first time, the Minister denounced the Fine Gael Government for shattering yet another record. He went on to say this could not continue and promised Fianna Fáil would fix the housing crisis. He is now coming towards the end of his term as Minister for housing and there are now 14,429 people living in emergency homeless accommodation. Shamefully, this includes 4,401 children who are growing up without a home. That is a staggering increase of 66% since the Minister took office. At the same time under his watch, there are local authorities that have not been turning around social homes for more than a year. In Limerick, for example, social homes have been sitting empty for an average of 62 weeks before being re-let. How is it that the Minister has not tackled the scandalous waste of social housing in his term in office?

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