Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The advice people are given is that their application will be noted, and a member of the team will be in contact once they have further details and clarity from the Minister's Department. It is, therefore, incredibly important that he gets that information out as soon as possible. It is long overdue but as is often the case with this Government, it might be better late than never. We are talking about human beings. The stress of this is unbelievable. I am not sure if it gets through to the Minister what it must be like to go to sleep every night and to just not know. People do not want to overhold, but they are being advised that this might be the only option because there is nowhere else for them to go. There is nowhere for them to rent - I think we can all agree on that - and emergency accommodation is not where people want to go, particularly if they have kids who have additional or special needs or if they themselves have special needs.

I am dealing with a man in his 60s who is overholding. The stress of that is absolutely incredible. They are waiting for information from the Minister's Department with regard to a homeless prevention measure in the middle of a housing crisis the Government has caused. I really do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister this morning with regard to this, and I will convey that back to my constituents, but it will give me absolutely no pleasure to do it.

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