Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South-West, Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to be joined by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. The Minister, Deputy Browne, cannot be here for the opening section of these statements because he is at a subcommittee meeting and otherwise engaged. He will be here, however, to give concluding statements. He will be kept up to date as to the comments made during the statements from right across the House.

I welcome the opportunity to come before the House to speak on this most important issue of homelessness and the work being undertaken by this Government in responding to it. I will set out how the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is building on the progress made in recent years to increase housing delivery across the board and social housing, in particular. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, will outline specifically how the plan will ensure the provision of supports to older people and vulnerable cohorts in our society. The Minister, Deputy Browne, will conclude the discussion by outlining the many actions in the new housing plan that are specifically targeted at ending homelessness.

The Government is acutely aware that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face and the impact that experiences of homelessness have on households and children, in particular. With this in mind, the programme for Government and the new housing plan reaffirmed lreland’s commitment to working towards ending homelessness by 2030.

Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness. Last year saw the highest number of homes completed in more than a decade. More than 36,000 were completed. Delivering Homes, Building Communities builds on the achievements and progress already made under Housing for All to further accelerate housing delivery. The key difference between Housing for All and this plan is a greater emphasis on creating the environment for more homes. To deliver more homes at speed, the State will do more but this plan will also empower others, particularly those in the private sector, to play their part.

A significantly greater supply of housing can be achieved through a balanced approach focused on both directly supporting people to have a home of their own but also creating the best possible conditions for the industry to build and to activate more homes. This new plan commits to the building of 300,000 new homes. By the end of 2030, there will be 72,000 additional new-build social homes, built for those in our society who need them most.

Our goal remains a housing system that truly serves the needs of our people. That is why we are committed to also providing 90,000 affordable housing supports. Delivering Homes, Building Communities is ambitious, but the Government is fully committed to making it a reality. This is an integrated housing and homelessness plan that reaffirms the whole-of-government approach to addressing the housing crisis. It will ensure that the funding and the strategies deployed to address housing and homelessness are fully aligned at all times.

The plan will build on progress already made. In 2023 and 2024, we saw delivery of newly built social housing reach levels not seen since the 1970s, with almost 16,000 social homes built. Between July 2020 and the end of quarter 3 of 2025, over 52,300 social homes were added to the social housing stock and more than 14,100 homes were brought back into use under the voids programme. The pipeline is also strong. The latest construction status report showed over 25,000 social homes at all stages of design and build in Ireland at the end of September 2025.

Direct funding for housing is at record levels. In 2026 alone, over €9 billion in capital funding will be provided through the Exchequer, the Land Development Agency, LDA, and the Housing Finance Agency, HFA. Affordable housing schemes are now operating at scale and the affordable housing delivery programme continues to be expanded and developed year on year, supported by unprecedented levels of State investment. The Government will continue to bring forward measures that will increase the supply of new homes across all tenures to make sure that everyone has a range of housing options available to them. More than 18,900 affordable housing supports were provided by quarter 3 of 2025, increasing home ownership for families and ordinary workers.

Over the past five years, almost 149,000 new homes have been delivered. This is significant progress, which must be recognised. It also gives the Government a strong platform to scale up housing delivery and under our new plan, we are focused on delivery. This will not be easy and there is no one single solution that will solve the housing challenges we face. Delivering Homes, Building Communities takes pragmatic action across a number of different policy areas to boost housing supply while ensuring that the new homes delivered support the people who need them the most. These two key objectives provide the foundational pillars in the plan: activating supply and supporting people. The first pillar, activating supply, is about removing structural barriers to homebuilding and ensuring we deliver 300,000 new homes in the lifetime of this plan. This includes measures aimed at unlocking land, reforming planning, delivering infrastructure and creating the conditions needed to increase investment in housing supply.

Reaching the target of 300,000 new homes will only be achieved through the individual and collective effort of the key delivery partners. Local authorities, together with approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency and the construction sector, will be critical to delivering and enabling the delivery of the quantum of homes needed over the lifetime of the plan. Central government will provide the policy, regulatory and funding frameworks to support housing delivery.

Further to this, Delivering Homes, Building Communities is enabled by the largest ever capital investment in the history of the State. A total of €275 billion will be invested over the next ten years under the national development plan to significantly upgrade our infrastructure and make the environment for building homes much better. This cannot be overstated. This includes almost €20 billion to support the delivery of the 72,000 social homes and 90,000 affordable home supports over the next five years. It also includes €12.2 billion for water and wastewater services and €3.5 billion in equity funding for ESB Networks and EirGrid to make sure that we have the capacity in these vital services to make housing connections as and when they are needed. The Uisce Éireann investment is particularly significant.

In January this year, the Government announced a new multi-annual €1 billion housing infrastructure investment fund to support direct investment in housing enabling infrastructure. The new fund will be managed by the housing activation office and will complement investment by infrastructure agencies, such as Uisce Éireann and ESB Networks, as part of a more co-ordinated approach. It will focus on projects that can move quickly and at scale. We want strong, deliverable projects that can hit the ground running and start unblocking housing delivery immediately.

Housing delivery is at the centre of the revised national development plan. We are investing €102 billion over the next five years, an additional €33.9 billion on the previous national development plan allocation. Overall investment of over €40 billion will be provided for housing and related water services to 2030. This funding will support vital water infrastructure projects, address historical bottlenecks in the system and accelerate us towards our delivery targets.

Over the lifetime of this plan, we will deliver an average of 12,000 new social homes each year. That is an unprecedented commitment. In parallel, we will provide an average of 15,000 affordable housing supports annually through the starter homes programme and related initiatives.

The help-to-buy and first home schemes continue to bridge the gap for first-time buyers struggling with deposits and mortgage limits. These schemes are not abstract policy instruments. They are enabling thousands of households to purchase their first homes.

Budget 2026 has continued the record level of investment in social housing, with €2.9 billion in capital allocated to support the delivery of social homes by local authorities. This continued investment in the social housing programme will increase the supply of stock available to allocate to households on the social housing waiting list, including households in emergency accommodation.

I am acutely aware of the profound impact homelessness has on individuals, particularly children, and addressing homelessness is a key priority under Delivering Homes, Building Communities. It is only through the increased provision of housing that we will begin to see a consistent drop in the numbers accessing emergency accommodation. We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge. We recognise that a radical step change is needed in housing supply. That is why we are using every lever at our disposal. We remain steadfast in our commitment to meet the challenge head on and ensure all those who aspire to independence in the housing market can realise their aspiration.

I hope we can work in a collaborative way across the House so we can continue to increase the supply of housing. I look forward to hearing Members’ views and perspectives on this vital matter.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the opportunity to address the House on this important matter. Addressing homelessness is a top priority for the Government. We remain committed to working with all key stakeholders to reduce and prevent homelessness across Ireland, including homelessness among our more vulnerable people, including our older people, disabled people and Travellers. Our new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, is an integrated housing and homelessness plan in which the Government recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face. The plan introduces a number of new measures to address homelessness.

One priority action is the development of a whole-of-government homelessness prevention framework. The Department of housing is leading on the development of this framework and all key stakeholders, including other Departments, are closely involved in the process. The focus of the prevention framework is to ensure there are increased efforts to tackle the causes of homelessness and increase the level of activity aimed at reducing presentations to homeless services. We recognise the need to focus prevention measures on cohorts most at risk. As such, we will explore additional measures that can be put in place to support at-risk cohorts such as older people, disabled people and Travellers, as I have referenced.

In addition to developing the framework, we are also working closely with local authorities to accelerate exits from emergency accommodation. We are committed to ensuring the necessary funding is in place to address homelessness. Some €560 million is available in 2026 to ensure local authorities can provide sufficient emergency accommodation, as well as essential related services, including homelessness prevention supports, day services and tenancy sustainment measures.

We are taking measures to increase the delivery of housing for older people and address homelessness in this cohort. As we are all aware, Ireland has an ageing population. Census 2022 data confirmed that lreland's ageing population is increasing significantly, with the population aged 65 and over growing by 35% since 2013, which is over double the EU average increase of 17.3%. Projections indicate that the number of older people in Ireland will be approximately 21% of the population by 2040. In addition, it is expected that the population aged over 85 will increase by more than 140%.

The Government is committed to increasing housing available to older people to facilitate ageing in place with dignity and independence and to supporting right-sizing on a voluntary basis. The Programme for Government 2025 - Securing Ireland's Future, recognising this demographic change for older people, includes commitments to deliver practical housing options for positive ageing. A working group established in my Department considered how best to progress these commitments and informed the development of the new national housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. The delivery of more suitable homes and choice for older people, including measures that support independent living, has been firmly prioritised in the actions set out in the plan. It is highlighted in the plan that the overall aim of policy is to increase delivery of house choices for older people across both public and private housing to facilitate them to age in place, in their own homes or in their community, with dignity and independence.

I have just come from the launch of a collaborative housing development in Richmond Place, Inchicore, involving the Departments of health and housing, Dublin City Council, Circle Voluntary Housing Association and ALONE. A total of 68 residents are getting supports in addition to housing. It is very much an innovative approach in terms of people being able to live independently. People are moving there from areas close by and it is catering to their needs. It is an approach we are looking to progress in greater numbers.

The national housing plan includes commitments to work with local authorities in a number of ways, including the introduction of dedicated older people social housing annual targets in each local authority's housing delivery action plan. This is something on which I am very strong. The plan commits to the introduction of more efficient collection processes for data on older people housing delivery and allocations, having regard to older people and homelessness. There is also a commitment to improved site identification to support more targeted local authority and approved housing body delivery specifically for older people and provide accessible locations within local communities. In addition, we recognise the increased number of older people renting in the private rented sector. Therefore, the new housing plan commits to examining the affordability challenges for older people approaching retirement in this sector. Work on how to address these challenges and deliver this commitment is under way.

Delivering Homes, Building Communities also includes actions to provide greater choice to older people, including through increased delivery of more suitable homes through housing strategies in all tenures. We will continue to work with the AHB sector, local authorities and other stakeholders in supporting the continued delivery of housing for older people. The new housing plan includes a Government commitment to work collaboratively through the establishment of a co-operation framework between the Departments of health and housing, across which I have responsibility for older people, to improve the integration of health and social care supports and housing for older people. I saw that in action at the Richmond Place housing project today. This work will include building on the learnings from existing projects of supported housing for older people to support wider future delivery.

