James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising the important issue of the funding provided to housing authorities for the provision of emergency accommodation in 2024 and 2025. Supporting individuals and families at risk of, or experiencing, homelessness is a priority for Government and me. Critical to this is increasing the supply of housing. The Government is committed to increasing supply with a record level of €6.8 billion in capital funding being made available for the delivery of housing in 2025. The capital provision is supplemented by a further €1.65 billion in current funding to address housing need. This will allow us to build on the more than 10,500 new social homes which were delivered in 2024, through build, acquisition and leasing, including 7,871 new-build homes. Including HAP and RAS, 20,292 social housing solutions were delivered throughout 2024.

The programme for Government commits to providing emergency accommodation to everyone who needs it. An allocation of €303 million has been made under budget 2025 to provide homelessness prevention services, emergency accommodation and other services for households experiencing homelessness. This funding will also support the provision of supports that households require to exit emergency accommodation to a tenancy, including tenancy sustainment services and housing first. In addition, capital funding of €25 million will support the delivery of high quality transitional and emergency accommodation for individuals experiencing homelessness.

The total funding provided by my Department to each of the homeless regions in 2024 was €384,999,954, and to date in 2025 €81,523,279 in funding has been provided. As requested, my Department will make this data available to the Deputy in tabular form.

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