John Connolly (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach identified the six areas where the Government sees the potential to make the most difference to children living in poverty. One of those mentioned is family homelessness. If the Taoiseach will forgive me, I am going to be parochial on the issue. As the Taoiseach will be aware, the homelessness figures are calculated monthly per region for nine different regions.

A consistent statistic is that outside Dublin, the west region has the highest number of child dependants accessing emergency accommodation. This has been consistent for some time. The west region contains counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon and of these, Galway has the highest number. Data is not available but my expectation is that it is Galway city where most of the families and children in need of emergency accommodation are. A more alarming statistic was that at the end of 2024, 28 families in the west region had to rely on emergency accommodation for over two years. Outside Dublin there is no other area where that is comparable and that is deeply discomforting and concerning for someone who is a public representative for that area. Families and children in Galway are suffering disproportionately. Other regions with larger populations do not have the same number of children reliant on emergency accommodation.

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