The housing needs of older people are diverse. Policy responses will need to address housing choice and deliver solutions in both public and private housing as well as support those who choose to voluntarily right-size. We want to provide choice. If people wish to purchase a home more suitable to their needs, we will support them by, among other measures, advancing consideration of the availability of bridging finance. If people wish to adapt their homes to suit their needs within the home, perhaps by converting their homes into separate living spaces, we will support that. We are looking at planning exemptions in this area to support greater choice. It is all about providing choices to older people that they can avail of on a voluntary basis. As our population ages, it is essential that we increase delivery of homes for older people and deliver more homes that are suited to their needs. We must provide choice for older people in a way that supports them to live independently and remain connected to their communities. Delivering Homes, Building Communities is a reflection of this and of the Government's commitment to ensuring older people have the opportunity to avail of increased housing choice for ageing in place.

Census 2022 indicated that 22% of the population, or just over 1.1 million people, have experienced at least one long-lasting health condition or difficulty to a greater extent. The National Housing Strategy for Disabled People 2022-2027 and its associated implementation plan, operating under the new housing plan, present the framework for delivering housing for disabled people in conjunction with the necessary support, as required. The Government is committed to ensuring disabled people are supported and encouraged to live independently and to addressing homelessness. Co-operation and collaboration among Departments, State agencies and others are key in delivering housing and related supports for disabled people.

The housing adaptation grant for older people and disabled people is an important support in assisting people in private houses to make their accommodation more suitable for their needs. These grants are available to people with an enduring physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual disability, and to older people who experience mobility issues or require essential necessary repairs to their home in order to continue to live independently at home. Funding for the housing adaptation grant has been increasing year on year since 2014, facilitating the payment of more than 180,000 grant claims. We have increased the allocation for the housing adaptation grant to €130 million for 2026. This increase of €30 million on 2025 funding is in line with commitments in the programme for Government and ensures the continued year-on-year increases in funding for the grant scheme since 2014. This funding will facilitate the payment of some 17,000 grant claims as well as the continued implementation of the revised scheme. The continued enhancement of this significantly important grant scheme is a priority for the Government.

Addressing the accommodation needs of Travellers continues to be a Government priority. In the past six years from 2020 to 2025, a cumulative capital investment of more than €125 million has been provided to local authorities for delivering Traveller-specific accommodation. This investment continues in 2026 in line with the action set out in our new housing plan. The Government continues to invest in high-quality Taveller-specific accommodation, with increased capital funding of €26 million provided in 2026. The caravan loan scheme provided accommodation for 85 Traveller families in 2025 and will continue to deliver for Traveller families in the years ahead.

The Government will continue to ensure that housing is delivered though the well-established capital funding schemes for both local authorities and approved housing bodies to meet the needs of all people accessing social housing, including vulnerable groups. We are fully committed to ensuring the measures outlined in the new housing plan are implemented to address homelessness, including for older people, disabled people and Travellers. I will continue to work with my ministerial colleagues, Members from all sides in this House and in the Seanad, and all stakeholders to deliver homes and build the communities we need to meet housing needs now and into the future.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in government for ten years, first through a confidence and supply arrangement in 2016 and then in two formal coalition Governments. During that decade, 55,000 adults have been forced into homelessness.

Let that sink in for a second. According to data from the Department of housing, from January 2016 to June 2025, 55,000 adults have been forced into emergency accommodation, funded by the Minister of State's Department. That is more than the entire population of Longford. It is more than the entire population of Drogheda, the smallest city in the country. It is more than it would take to fill the entire Aviva Stadium for any sell-out event. That figure does not even include children. It does not include rough sleepers or women and children in Department of justice-funded domestic violence refuges, people with refugee status trapped in direct provision or the hidden homeless. Fifty five thousand adults have been forced into homelessness during the ten years Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in Government. That is a truly scandalous figure.

On Friday, we will get the latest Department of housing homelessness report. The last report we got told us that at that point in time, 17,000 adults, including 5,000 children, were in emergency accommodation. The number of adults homelessness was up 13% on the year and the number of children up 15%. Every single category of homelessness was up; adults, families, singles, children and pensioners. In a country awash with surpluses and filled with talent and capacity, tens of thousands of people have been made homeless. There is a very simple reason. It is the failure of Government housing policy and successive Government plans by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. It is not rocket science. The fundamental problem, of course, is a chronic underinvestment and underdelivery in social and genuinely affordable homes.

If I hear a Government Minister once again telling us that they built more social homes in 2024 than in the 1970s, I will pull my hair out. The population in the 1970s was half what it is today. We had a surplus of public housing. A person on a council list would be housed within two to three years in the 1970s. Today it is more like ten to 15 years, depending on the local authority. If the Government was serious about matching 1970s output, it would be delivering twice the volume of social homes delivered last year.

Not only is the Government underdelivering on social affordable homes, it has also completely botched the regulation of the private rental sector, making it even more dysfunctional than it was in the beginning. There is a virtual absence of spending or programmes on homeless prevention. Just 5% of the annual budget that goes into homelessness is directed towards prevention programmes. The previous Government failed to use the breathing space of the emergency ban on no-fault evictions from 2022 to 2023 to do anything different. It ended that ban in 2023 with no proper contingency measures in place. That is why homelessness is rising year on year.

It is remarkable that in the two speeches we have heard, there was not a single acknowledgement of year after year rises in homelessness for a decade. What is worse is the new Minister, the new Government and the new housing plan are making things worse. There is no meaningful increase in new-build social and affordable homes in the new Government's housing plan. It is nowhere close to what is required.

The Government has just introduced probably the most controversial reform of rent regulation, which is going to bring us back to double-digit inflation and that is going to drive even higher levels of homelessness. We published an analysis, based on Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, figures, showing that 25% of all tenancies registered every year are new tenancies. That is approximately 60,000 households. That is the potential scope of new tenancies to be captured by the market reset. From the RTB's data on new and existing tenancies, we have shown that the cost of that is somewhere between €3,000 and €5,000 of extra rent every year. When we published these figures the Government told us we were not telling the truth and that we were exaggerating. Thankfully, the largest landlord in the State, IRES REIT, has published its own analysis. It believes the consequence of the market rent reset will be a 25% increase in its rental intake over a number of years, with an extra €21 million. IRES REIT's turnover is about 14% a year. This means that over seven years, if those trends continue, all its tenants will be captured by the market reset. In fact, based on its figures, its tenants, captured by the Government's reset, will be paying almost an extra €6,000 a year in rent. What this report actually says is that we, in Sinn Féin, were conservative in our estimate of the impact of this on renters, starting from Sunday. Simon Harris had the brass neck to come into this Chamber earlier and say he was on the side of renters. How does hitting renters with an extra €6,000 per year for IRES REIT tenants from March square with that claim?

We are also seeing a Minister whose first act this time last year was to slash funding for the one homeless prevention programme that was actually working, namely, tenant in situ. We finally got the figures and we now know last year there were just over 700 social housing acquisitions. This is half what it was the year before. That was the only programme where if somebody on a social housing waiting list, or who was eligible for cost rental, and was at risk of eviction, it could be prevented. Yet the Government pulled the rug from under our local authorities, undermined the scheme and introduced restrictions to cut the funding. As a consequence, there are people today who are in emergency accommodation and at imminent risk of homelessness because the Government took the funding away. I just cannot understand how the Minister of State could countenance that.

On top of all that, I did not hear either Minister of State mention the programme for Government commitment to end homelessness by 2030. I did not hear either one outline any new initiative to prevent homelessness or to get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly. What does that tell us? It tells us that with the Government continuing with the same failed policies that have pushed 55,000 adults into emergency accommodation over a decade, those numbers are going to continue to increase. That is what has been admitted to through the omissions here today.

Crucially, it does not have to be this way. It is possible to end long-term homelessness. The solutions are all around us. We need an emergency package of measures to reduce presentations and increase exits, an emergency ban on no-fault evictions, increased funding for tenant in situ and a doubling of Housing First tenancies. Sinn Féin made a specific proposal to introduce emergency planning and procurement and new building technologies to provide a dedicated stream of additional social housing to end homelessness for the over 55s in a single year and dramatically reduce adult and child homelessness year on year.

Crucially, we need to see a doubling of investment in delivery of social and affordable homes. We need to see a removal of the red tape imposed by central government to accelerate that delivery. In real terms, we need about 25,000 public homes to be delivered each year comprising social, affordable rentable and affordable purchase. Those homes need to meet need. They need to be based on an objective assessment of what is required. That means more one-bed homes and more larger homes. It means more homes for people with disabilities and, crucially, an increase in allocation of council homes for those in emergency accommodation. There also needs to be a far greater focus on child and youth homelessness. The strategy ends in 2026 and most of the commitments have not been implemented and we do not know what is going to happen after that.

When I hear the Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, talk about progress, it confirms to me that this Government is in complete denial. The claim that tackling housing and homelessness is the number 1 priority is not only dishonest but it is an insult to the people being forced into emergency accommodation. When the Government is not insulting them, it is blaming everybody else. First it was Covid, then it was the war in Ukraine, then it was net migration and now it is the councils, the communities or the Opposition. Everybody else is to blame for year-on-year rising homelessness but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I repeat that in ten years, 55,000 adults have been made homeless by these parties.

The question I want to end with is: how many more people have to become homeless? How many more adults, children, singles, families and pensioners have to become homeless before the Government accepts that the problem is its failed housing plan? It should start to implement the alternatives we all know would work but it simply will not listen to us. Is it 65,000 or 75,000 or will the Government let it go to 100,000? If the Government does not make a change, that is where these numbers are going.

Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Government talks an awful lot about how the Opposition does not bring forward solutions. We are sick and tired of bringing forward solutions. The Minister of State spoke about working together. We want to work together. We want to end long-term homelessness and get children out of emergency accommodation and into a safe, sustainable home with a roof over their head somewhere they can build a life. We want to stop the trauma. That is what we want to do. The Minister of State said that is what the Government wants to do.

The Government has shot down everything we have we proposed. Every week I ask for an increase in funding to return vacant boarded-up council houses to use. It is the simplest way to deliver housing quickly. Every week the Minister, Deputy Browne, refuses to give the money. He said that at the housing committee. A freedom of information request I put in stated that the cost of keeping a family in emergency accommodation outside of Dublin is €55,000 a year and it costs more in Dublin. We are bringing forward a solution but the Government’s answer is to only give local authorities €11,000 when it knows they need more than €30,000. The mind boggles. The Government spends €55,000 to keep one family in emergency accommodation when if it gave local authorities an extra €20,000, they could get that family out.

