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

As the Minister knows, last year, more than 16,000 eviction notices were issued by landlords to tenants in the private rental sector and more than half of those eviction notices were on grounds of sale. The sale of property is the single largest driver of homelessness for families, couples, singles and pensioners. As a consequence, in the past year alone, the number of people in emergency accommodation funded by the Department has increased by a significant 13%. We have never had as many adults and children, single people, couples, families and pensioners in emergency accommodation since these records began.

In April 2023, under pressure from the Opposition and front-line homeless service providers, the tenant in situ scheme was properly reopened and local authorities, in particular, were given the flexibility they needed to ensure they could buy homes to prevent families and singles becoming homeless. While we do not have the final figures for last year, somewhere in the region of 2,500 households have been prevented from the problem of homelessness because of that scheme. This scheme is working very well. The parliamentary questions that the Minister signed off on today with respect to the scheme, which came from Deputies of all parties, Government and Opposition, show this. Unfortunately, the scheme has always had its opponents, both in the Government and the Civil Service. There are some who think the State should not be using any of its capital funding for acquisitions. I have heard people suggest that, somehow, local authorities are taking the easy option by buying these homes when other options are available for people at risk of homelessness.

While there is no evidence to support any of that, there are two very significant problems right now, and the Minister knows what both of them are. The failure of the Government last year to set the capital ceilings and targets for this year means the scheme is paused and there are hundreds of applications pending a decision across the State. More worryingly, the memo that was sent by the Department to local authorities a number of weeks ago set out a series of new and significant restrictions to the scheme. If adequate funding is not provided alongside the new restrictions, then real people - families, children and pensioners, who would otherwise have got access to this scheme if the rules remained the same, will be denied access to it this year and will be at greater risk of homelessness.

I appreciate that the Minister is new to the job. I appreciate that he has a huge learning curve to meet and that he is listening to many different views on this. However, I urge him not just to listen to his officials but to talk to the front-line homeless service providers in local authorities and read carefully the letters that, I understand, he has been sent by some of our leading homeless charities. They are telling him that if he does not, at a minimum, provide the same level of funding this year as last year, specifically for the tenant in situ scheme, local authorities will run out of funding before the year-end. If the Minister allows the specific restrictions that we have listed in our motion to make their way into the circular that he will sign, fewer homes will be bought and more people will be at risk of homelessness. This is one of the first big decisions that Deputy Browne is going to have to make as Minister and it is going to say a lot about the trajectory of travel in his tenure over the time ahead. There are occasions when we will have political rows across the Chamber but this is one where we are telling him that a decision of the Government two years ago was the right one. The scheme is working and we are urging the Minister, as are front-line service providers in local authorities and homeless charities, not to make the wrong decision.

Here is the thing. If he makes the wrong decision, and if people who would otherwise have been prevented from going into homelessness end up in emergency accommodation because of his decision, that is on him. Everything else we talk about at this point is the responsibility of his predecessors. The Minister, and he alone, will ultimately make the decision. Despite the fact that the wording of his amendment is deeply disappointing, I urge him to take time to reflect before he signs off on that circular. He should listen to the people on the front line, who we trust to tackle the issue of homelessness, and listen to his own backbenchers, who know this scheme is working. He should ensure, hopefully as a matter of urgency, that when he makes the final decision on capital allocation and signs off on that final circular, our local authorities have the money and the flexibility to ensure no household, family, single person or couple without children will be forced into homelessness because of a bad decision by the Minister and his colleagues. He can do the right thing but it is not in his amendment. I urge him to reconsider.

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