Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)

Yesterday, in response to the budget, Focus Ireland said: "Budget 2026 has failed to deliver for the record number of over 16,350 people now homeless as the Government did not take any decisive action on housing to help the most vulnerable in society." The Simon Communities of Ireland in a similar vein said: "It is deeply disappointing that yet again there was no mention of homeless prevention and homelessness remains invisible within the budget and also in the ever-present conversation around housing". We know last year fewer social homes were delivered than the year before. We know the budget allocation for local authorities for social housing for this year is over €200 million less than what was spent last year. We are not going to see an increase in supply to get people out of emergency accommodation. The budget increase for this year is not really an increase at all but simply reflects the high level of expenditure on emergency accommodation. That means as a consequence of the decisions the Government took in the budget announced yesterday, homelessness is going to increase and notices of termination continue to be issued at an accelerating rate. I want to know not what the Minister has done to date because that is failing but what is he going to do differently? What new initiative to prevent people from becoming homeless or get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly was announced in the budget yesterday?

See this speech in context