According to the National Homelessness Action Committee NHAC, there are 6,206 individuals in long-term homelessness. That is families, couples and single individuals. There are 4,251 empty council homes right now. We could end long-term homelessness if the Government wanted to. Why does the Minister of State not do it? Can he answer that question for me? Why will the Government not do it? This Government is choosing to give tax breaks to the wealthy and the vulture funds and to leave ordinary families struggling to put a roof over their head, in emergency accommodation or at risk of homelessness.

I am from Cork and the homeless figures there are at an all-time high. According to the previous chief executive’s report, there are 524 individuals in homeless accommodation in Cork longer than six months. Can the Minister of State imagine that there are children who do not remember anything but being in emergency accommodation? How is that right? For the love of God, how can the Minister of State stand over that? I know a family who are three years - 36 months - in emergency accommodation. How can the Minister of State stand over that? How can this Government stand over that?

There are adults who see no light at the end of the tunnel. Every now and then a backbencher or a Minister might say people in emergency accommodation are refusing houses. I will give the Minister of State some of the figures. In December, there were three refusals in Cork out of 524 individuals in long-term homelessness. These are facts. These are individuals who have been homeless longer than six months. Government Deputies come in here and try to blame everyone else, such as homeless people and the councils. They say it is not the Government’s fault but it is. It is the Government's job. It is stripping people of hope. People are looking to the Minister of State for hope. Where is the hope?

I know a man who is 60 plus. He is eight years on the housing list. His landlord did not want to sell the property through the tenant in situ scheme. He said it would take too long and he could not trust the Government would not pull the funding as it did last year. Where is he going to go? He is 60 years of age. He has worked all his life and the Government is driving him into homelessness.

I know a mother with five children living in one bedroom in a hotel. There are people in Edel House, in the family hub, and in bed and breakfast all over Cork. Where is the hope? Will the Minister of State give these people hope today? Right now, they do not believe the Government. It is letting them down.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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In the south east, there are 330 adults and 113 children officially recorded as homeless. That is 70 families. In County Waterford alone, 110 adults and 37 children are in local authority-funded emergency accommodation. Those are only the official figures; they are the tip of the iceberg. They reflect people in local authority accommodation but they do not capture the hidden homelessness that every public representative in this Chamber encounters weekly - certainly those of us who operate clinics and have a listening ear. In Waterford alone, beyond the 37 children formally recorded, there are another 66 children placed on an emergency basis in vacant council houses with their families. These are houses which are not ready or fit for allocation. They are not secure tenancies or allocated. They have no stability. It is effectively emergency accommodation under another heading.

Behind those figures and statistics are the real stories of people I meet. Just this week, Liam who separated from his partner visited my constituency office. He ended up sleeping in his car and he is still sleeping in his car. He will sleep there tonight. He works, pays tax and gets up early in the morning. He does everything expected of him. He has nowhere to live or to go and no prospect of that changing anytime soon. Emma, who survived serious domestic abuse, secured a private rental but now faces losing it because the landlord wants the property back. This is no fault of her own. She is again staring homelessness in the face. For Louise, two days before Christmas could not tell her children where Santa would be delivering presents. Ultimately, they had somewhere for the Christmas period but we cannot countenance the instability, hardship and stress that caused. James and his family are overholding because they have nowhere to go. He leaves for work each morning unsure whether he will return to the locks having been changed and their belongings and whole life in black plastic bags out in front of the house.

Just this week, I met grown siblings who were raising their respective young families in their parents' house. There are three generations under the one roof - multiple families, not out of choice but because the rental market has collapsed. This is happening in Waterford city, Dungarvan and across our rural communities as well. Rural homelessness rarely looks dramatic. It does not make headlines; it is usually unseen and seemingly unacknowledged by Government. It does not tend to appear in the Government's figures. It looks like a young couple back in a childhood bedroom with their kids, separated parents forced to continue sharing a home long after a relationship has broken down because neither can afford to leave, or people returning from urban areas to overcrowded family homes because there is nothing to read locally. That is homelessness too.

Tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta seo le feiceáil go soiléir i bPort Láirge agus ar fud an oirdheiscirt. Tá na céadta daoine gan dídean go hoifigiúil agus go leor eile nach bhfuil san áireamh sna figiúirí sin. Tá páistí á dtógáil i seomra plódaithe i dteach a shean tuismitheoirí agus daoine óga ag codail i gcarranna. Tá daoine scartha fós ag maireachtáil faoin díon céanna mar nach bhfuil aon rogha eile acu. Is toradh ar chinntí polaitiúla Fhine Gael, Fianna Fáil agus na neamhspleáchaigh é an scéal seo, agus tá sé de chumhacht againn agus ag ionadaithe an Rialtais cinntí eile a dhéanamh.

Nationally, homelessness has risen by 13% a year, child homelessness is increased by 15% and almost 17,000 people are officially homeless, including more than 5,000 children. At the same time, funding for tenant in situ has been reduced, the scheme that keeps families in their home and prevents them going into emergency accommodation. We see the rent hike Bill the Government is trying to pretend did not happen, does not exist and will not impact renters. Those rents are continuing to rise naturally but they are definitely going to rise in light of the changes the Government has brought in at the behest of the institutional investors.

Supply continues to shrink despite what the Government says and fewer than 1,800 homes were available to rent across the State at the start of this month. No credible modelling has been presented to show what this will mean for renters and the likely outcome is clear - higher rents, shorter security and increased risk of homelessness for families.

In Waterford, this homelessness crisis has a human face. I have told the Minister of State some of the stories. This does come down to some of the policy choices he and his colleagues in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have made, along with backbenchers and the Independents buoying up this Government. We need action and a change in direction from this Government but before any of that will happen, the psychological reality is that it needs to acknowledge the mistakes and harm that has been, is being and will continue to be caused unless it changes its ways, trajectory and policy. The question is: having listened to the statistics and heard the stories, will the Minister of State do that? Will he change the trajectory, listen to the people of Ireland and take this issue seriously?

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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Homelessness is displacement. We all know what displacement is like in Gaza. People are calling it an absolute disaster. We have displacement of more than 5,500 children. That is happening today and is a disaster. The number of homeless adults in Cork rose by 24% in the past year, the biggest year on year increase in the past five years. These figures show a dramatic increase in the number of people accessing emergency accommodation in Cork but I believe these figures do not fully reflect the actual number of people who are homeless across the country or the county. They do not include rough sleepers, women and children in domestic violence refuges, or those who are using IPAS accommodation as emergency accommodation. Figures should also be made available for those presenting as homeless to the council services and being refused, not just those who are placed in emergency accommodation. Let us not forget the hidden homeless, those sofa surfing and those living in substandard, inadequate accommodation.

Rents have increased in Cork, while supply is falling. Add that to the mounting cost-of-living pressures and it is the perfect storm for increasing homelessness. We see what the Government is doing on 1 March. The storm will be brewing much stronger. I speak to people every week in my constituency office who are experiencing homelessness and there is a real sense of despair, and I mean despair. There are only so many knocks that people can actually take. It ties our hands behind our back because we cannot give them answers because of the policy that the Government has made. The Government is just not getting it. These are young people, old people, women, men, children, and people who have jobs. I know people who have full-time, professional jobs. You cannot see the homelessness in their faces but they are sleeping in cars. One individual works in a supermarket and sleeps on a mattress in a buddy of mine's garage. That is how serious it is.

I hate speaking from script but sometimes I need it for notes. When I speak from the heart, it is the truth. Average rents in Cork at the moment are nearly €1,500. Figures show that rents for new tenants in Cork rose by 6.8% in the past 12 months. God knows what is going to happen after 1 March. In the past 12 months, rent for existing tenants has increased by nearly 5%, so we are not going the right way. We are going the wrong way.

Another woman who came to me is a highly qualified legal secretary with years of experience. She was given notice to quit. She could not find anywhere to live. Now she is secretly sleeping in her office. These people are not numbers or statistics. I hate that bloody word, "statistics". They are not a piece of paper. These are real human beings getting up, going to work, paying their taxes, trying to live a life, trying to rear a family, and no matter what way they go, there are two types of door in this country. In the health service and mental health service, there is a revolving door. When it comes to housing and homelessness, there is a shut door. It is an absolute disaster.

I mention the tenant in situ scheme. It is the one thing that worked. In my experience in the years I have been here, one of the greatest gifts this Government and past Governments have had is that when they try to fix something that is not broken, they end up making an absolute hames of it, then they scratch their head, because they are reactive more than proactive, and they ask how that happened, and then the whole situation blows up.

With the way the Government is tackling this homelessness crisis, I cannot see it being a priority. We are probably one of the richest countries in the world. We are definitely one of the most progressive but having more than 5,000 children still homeless today is absolutely shameful. That is a very polite word coming from me.

The Government signed the Lisbon declaration on homelessness in 2021. The declaration commits the Government to working towards ending homelessness by 2030. That is only around the corner. We had an alternative housing plan. Our housing expert, Deputy Ó Broin, has given the Government solutions, not ideas, but solutions, and we want to work with the Government to do it. We have to ensure that everyone has a home. It is not bricks and mortar. Houses are knocked down and rebuilt. That is bricks and mortar. A home is where people can have sanctuary, where they can raise a family, and where they can have peace. The biggest thing, as in Gaza, is having hope. If hope is taken away from a nation, it is left with nothing.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I genuinely do not know where to start. I was flabbergasted by what the Tánaiste said earlier on about this Government apparently being on the side of renters, when we know that IRES REIT owns 3,627 properties and made €49.7 million in profit last year. It said that it welcomes Government's proactive approach because its portfolio is currently 20% undervalued and it has a potential 25% rental income uplift. That is going to take a terrible situation and make it inherently worse for those who are on the margins because since January 2016, homelessness has increased by 200% in this country. Child homelessness has increased by 450%. At the same time, the Irish economy grew by 5% every year. This did not happen by accident. This happened by design and as a result of the failure of this Government's housing policy, and the interventions that this Government is making are making this crisis worse.

The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, signed up to the Lisbon declaration to end homelessness by 2030. When he signed up to the Lisbon declaration, the number of homeless people was at around 12,000. It is now at 17,000. How in the name of God can we be serious about ending homelessness by 2030 when in a little over three years, we are supposed to fulfil the obligations that we have signed up to under that declaration while the numbers are persistently and consistently growing every single year? I cannot take the Government and this housing plan seriously when it continues along the same lines as the stuff that was in Rebuilding Ireland and Housing for All that have created this problem.

