James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

I hear the Deputy saying he wants to trust the NGOs more but also to have more oversight of them. The NGOs here do phenomenally good work. We are providing record funding to address homelessness. What we want to do, though, is to prevent homelessness occurring in the first place and that is why we are making rapid decisions to significantly increase the supply of housing right across the country. Until we can address the homelessness situation, however, we will continue to support the NGOs and the local authorities to provide the housing needed for people who find themselves in need of emergency accommodation. We do not want to be relying on the private sector but the accommodation is simply not there now. The most important thing is that people have the emergency accommodation they need when they need it, and that is what we are doing.

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