James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this very important issue. He has raised this matter with me on numerous occasions and he campaigned on it. The issue of child homelessness in particular is very dear to the Deputy's heart and it is also extremely important to me that we address this issue. The prevention of people going into homelessness is absolutely critical and that is what we are working on. Obviously, there is the broader issue of increasing supply. That is the ultimate solution but in the meantime, until we get supply up to where we need it, we will continue to work to help prevent people from going into homelessness in the first place. We are working on the development of the national homeless prevention framework this year to ensure all possible measures are being taken across Government to prevent homelessness. A key prevention measure over the last few years has been the provision of funding to support local authorities to purchase more than 3,000 properties from landlords to convert to long-term social housing under the acquisition scheme. The tenant in situ acquisition scheme has been an important measure and significant funding has been provided this year for second hand acquisitions, with €325 million already made available. My Department continues to engage with local authorities on the operational details for second hand acquisitions.

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