The Government talks about accelerating supply. We are on the same page with regard to that but the big difference is how we, on this side of the House and in the Labour Party, feel we go about solving this. First of all, scrapping annual completion targets is not going to solve this. In fact, it is only a mechanism for Government to avoid responsibility. There is constant reliance on a volatile private market, as if it will somehow build us out of this crisis, when it has not done so for the past ten years. The social and affordable housing targets in the new plan are too low. They do not take into account the growing housing deficit of at least 256,000 units in the Housing Commission report, which is growing and widening because the targets for social and affordable housing under Housing for All were never met. The Government is not going to need them this year and it will need a miracle of Fatima to meet the slightly increased targets in the new plan. Moreover, the Housing Commission was clear that social and affordable housing should make up 20% of all housing stock. It is currently about 10.7% of all housing stock. We need to double our output of social and affordable housing.

There are aspects of the housing plan that I welcome. I welcome a specific action plan on child and family homelessness but this must not be another paper exercise. It needs timebound commitments and ring-fenced funding, otherwise it will be absolutely meaningless. The bit that I find laughable in the new housing plan is that the Government is implementing a national homelessness prevention framework. It says it is focused on early intervention. The best and earliest intervention in most cases is to keep a roof over someone's head.

The tenant in situ scheme, as it existed in 2023, was very effective. Over 1,500 units were acquired in 2024. That dropped to 750 in 2025. There was €133 million cut from that scheme. In 2024, €420.9 million was spent on it. The figure in 2025 was significantly less. The fact is that any day, night or week that somebody spends in emergency accommodation damages their physical and mental health, and it really damages their children.

The Minister talks about the second-hand acquisition fund and ring-fenced funding for exits, but he has cut the ring-fenced funding for preventions. We know that because the data on preventions show that over 43% of preventions into emergency accommodation were done through the tenant in situ scheme. That then dropped to a little over 11% between December 2024 and December 2025.

Today feels like Groundhog Day because at every turn, this Government is exacerbating homelessness. The whole idea that we will fulfil our obligations under the Lisbon declaration is laughable. To be honest, we might as well bloody come out of it because the gulf between what the Government says and what it does is massive.

We also need to have a specific strategy within the housing plan for getting single people out of emergency accommodation. There is a plan focused on families. As of last December, there were 7,300 adults in emergency accommodation. I am frustrated because I and my party have brought forward policy proposals. In March of last year, I wrote to the Minister, Deputy Browne, who, as the senior Minister, should be here to hear this debate, and set out five measures for tackling homelessness. The most obvious and simple measure is to pass our Housing (Homeless Families) Bill, which has been lost in the ether around this place since 2017. That Bill passed legislative scrutiny in October 2019. There was talk of it being contained in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024. That did not happen. I ask the Department to move on our Bill because it would ensure that local authorities place the best interests of children at the centre of decision-making when supporting homeless families, building on the work we did in the children's rights referendum.

The Government should repeal the flawed rental legislation. At a minimum, it should pass our 2021 Residential Tenancies (Tenants' Rights) Bill 2021 and introduce a rent break in its deeply flawed legislation that will gouge renters. I am convinced that in years to come, when we are all old people and long gone from this House, our successors will be here giving a State apology to a generation of children whose life chances we have absolutely destroyed through failed housing policy. We are going to have to pay those people redress because we are in a situation where children's physical and mental development is being stunted by the length of time they are spending in emergency accommodation.

The Minister informed me at a meeting of the housing committee on Tuesday that he wants to focus our funding on building new social homes and getting people into social allocation as opposed to second-hand acquisitions. The Government needs to do both, such is the scale of the crisis we face. The Minister needs to reverse course on second-hand acquisitions and revert to the old scheme that was in place pre-2025 because under the rental changes, these numbers are going and grow.

I have become nearly completely numbed to the people who come in to my clinic in my constituency office every week and tell me harrowing stories. In the time I have left, I will read into the record a letter I received from one of my constituents in relation to her situation:

I am experiencing ongoing and severe health problems due to fibroids and an enlarged uterus ... I have already undergone ... [a procedure] in December 2023 and ... [another one] in September 2024, which failed, leaving hysterectomy as the only remaining treatment option. Due to ... [medical complications], this will require an open abdominal procedure rather than keyhole surgery, which is a longer and more difficult recovery. My consultant has confirmed that I require a hysterectomy, and that I cannot be discharged into emergency accommodation following surgery, which has resulted in surgery being postponed [repeatedly]. In the meantime, I am experiencing significant pain, heavy bleeding, anaemia, fatigue and stress.

[...]

Alongside my own health issues, I am under considerable emotional strain due to family circumstances. My father is seriously unwell and has been hospitalised since August ... [and] in addition, my daughter Emily is autistic and relies heavily on routine and stability to cope. Living in emergency accommodation has already had a detrimental impact on both of us. The combined effects of serious ill health, housing instability, and ongoing family stress have left me exhausted and struggling to cope day to day. I am currently on illness benefit and experiencing persistent pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression and declining wellbeing. Without stable and sustainable housing, I do not believe it is possible for me to recover safely from surgery or maintain my health.

How have we arrived at a situation whereby a woman who is awaiting a serious medical procedure cannot have the operation done because she is currently living in a hotel? She is not the only person I am dealing with who is in a situation like this. It is absolutely shameful. It is something on which all of us, especially the Government, need to seriously reflect. I urge the Minister of State to go back to the Department and listen to some of the solutions we have put forward to try to chart a way out of this.

Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal East, Labour)
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Many years ago, there were perhaps some indications or factors that may have made people more prone to homelessness, be it addiction, familial breakdown or economic background. That is no longer the case, as all of us know. Homelessness is like an illness; it can strike anyone at any time, particularly if they are a renter or renting in this country. If someone came into my clinic or any other Deputy's clinic 18 months or two years ago, we would go through a list if they were on a notice to quit. We would ask whether they were on the housing list, how much time they had or whether they had any medical conditions. All Deputies have done this and asked the questions. At the very bottom of that list, however, the one backstop we had was the tenant in situ scheme where, at the very least, we could begin a process with a tenant in situ purchase. Was it expensive? Yes, but there are two benefits to it. Chief among them was that we would keep a family or individual out of homelessness through the tenant in situ scheme. The second benefit was that the State would acquire a property, which it would then own for public housing.

The fact is that this State, which is awash with money, turned its back on funding that scheme. When people come into my clinic, Deputy Sheehan's clinic or anyone's else's clinic, we do not have that backstop and fail-safe at the end and we know, in the pit of our stomachs, that it is more likely than ever that these families or individuals are going to be sent into the homeless services. However much the tenant in situ scheme cost, it was way more value for money than shovelling money into the pockets of landlords in Gardiner Street in Dublin, where one tenth of all homeless people in the country are. We have talked to the schools and seen reports in the national media on the impact on local schools. Primary school students living in homeless accommodation are trying to get proper food, concentrate in school and get an education while living in unstable, long-term accommodation, if that is not an oxymoron.

That is exactly what is happening. The Government needs to reverse, at a minimum, the lack of funding for the tenant in situ scheme to give some hope in this national emergency it has created.

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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We did not just arrive at these numbers overnight. This has been ongoing since 2011, I would say, and successive governments since then ignored all the signals that would tell them a problem was emerging in housing. Local councils even ignored it. They massaged the figures to make things look better and pretended there was no problem when, in fact, there was a massive and growing problem.

I was often criticised during those years when I raised the issue of housing and the fact that it was not being delivered at a pace to meet the demand. When I look back now, I think I was right about it. A year into this new Government, there is a dysfunction at the heart of all of this, and that includes Ministers and civil servants. An attempt is being made to ensure the voices of backbench and Opposition Deputies are not being heard in this Dáil. That is a terrible reflection on the Government. It is a weakening of democracy.

As we discuss this issue today, we have the Minister of State here to answer. There should be representatives from the Department of housing in the Chamber because they need to hear directly from every single backbencher who will contribute today. I attach relevance to and place emphasis on backbenchers and what they say due to the clinics that we do. What we hear and see at the coalface is being reflected in this debate. There will not be one single reply to any of us here from the Department or the Minister to say "You know what, I listened to the debate" or "I was told about the debate and I think your idea is worth exploring". Anything that we raise in this House in this Government term seems to be ignored because it is now more about spin and social media than about hard facts and delivery. That is my view.

Often, Opposition Deputies will tell us we are in Government, but that does not mean that we do not have ideas or that we cannot reflect what the constituents we represent say to us in clinics. I certainly will not ignore what they say to me and if that is criticism of the Government, then so be it because we are here to represent those who elected us.

The dysfunction at the heart of government has to be dealt with. I have never seen a time where there was so much money in the system, yet so little ability on the part of the State to deliver on most projects. I can always point to the children's hospital or to the issue we are discussing, for which there is lots of money, yet we still have a growing problem. There are many other examples of that and if the Government and the Departments do not recognise that, we will be in real trouble altogether.

I am going to reflect what I hear in my clinics. I want to look back and recognise the record of local authorities. Back in the 1950s, when there was little or no money around they built wonderful housing estates. These estates were not made up of modular homes but if solid, well-built houses. I was reared in one such home on O'Loughlin Road. I look back on it with great memories because the people who were allocated those houses made up the community based on a meitheal concept. That is how most people throughout the country got a head start in terms of their homes. The reason we cannot do that now is that we have loaded the system with bureaucracy and red tape, creating obstacles for everyone and anyone who wants to move forward. We are taking the future from our children by not ensuring that we deliver to meet the housing needs they are experiencing. In the main, I am talking about people who would qualify to receive council houses because that is where the relief needs to come.

I have never seen anything like the homelessness we have. It is shocking. I would never have said we would have homelessness in Kilkenny city or Carlow town, and we have. It affects not only those who fall out of society or have difficulty with engaging with society, but people who are earning money and have a job. It may be a low-paid job but they are working and cannot afford to get a house. They are often being refused by the council in a very inhumane way. They apply for a house and, with few if any reasons for refusal, the council sends them back all of their documentation in the post and says they do not qualify. Why can the council not do what most people in this House would do, and call them in to have a chat, rectify their application and approve them? I tell people that once they have been approved, there is no magic wand. They might be approved and get HAP but there are no houses to get.

Look at the housing stock the councils have. I wonder why there is no real effort to turn around a house that has been vacated and put it back into active residential use. I am told there is an issue with the cost of repairing and refurbishing these houses. That is a load of nonsense. There are many people on the housing list who are living in dire circumstances and would accept a house that might fall a bit short on some standards. They would do so in the hope that once they have a house, they will get it repaired in future. That does not happen, however, and nobody is accountable. At the end of the day, the Minister and his senior officials are accountable. Do we hear from them? No.

Downsizing or resizing is another issue. I know cases where people want to downsize from a three-bedroom house to a one-bedroom or two-bedroom house but the council does not have the ambition to make that happen. It just will not let that happen. The result is a family is left homeless, while one person living in a three-bedroom house who wants to move to a one-bedroom house cannot be accommodated. Council officials are often baffled and bewildered by the range of problems they are facing and the skill set is not there to reach out. Maybe the ambition of chief executives - I am not talking about any particular chief executive - is not there to work with the Ministers and civil servants to get this job done.

There was reference to adaptation grants. Around budget time, I asked the Government to make sure the shortfalls in the grant in every local authority were addressed. I asked that local authorities be given even more money to ensure people remain in their houses and that houses would be made available to disabled persons, freeing up other houses. That does not happen. I have seen more refusals on the basis of no funding being available. The Minister needs to make every single council accountable to us in this House.

The Minister has to insist they deliver on their numbers. Do not let the Opposition say now we are blaming the councils. I am not. I am simply saying they all have a role. They are all getting paid, so why should they not be accountable? That does not remove accountability from the Minister or the senior civil servants.

I cannot understand either why a council that runs into a difficulty with a tenant - I have an example of it in my county of Kilkenny - turns to evict that person. Whatever the reasons are for that, is it right to evict a family of six and put them on the roadside, citing succession rights, rent arrears or whatever it might be? Is it not a case where someone from the council should go to mediate? I asked for mediation in the particular case I experienced in Kilkenny and the answer was no. The council said it had a court order and it was evicting the person and the family. Do councils not get what is happening in society right now? You have a case where the council wants to increase the rent. Should the parents take in the family that cannot afford to pay a rent in the private sector? They go back home and lo and behold the council is on to the family immediately to increase their rent. There has to be some forgiveness in circumstances like that. A space has to be created to allow that family to assist their family members, sometimes with young children, and not be told their rent is being jacked up for that purpose.

All of the schemes the Minister has to give people the opportunity to buy their own homes are failing in part because people cannot get through the hoops that are attached to every single scheme. There is no one there to assist them and to say that if they did things a particular way, they might qualify for one scheme or the other. That does not happen. They come back to public representatives like all of us in this House and guess what? They have to fill out a two-page permission under GDPR so that the council officials can speak to us when we are trying to speak on behalf of a constituent who has come to us in the first place. We ignore that here. We do not do anything about it. We should do something about it. It is preventing us from doing our work. More importantly, it is preventing the officials from understanding the real-life experiences of people as explained by a public representative.

We are often treated with disdain. They do not want to communicate in a way that will expose the real problem and in a way that will give proper rights to the people we represent. These are all things that can be changed. The Minister should tell the council chief executives when they meet next that he wants a different or simpler form or that he wants to the word of a public representative to be taken when he or she makes representations on behalf of a client.

Choice-based letting is a good thing. I see a lot of people on the housing list use it but it is another measure that is restricting those who are not IT-literate. Nobody wants to talk to you in the council unless you are doing it by email or by CBL, and that excludes an awful lot of people. It excludes older people and it is not treating them with respect. That has to be addressed.

Single men and single women are probably the biggest number on the housing list in my constituency. I fight hard for each and every one of them because the last thing we want to see happen is that they would be trapped in private rented accommodation at the age of 60 and not be able to get accommodation. It is a downward spiral from there. Again, it is not understood properly by the local authorities and it is not being dealt with properly or funded properly by the Government. How many times have I heard, sitting in the Ceann Comhairle's chair, Members of this House tell the story about vacant properties? Every chief executive should be made account for the number of vacant properties on their books and there should be a timeframe given for them to work on it. I support everything that is said about the tenant in situ scheme. For God's sake, fund it and make it happen.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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When Fine Gael entered Government in 2011, we had 641 children living in emergency accommodation. After 15 years of Fine Gael in government, propped up by Fianna Fáil for most of the time, we now have over 5,000 children homeless. That is a disgrace. It is not an accident. It is a direct result of the Government's bad policies. One example of that is cutting the funding for the tenant in situ scheme. In 2024, the scheme in Dublin City Council had €115 million in funding. Last year, guess what was is? Last year, it was cut to €38 million. This scheme was an incredibly important one because it worked. It was a vital homeless prevention measure. It kept families in their homes. I urge the Minister of State to increase funding for this scheme at the very least back to 2024 levels.

The situation on the ground is desperate. Only last week my office was speaking to a woman who was recently made homeless with a young child. She rang up Parkgate Street and was told no emergency accommodation was available in Dublin. Her only option was to go to County Meath. It was totally impractical. This woman did not drive. How was she supposed to get her child to school? On top of the trauma and the real upset of the loss of a secure home, this child's education is going to be seriously impacted.

We have people in my constituency stuck on the council housing list for ten, 12, 15 and more years. We have so-called affordable housing where a three-bedroom house is over €.0.5 million. On what planet is that affordable? This is a disaster of Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's making. We need to see huge investment in social and affordable homes and we need to restore the tenant in situ scheme back to its proper funding.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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We have more than 5,000 children in emergency accommodation, a figure that is both shocking and shames the State. Yesterday, the Government rightly apologised to institutional abuse survivors. It was a hard-fought for and very much delayed apology. As I have said previously here, I have absolutely no doubt that a future government will be issuing an apology for the damage homelessness has done and is doing to children during this decade. The Government has not only utterly failed to address the issue of homelessness in this State, its actions has contributed to a homeless crisis that is directly impacting the lives of thousands of our citizens. Focus Ireland's homeless figures give an insight into the failure of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments.

In January 2016, when I came into the Dáil, a month later, 5,715 were availing of emergency accommodation across the State. Fast-forward to December 2025, that figure is almost 17,000. As I regularly do, I spoke to people in Limerick this week who work in emergency services. They advised me that there is no sign of the crisis abating and everything is getting worse. They said the number of people sleeping rough has increased due to the lack of emergency accommodation in the city, with people being turned away from emergency accommodation every single night. Staff working in the University Hospital Limerick have told me there are approximately 12 or more people staying in the accident and emergency department every single night to keep out of the cold. It is so common there that they are classified as P5 patients. These are failures of this Government and its most recent predecessors.

What has happened? Why is there such a failure? A lack of support for local councils for refurbishment of voids is one element.

In Limerick, there are always 200 vacant local authority homes not in use as there is only €11,000 in funding, a tiny amount, available from central government to refurbish vacant homes. Everybody knows that is simply not enough. In Limerick, the number one issue raised with me is the need for housing. There are approximately 2,000 people on Limerick's housing list and these figures are growing. People are waiting years without any prospect of getting a home. Increasing numbers of notices to quit has left many people desperate with nowhere to go.

It is time the Government provided proper funding, turned vacant local authority houses into homes, improved the tenant in situ scheme and restored the funding that was there for it, restored funding to homeless prevention schemes and increased the amount of emergency accommodation available in Limerick. In a society like ours, which is supposedly one of the richest countries in the world, people living - and, unfortunately, in many cases dying - on our streets is simply not acceptable.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I am not taking aim at the Minister of State but it is deeply disappointing that the Minister responsible, Deputy James Browne, is not in the Chamber for this. These are the first statements on homelessness under his Ministry. We are told he is at a subcommittee. Surely, that subcommittee could have been rearranged and he could have had the decency to be here. I am not taking it out on the Minister of State but it is absolutely disgraceful that the Minister for housing is not here for the first statements on homelessness.

Reading through the Minister of State's statement, I can call it nothing other than sanitised spin to deflect from utter failure. The Minister of State accepts the profound impact homelessness has on individuals and particularly children. That is one sentence in a three-page statement. However, not once does the Minister of State say the levels of homelessness are too high. What are the levels? There were 16,734 individuals homeless in December. The Government goes on about the success of housing policy and, reading this statement, you would think the Government is absolutely solving the issue of homelessness. What is the reality? The figures are there in the local authority quarterly report, which I have gone through. I will show the Minister of State the figures and the reality of homelessness which the Minister of State and the Government completely deny and are trying to normalise.

There has been a 12% increase in the past 12 months. There are now 2,478 families homeless in this country, an 18.5% increase since the start of last year. That is an almost 20% increase in the number of families who are homeless and this Government acts as if its housing policy is working. Since the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government was set up just over a year ago, we have seen the number of children who are homeless increase by 11%.

Let us look at Fine Gael's record in government. We have figures from 2014. That is 12 years of Fine Gael in government and there has been a 590% increase in the number of children who are homeless in this country. How many children have gone through emergency accommodation over that decade? We do not actually have figures for that. I am the only one who has tried to estimate how many children have been in emergency accommodation over the past decade. I estimate somewhere in the region of 40,000 children have been through emergency accommodation in ten years of Fine Gael being in government. I still do not understand how Fine Gael and the Government just say this is okay, this is normal and they actually treat it like the emergency it is. The Government is not treating it like the emergency it is. It is an absolute scandal.

I am going to read some of a report from Barnardos which it released last year. It is about the impact of homelessness on children. I encourage people to read it and try to highlight it as much as possible because it is devastating. What is being done to children in emergency accommodation and the utter failure of this State to provide for those children is devastating. Before I get onto that report, a Royal College of Physicians study in 2019 showed that 40% of children in emergency accommodation were experiencing clinically significant levels of mental health and behavioural difficulties. That figure is 40% - almost half of the children in emergency accommodation. Children in homelessness were twice as likely to require hospitalisation as children not living in homelessness. The Barnardos report states:

It is hard to understate the potential impact that moving into emergency accommodation can have on a child. For many children we work with, it is a case of suddenly leaving their homes, most of their belongings, potentially their pets, and moving into much smaller accommodation that is less suitable and a considerable distance from their previous homes. This event can be extremely traumatic for children and unfortunately, without supports, long lasting. The trauma can affect children’s relationships with others, their behaviour and ability to engage in school, their confidence levels and feeling of wellbeing, in essence all aspects of their lives.

This State is failing 5,188 children who are in emergency accommodation right now, the thousands of children who have been through emergency accommodation and the thousands of children who will become homeless in the coming years because the Government failed to put a ban on evictions of children and families who will be made homeless. The Government's new rental measures do nothing to protect the hundreds of thousands of renters who are in existing tenancies and will still be subject to no-fault evictions, so we will continue to see thousands of children in this country subject to trauma - trauma that is utterly preventable. It is preventable if the Government has the courage to put in place a ban on evictions but it will not do it. The Government will take emergency action for investor funds but it will not do it for thousands of children and families who have been made homeless, are homeless or will become homeless in the coming months and years.

I will go through some of those figures. There are now 2,500 children who, right now, have spent over one year in emergency accommodation. That is one year of not being able to have birthday parties, not being able to have friends over and living in unsuitable accommodation. Barnardos and the Royal College of Physicians have set it out. The evidence is there. Yesterday, the Taoiseach gave a State apology for people being institutionalised. We are institutionalising a generation of children. This State, the Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are institutionalising thousands of children right now under their watch. The Government knows it is happening. It knows the damage it is doing to children. Yet, what does the Government do? It wrings its hands, shrugs its shoulders and says we cannot put a ban on evictions. That would be emergency action that would prevent children being made homeless but the Government will not do it.

The Minister for housing should be here to answer this but he is not. He runs away from it. He runs away from his responsibility. There are 1,100 children in emergency accommodation for longer than two years. We know some of them have been in that accommodation for three, four or five years. There has been a 25% increase in the past year. This State is absolutely responsible for that. It is a derogation of that responsibility to allow this to continue. I can guarantee there will be commissions of inquiry in the future as to how this State let this happen. The Government knows it and has known it for years. It is a shame on Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and this Government that thousands of children are being left in emergency accommodation that is deeply damaging.

Fundamentally, it goes back to the Government's failure to prioritise homelessness and prevention. The Government cut the tenant in situ scheme and will not increase the HAP limits. What does it do? It increases the rents chargeable for investor funds. The Simon Community's report showed there are no rental properties within the HAP limits for those who are being made homeless, so where are they supposed to go to? The new rental increases will lead to higher rents and higher levels of homelessness. Yet, the Government says it is all needed for supply because supply and more supply is the solution. Supply is not the solution for families and children whose landlords are evicting them. The solution is a ban on evictions of families and children into homelessness.

That is an immediate emergency action that the Minister of State could take. Why will the Minister of State not take it? Do the institutional investors, the corporate landlords and the landlord lobby have the Minister of State so under their thumb that he will not act for the thousands of individuals, children and families who are being made homeless?

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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We know that while everyone feels the pressure of the housing crisis, there are particular groups who face the most brutal aspects of it. The crisis really has seeped into the life of every Irish person, but some people feel it worse than others. Those individuals are more likely to become homeless. They then struggle to get out of homelessness. I am talking about Travellers, migrants, those suffering with addiction, those with disabilities, the elderly and children. Today, however, I want to talk about one particular group that faces massive barriers when it comes to accessing housing or living with the risk of homelessness. I refer to one-parent families.

Since becoming a TD, time and again I have heard the stories of single parents who are renting who can never aspire to own their homes. This is because they are on one income and have children who are solely reliant on them. I have heard their stress and their worry about how unstable their situations are and how an eviction notice could land on the mat in the morning.

I have also heard from parents who have had to face the reality of being unable to find another property for them and their children, having to put their children in new schools or commuting two hours a day because that is the closest emergency accommodation they can get. They are trying to balances their jobs, their children and the pressing need to find and keep a roof over their heads, and they are doing it all alone.

Focus Ireland found that 57% of homeless families in this country are one-parent families. One of the parents interviewed for that report had the following to say:

I never thought I would end up homeless. I had a job; I was doing okay. Then my landlord sold the house, and suddenly we were in a hotel room. My kids ask me every day when we will have a home again. I don't have an answer.

Another stated:

Childcare is impossible. I want to work, but how can I when I can't afford it and there's no support? It feels like the system is set up to keep us stuck.

Muna bhfuilimid in ann tacú leis na tuismitheoirí seo agus a bpáistí, ní bheimid in ann comhionannas a fháil sa Stát seo. Tá an córas atá againn ag daoine ar na sráideanna agus á gcoinneáil ann. Caithfear dul i ngleic leis an bhfáinne fí seo.

All across the country, people are trapped in a cycle of homelessness due to the failure of this Government's policies. I refer to those who are served eviction notices and are unable to find somewhere else that they can afford for their families. I also refer to lone parents in particular who are unable to do anything about their lower incomes and who are locked out of work due to the cost of childcare and locked out of the property market on foot of house prices that the Government is keen to continue to allow to rise.

I will end with a final quote from the Focus Ireland survey, namely:

It's the stigma that hurts the most. People look at you differently when you say you're in emergency accommodation. I feel like I've failed my children, even though I'm doing everything I can.

Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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Homelessness is a moral stain on our society, of that there is no doubt. I have watched over the past decade as the number of people becoming homeless and entering emergency accommodation has climbed each year and as increasing numbers of people, particularly younger people, beg in the streets. Even older people are not spared the impact of the failed housing policies of successive Governments.

What society can claim to be fair when homelessness within it continues to climb? What Government could possibly hold its head up high as it lifts an eviction ban and security-of-tenure provisions fail to rise to the occasion? Homelessness has gripped far too many people across this country and in my constituency.

During the local election campaign two years ago, I knocked on the door of one house in Terenure. The woman who lived there came to the door. Within minutes, she was in tears. Her young son was inside, and she did not want him to hear her. She had recently been divorced. The court had ordered that house be sold as part of the divorce settlement and she was being evicted with her son as a result. She was working in healthcare at the time and still does so. Today, she shares a one-bedroom apartment with her son. She spends 40% of her income on rent and sleeps on the couch. She emailed me recently and stated that she is extremely worried for her and her child's future. She is merely one bad event or an eviction notice away from devastation.

I was in contact with another mother recently who is in one-room emergency accommodation with her 14-year-old son, who is autistic and who suffers with severe anxiety. Their cramped homeless situation has greatly exacerbated his difficulties. She is terrified of bringing him outside due to his worsening ability to regulate his emotions and behaviours. Their mental health is deteriorating rapidly. She can see no light at the end of the tunnel.

The third case I wish to highlight is that of a young woman in Rathmines and her mother, who was recently diagnosed with cancer and who has a number of other serious conditions, including mobility issues, for whom she cares. The young woman in question contacted me in desperation when she was served an eviction notice. Her mother's health condition, as well as some historical financial difficulties and her father's recent passing, have made it impossible for them to find alternative accommodation. She is wondering how she can present to homeless services with her mother, who, as stated, has significant mobility issues. She is at her wit's end.

These are real people with real stories. Theirs are real tragedies brought about by Government policies that seem to try and paper over a gaping wound in Irish society. While the support emergency accommodation is a lifeline for so many, it was always meant to be temporary. The seemingly permanent nature of the Government's approach to emergency accommodation, HAP and evictions only edifies the argument that it is a Government for the rich that operates at the expense of everyone else.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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The next slot is a Government slot. Deputy Aird, le do thoil.

William Aird (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Go raibh míle maith agat, a Cathaoirleach Gníomhach. I want to raise an issue that I have already raised with the housing Minister and his Minister of State. I want to use my time highlight an issue that does not always show up in the headlines relating to the homeless figures but which is very real and urgent, namely the growing number of people with disabilities who are effectively locked out of independent living.

I was contacted earlier this year by a young woman in her late 20s who was born with a disability. She has used a wheelchair since childhood. She is highly educated, works full time and contributes meaningfully to our society. However, despite doing everything right, studying, working and paying taxes, she has recently been removed from the social housing list in Laois because her income exceeds the threshold. On paper, she earns above the limit, which is €35,000 for a single person. In reality, that figure tells only half the story. Her net income is significantly reduced by the cost of disability. She pays for private physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, orthodontics and prolotherapy. She pays for private health insurance because she knows her medical card may be withdrawn because she is working. She has at times paid €70 for a single accessible-taxi journey to and from work. She does not know how long she will physically be able to sustain full-time employment. The uncertainty is not a choice. It is the reality of living with a progressive physical condition, but the system assesses her solely on gross income.

As a result of the fact that this young women lives at home with her parents, the HSE does not provide adequate personal assistance, PA, hours. On foot of that, she cannot live independently. Because she cannot live independently, she remains in the family home. It is a vicious circle. Her parents provide 24-7 support in the context of personal care and transport. That unpaid care has enormous economic value, yet it is invisible in the Department's housing assessment.

There are currently no wheelchair accessible apartments available to rent or buy in Portlaoise. Any home she might purchase would require extensive and costly renovation. That is, of course, if she some day may be in a position to purchase an apartment or a house. As a single applicant with a disability, she cannot access mortgage protection insurance; the risks are simply too high. This is the reality facing many people with disabilities who fall between two stools.

They are above the threshold for social housing, barely above €35,000, but far below what is required to secure accessible housing on the private market. We must ask ourselves whether our social housing income thresholds accounting for the cost of disability. Are we penalising people with disabilities for working? Are we creating distinctions for employment by failing to consider real, unavoidable disability-related expenditure?

We rightly speak about supporting independent living. We ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but independence is impossible without housing. Housing policy must recognise disability creates structural barriers that income figures alone cannot capture. There must be flexibility in the assessment system to consider medical vulnerability, accessible needs and the sustainability of employment in the long term. We also need to increase the supply of universally designed and wheelchair-accessible homes as standard practice.

Homelessness is not only about rough sleeping or emergency accommodation. It is also about the hidden insecurity of adults who cannot leave the family home; adults who cannot access appropriate supports; and adults who see no viable pathway to independent living. We must ensure our housing system does not punish resilience, ambition or the desire to work. People with disabilities should not have to choose between employment and security.

I urge the Minister of State to: first, review the operation of social housing income thresholds as they apply to people with disabilities; second, I want him to examine how disability-related costs are factored into assessments; and, third, I want him to ensure those who are medically vulnerable are not excluded by inflexible criteria.

The Minister of State probably knows this already but Nelson Mandela said, "A winner is a dreamer who never gives up." I want the Minister of State to bring this back to the Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, on my behalf, because I have already raised this with him. I am the dreamer, and I will never give up on this case for April until I succeed for her.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North-West, Sinn Fein)
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The national total for those considered homeless is 16,734. Of that figure, 5,188 are children. These figures released in December 2025 show a shocking increase in both adult and child homelessness. These figures also mask the real number of those who are homeless because they do not tell us how many people are couch surfing and sleeping rough on the streets or in their cars.

Eviction notices from landlords have continued at pace, with tenants having nowhere to go after eviction, except the homeless services. The new differential rent scheme being introduced in April by Dublin City Council has created additional problems. From the number of people who have contacted my constituency office in recent days, it is almost certain that a new cohort of people will enter homelessness. The income-based assessment approach has had the consequence of adversely affecting many tenants, as the calculation on rent owing is now made according to who is the highest earner in a household and not who is the primary tenant. This has substantially increased rents for many of the most vulnerable in our communities, particularly old-aged pensioners. One old-aged couple's rent is increasing from €63 to over €80, over €20. It is absolutely terrible.

In a housing crisis, as people struggle to get on the property ladder, many adult children have remained in the family home to save money for a deposit or mortgage. Their parents are now being punished for helping their children save for a house because if their earnings are more than their parents, their parents' rent goes up substantially. This has been a big shock for many people who are already struggling financially. Parents may now have to delve into their savings to pay the extra rent or consider putting their children out of the house. I advise anyone in financial difficulty to apply to the council's hardship fund to assist them in their financial distress and alleviate pressures on the family income.

While the reasoning for these increases in rent is that the moneys will go toward housing maintenance, insulation of homes, adaptions etc., the reality is the Department of housing is not sufficiently funding councils, which have some of the oldest properties in the State. Basically, the Government is putting the critical funding required for maintenance back on the poorest and most vulnerable in our communities. We can see this Government is incapable of resolving the homelessness crisis, which will continue to get worse.

Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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It is hard to know what to say at this stage because it will not be anything new from me or anyone else. I used to joke about single, transferable speeches but, unfortunately, there is an element here of, "Where are we going?"

As Deputy Ellis said, that 16,734 is the officially accepted or classified number for homelessness. Obviously, this does not deal with rough sleepers, children in domestic violence refuge and a huge number of things. It does not deal with those people who are getting by on the basis that they are staying in their friend's front room and moving from one to the other. I have to assume the Minister of State has people coming to him at this moment in time, no more than we do, under severe pressure with notices to quit. He is going to talk about tenure and about how there is a greater level of protections but we do not see it. We are talking about 25% of all private rental tenancies that are registered with the RTB being new tenancies.

We are looking at possibly having up to 60,000 from 1 March. We could be looking at literally 60,000 tenancies every year with a market reset. It is not a normal market; it is an absolutely broken market. I will be honest and say that I was talking to a very small landlord who put up a notice for a small two-bedroom in Dundalk but had to take it down within an hour. There were well over 100 emails, with people offering whatever they could to get a house. There were about 50 phone calls, of which not all could be answered for obvious reasons. There was a huge number of people who are facing notices to quit. We are talking about 5,100 children within that figure I mentioned earlier.

The only people who are happy at the minute are those in IRES REIT. It is looking at a 20% to 25% increase in its profits for rents. I do not see any solutions here. It is like this problem has become so big, that Government is happy enough to just let it lie on the basis that there is an element of apathy and of people who are afraid there is not a solution. We all know there are solutions, and it is about Government investing properly. It is about ensuring there is a steady supply of affordable and social housing. I do not know how the Government can defend this in any way, shape or form.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have asked for this debate for weeks on end at the Business Committee. Finally, we got there but it takes this long just to get a debate on what is an absolute disaster. The Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, said when he came into office that child and family homelessness was his priority. The Government has repeatedly said this is the biggest social emergency facing it. Yet, tomorrow, we are going to have the new homelessness figures and the likelihood is those figures will reach close to 17,000 people in emergency accommodation, maybe even exceeding that figure, with 5,000 of those being children.

The likelihood is that those figures will reach close to 17,000 people in emergency accommodation and they may even exceed that figure, with 5,000 of those being children. It is an obscene level of child and family homelessness. We are breaking the records pretty much every month in terms of the hardship and suffering being imposed on families, children and individuals in homelessness, facing homelessness or in crisis housing situations. It seems to me that the Government is normalising this. There can be no other explanation for allowing the homeless figures to climb to the levels the Government has allowed, in a housing crisis that has been acknowledged. It took a while for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments to acknowledge it. I remember when some of us were using the term "crisis" back in 2012 and 2013 and we were being dismissed. Eventually there was an acknowledgement, more than 12 years ago, that there was a crisis, not an emergency. I do not know if the Government is willing, even now, to use the word "emergency" to describe the absolute disaster that is facing so many people in housing crisis situations or who are actually homeless. The Government has allowed the situation to deteriorate and get worse. It seems to me that the Government actually wants to normalise the situation and get us used to it. The media at this point will probably sort of ignore this debate now because even they are being inured to the idea that there is just going to be a permanent state of housing misery in this country.

I want to use the brief time available to me to highlight some cases. I get so exercised about this issue because of the people who come to me. I will give a few examples just to highlight the failure of the Government. Suzanne has been nine years on the housing list. She has three kids aged ten, four and two. Her ten-year-old has additional needs and her two-year-old has a heart condition. She will be homeless on Saturday when she has to hand back her keys on foot of a notice to quit because her landlord is selling the property. She has done nothing wrong. This will be the third time in five years that she has been made homeless. Suzanne grew up in care with no family support network. She has been on to the council repeatedly about her situation and is told it does not even have homeless accommodation for somebody who has been nine years on the list and facing her third stint of homelessness. She has been told she will probably have to ring the emergency hours homeless number when she is made homeless on Saturday. It is despicable that Suzanne could be in this situation again with her children.

Caoimhe has been eight and a half years on the housing list. She has three children aged nine, four and two. They have been living in damp and mouldy homeless accommodation for almost ten months. Her two-year-old was taken to hospital with pneumonia during the winter. She was previously in homeless accommodation in 2021. She found a HAP property and lived there for four years but was then made homeless again. Her daughter, at Christmas time, asked for only one thing from Santa - a home of her own. It is just disgusting that she and her child are going through this again.

Vera and her partner have three children, two of whom have disabilities. They have been in homeless accommodation in Monkstown for over six months. The HSE has visited and deemed the accommodation inappropriate for disabled children. Vera submitted multiple consultant letters urging the council to house them. The children are really suffering in the homeless accommodation. She submitted a medical priority form, a HMD form, ten months ago but it still has not been adjudicated on. The family are in absolute crisis.

The list goes on. Julianne has been homeless now with her two children for more than two years and is in her second homeless accommodation. She is currently sharing a bed with her nine-year-old son. Her daughter, who is 14, is now refusing to go to school.

Saoirse has been in a hub for a year. She came in to me and described how she has been suicidal. Her son has autism. She is on a list for a two-bedroom property but is still awaiting to be processed on the HMD form. The list just goes on. This is just a snapshot of cases I am dealing with in my office.

These people are all on the lists for two-bedroom or three-bedroom properties. There are almost no three-bedroom units in the pipeline in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. The private developers are mostly building one- and two-bedroom units and are not really interested in three-bedroom homes because they can get more one- and two-bedroom units on a site. Families are in absolutely dire situations and the Government says it is its priority. What is it going to do for these families? The tenant in situ scheme has slowed to a snail's pace, so for those facing eviction that one possible hope for some of them is not available.

Let us think of people trying to find a HAP tenancy in this situation. Rents in my area for a three-bedroom home are now at €3,200. Any tenancies that end will now all go up to that level in my area. There is no chance of even the HAP as an outlet. As difficult as it was to find a HAP tenancy previously, now there will be no HAP properties available within the limits or anywhere even close to them.

We also have the older people. Tommy and Bridie are a couple who are being evicted from the home they have rented for the past four years. They are aged 69 and 77, respectively, and are absolutely terrified of what is coming down the line. They have been on the older person's housing list for seven years. The council has given them no reassurance, telling them they are No. 38 on the list. Obviously they are terrified as older people, at those ages, that they will end up in emergency accommodation. Both of them have health issues. Bridie has had part of her lung removed as a result of cancer and her breathing is affected. Tommy has macular degeneration and is almost completely blind in one eye, with deteriorating sight in the other. He also has type 2 diabetes. The thought of these people going into a hostel in town is disgusting.

Gary has been living in private rented accommodation for years. In his current place, he has been on rent allowance for 14 years. The council is disputing how long he has been on the list. He has chronic arthritis and rheumatism but neither that nor his age qualifies him to be prioritised by the council. His attempt to be prioritised has been rejected. Older people are not on choice based lettings, CBL, so he has no idea how long he will wait.

Joan is aged 84. Her husband died a few years ago. She lived Dún Laoghaire all her life and she was evicted on 20 January. We were in touch with the council but nothing could be found for her. She is now staying with a family member in Waterford.

We have families and children and older, sick and vulnerable people who are in homeless accommodation, are homeless or are facing homelessness. Then there are those suffering from domestic violence. I will not mention the names here. A woman who has two children was viciously attacked by her ex-partner who is awaiting trial for the attack. Her youngest child witnessed the attack and is traumatised. He has attacked her apartment also, despite a protection order. She tried repeatedly to get priority housing through the council but to no avail, even though she is fleeing domestic violence. Another woman escaped a violent abusive partner and has been couch surfing between two homes. She has been waiting over six months for a HMD form to be assessed.

This is affecting children, families, older people and women and children fleeing domestic violence. There are also those people who go over the threshold. Ian has lived in private rented accommodation with his partner for over 14 years. They were paying €2,300 a month. They have been issued with a notice to quit and are becoming desperate because they cannot find anything within their price range. As you might imagine, €2,300 a month pretty much stretches them. Now, of course, rents for the same property will be over €3,000. They are marginally over the limit for social housing and therefore are not entitled to HAP or any assistance or any prospect of a social home. They went in for the few lotteries for cost rental but of course they did not get them because there is massive oversubscription for those.

Then there is Ben, a very nice young man in his 20s, who came in to see me. He is working for the council but his income is €1,500 over the threshold, which, by the way, has not been moved for three years. He has been on the housing list. He has to pay €250 every two weeks in maintenance to his partner, but that is still assessed against his income. If that was not assessed, he would be below the threshold and he would not be knocked off the list. By the way, his partner is being assessed on the same money he is giving to her, which is double counting of the maintenance. I think the Minister of State gets the point.

Where is the effort to stop people being homeless? The only meaningful thing the Department has done is to guarantee that people's prospect of finding private rented accommodation in my area, the whole of south Dublin and huge parts of the country is now going to be totally impossible because the rents will all go up €3,000 or €3,200. It was very hard before, but now it just will not happen, so the likelihood of those people escaping from homelessness is gone. Everything the Government is seen to be doing - not lifting the thresholds and not controlling the rents - is making it more likely people will stay in this homelessness misery, in conditions that are totally unacceptable.

The Government could do something about it. It could stop evictions, put in real rent controls, take aggressive action against people who are land-hoarding and speculating, prioritise the provision of more social housing and raise the thresholds. There are a lot of things the Government could do, but it just does not seem to care. It seems as if the Government just wants to normalise this horrendous situation.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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It is an utter shame and disgrace that statements on homelessness are becoming so frequent in the Dáil. The fact that the Minister is not here either is also shameful.

Every single time this issue comes before us, the numbers of people, including children and the elderly, who have been failed by this Government and have ended up homeless have risen. The number has risen drastically and it is rising every day.

The facts are there in black and white before us. They spell out clearly what we in Sinn Féin have been calling out for years: that the Minister has been throwing petrol on the fire with his housing policies. The housing policies do not work for ordinary working people trying to buy a home. They do not work for pensioners facing eviction. Let us imagine getting to that age in life and not knowing where we will go next. We need more local housing for older people. People decide who is at the top of the list in communities. We are being told people are not on the list. It does not matter what medical issues they have, as people are dictating who gets the houses. That is wrong. Older people should not have to face eviction.

The housing policies do not work for adults with additional needs who desperately need a safe and secure place to live. Recently, in the audiovisual room, we heard from the Before We Die campaigners who spoke about the hidden homeless. The parents are too old. They are getting to a stage where they cannot possibly look after their loved ones, yet the State says that they must. How are they supposed to do that? Some of these people are in their 80s. It is not possible. The State needs to step up and stop putting the blame on parents.

The housing policies do not work for students being fleeced with sky-high rents. I know colleges that have space to build. We need to get in there. Rents should not be a barrier to people going to college. Parents cannot afford to live in their own homes and they cannot afford to send their children to college purely because they cannot afford to pay the rent. That is not right.

The housing policies only work to line the pockets of the mega-landlords, the vulture funds and the big property developers. Put simply, the Minister is putting private capital and profits ahead of the public good. That has led to ever-increasing homelessness.

Only this week, I was contacted by a couple in their late 50s who face a no-fault eviction from the house they have rented for almost 20 years. They are devastated and left with no idea of where to go. They face a very real prospect of homelessness.

We are a strong, prosperous, highly developed State. How this Government can allow so many people to fall into homelessness is an absolute disgrace. Without a radical reset of housing policy, as recommended by the Housing Commission, this crisis will only get worse. That means the Minister will not meet his target of ending long-term homelessness by 2030.

We have a wealth of expertise and knowledge in this State - experts who could help end this crisis. It is time the Minister started listening to them, and not the lobbyists for big capital. Homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that affects individuals and families in Ireland right now. There are people in Carlow and Kilkenny who are working but cannot afford to rent, if they could even find a house to rent. They cannot get a mortgage because their wages are too low. We need to get back to local county councils building houses, just like the one that I grew up in. Kilkenny would be in a far worse crisis if we did not have the Good Shepherd Centre. It is doing tremendous work but we need more of that.

I am glad the Minister eventually came in. There are older people and children who are homeless. Deputy Boyd Barrett said that all the children wanted for Christmas off Santy was a roof over their head. That is a crying shame. Some of these parents are working yet they cannot afford to rent a house. They have no chance of ever getting a mortgage. That is on the Government.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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The homeless crisis in Ireland has reached a historic and harrowing breaking point for so many families. The figures currently show that 16,734 people are trapped in emergency accommodation. That is a record-shattering figure, representing a 12% increase year on year. However, it is actually only a fraction of the truth if we add in rough sleepers and the 290,000 hidden homeless - the families who are squeezed into garden sheds, those who are couch surfing and living in overcrowded flats or the adults who are in their 30s, regressing into childhood bedrooms because this State has outsourced the right to a shelter to what is market forces.

The Ombudsman for Children has documented many complaints and reveals what I would call a systematic institutionalisation of children in this State. One mother described her children's silence, noting that her son had stopped speaking entirely because of the regimented prison-like experience of guards and roll calls in their so-called home. In these hubs, families of five are actually confined to single rooms. The ombudsman reported that children are not making their milestones, such as crawling or walking, just because they simply do not have enough floor space to be able to get moving. In some of these areas there are floors that are damp and rooms full of people that are full of mildew. There is the noise of strangers, heard through paper-thin walls.

The school run has become a marathon for many kids, who have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get to the school in the area where they lived originally. One parent talked about their child having to eat a dry breakfast out of a plastic bag at a bus stop, just be able to get to school on time. Teachers are reporting the phenomenon of homelessness fatigue because children are having to travel such distances from the temporary homeless hubs to get to the original school they were in.

I had not heard of the term "kettle cooking" until recently. A generation of children are now growing up on pot noodles, tea and instant pasta prepared on the floor of their room on their bedside table. That is the nutritional content that we are investing in a whole cohort of children in this country.

Other children, because of the distance that they have to travel on buses to get home, are missing meal times in the hubs, and maybe missing the only hot meal of the day as well. Homelessness takes a psychological toll.

We see behaviour regression from children who were once independent. We are seeing documented cases of children aged eight, nine, ten, 11 and 12 years old returning to bed-wetting because of the instability of the situation of they are in and the proximity of strangers in hostels as well.

There is a profound sense of stigma for many of these children. Children and teenagers describe as a social death telling people that they are homeless. It is impossible for them to have a friend over, as well the effect that has on the socialisation of those individuals. They do not have a wall to put a poster on, a door to close behind them or a proper bed to sleep in at night.

Up until this situation, we were talking about people on low incomes but we are now actually talking about middle-income families in this situation. Incredibly, families who are on €30,000 or €40,000 and up to €48,000 in some places are being disqualified from housing assistance, leaving them in a situation where they are too wealthy to be able to get housing assistance but too poor to be able to afford rent and in the limbo space of being forced into temporary accommodation. It is an incredible situation. The Government refuses to change the income limits despite the realities of the cost-of-living crisis. This is engineering a section of society which is now falling into homelessness and that is policy-driven.

I want to just speak about some of the solutions for this because there is no point in just focusing on the outcomes of the Government's attitude. The Government's residential tenancies Bill will come into play on Monday. That Bill is designed purposely to raise rents. That is the objective of that Bill. The Government does that because it wants to attract investors. It does it because it wants to increase activation and viability. I do not know of any other government in the history of the State that has implemented a Bill whose primary objective is to raise rents. To do it at a time when families are struggling with absolutely astronomical rents is really hard to believe.

I accept something needs to be done on the viability question. However, at a time when the Government is putting €10 billion into a savings account on an annual basis, surely there is another method to make house-building viable. In my constituency there are heaps of builders at home who are doing nothing and are not building because it is not viable for them. The majority of the top 50 construction companies in this country are currently sending their workers abroad because it is not viable to build here in Ireland. However, in the North of Ireland there is no VAT on the construction of homes. There is no tax take by the state on the construction of homes in the North of Ireland. The Minister has already accepted that is an activation action by actually doing it for flats and apartments. However, that really only attracts the investment funds into that space. Imagine if it was done for house-building, for the people who are building their own houses or the families who want to get into a first-time house in their locality.

This Government is absolutely laden down with red tape and bureaucracy. I have mentioned this to the Minister a number of times before. Unless he actually gets to the heart of this, he will never fix this problem. We have the slowest planning, permitting, licensing, tendering and judicial review system in the whole of Europe. It takes a phenomenally long time to build anything. This is not just affecting the housing crisis. We cannot build flood defences, rail lines and the other infrastructure necessary to allow people to live, and that is a significant problem. The habitats directive has a big influence on that. However, it is also because the Government is not staffing the planning authorities or An Coimisiún Pleanála to the level they need. It is also because it puts layer upon layer of bureaucracy on the system year after year. If the Government does not tackle that, we are going to have a massive problem.

At the moment Ireland has 26 judicial reviews for every 1 million people. Britain has five judicial reviews for every 1 million people. It is becoming a national sport here. We have proposed a Bill to prevent vexatious objections to construction. Right now, if I live in the Minister of State's constituency in Cork, I can put in an objection to a person in Donegal building a slatted shed on their farm, which is an incredible situation. A person with no material interest in a particular project can put in an objection. People should not get me wrong; I understand that there are civic society groups that stand for proper planning and development and should have the ability to influence or put in objections. However, we need to start targeting vexatious objectors and the vexatious judicial reviewers in this process.

One of my biggest frustrations with this Government has been the type of debate that we have had on this issue over the years. It has been a very one-dimensional debate. It is happening between the Government and a certain section of the Opposition. We need to have a deeper debate on how we make house building viable in this country without putting the weight on the families who are looking to buy those homes or the renters who are looking to rent those homes. People need to be allowed to build in their own local areas. Until the Minister gets to address these issues, he will join a long line of about five or six Ministers who have crashed and burned in relation to the objectives of the housing Department. That is not the holy all of it. The main problem is the families who are made homeless as a result of that situation. There is a permanent government in place in relation to all these objectives. They are driving the bus and the Ministers present are simply passengers on that bus. Unless that changes, we will be back here year after year looking at the situation.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know where to start. There are a huge number of issues and the lads opposite will be familiar with them, given that they are the cause of most of them. We are here to discuss the specific issue of homelessness. I want to talk about hidden homelessness. There is a rising number of families affected by relationship breakdown. Because they are petrified of homelessness and have nowhere to go, they are stuck in the home that they started together. They do not want to be together any more and that happens with people no longer in a position to continue living together, but they are stuck. They are stuck in a relationship they want to get out of. They are stuck in a house they want to be liberated from and they are stuck because there is nowhere for them to go.

In the last couple of weeks, I have come across several cases but two really stuck out. A couple in their mid-60s live in a housing estate in north County Dublin with one of their adult children and another one possibly on the way back. I met both the ex-husband and ex-wife, as they are now. I do not know if the Minister understands the impact this is having on their health, their mental health and their well-being. They cannot move on. They are stuck in a house. The relationship is over. It is perfectly all right for two people who started a relationship to come to the decision that they want to end that relationship, but they have no choice but to live together. There is a huge impact every single day of having to live with a person you no longer want to be married to or in a relationship with. When added to that there are adult children forced by the Government's housing crisis back into the smallest room in the house, the tension is off the charts. This is the human impact of the Government's housing and homelessness crisis, disaster - Jesus, I am running out of words. This is the human impact of hidden homelessness. Technically at least one person in that relationship is homeless but they just have not moved out. Technically they have somewhere to live but it is mental bloody torture, day in and day out for them. They cannot move on because there is nowhere for them to go.

Another husband and wife live not too far from me. They have two children. There is a safety order in place, but again nowhere for them to go. Their daughter has started to self-harm simply because of the tension in the house.

This is another shambles that the Government is presiding over. Their daughter is now trying to get onto a very long waiting list to access CAMHS. In the meanwhile, her parents' relationship has broken down. They are stuck living in a small house. All four of them - mam, dad and the two kids - are stuck living in a small house. Their teenage daughter has started to self-harm. Guess what? There is nowhere for them to go. There is now no place for them to simply separate and live separate lives. They are all stuck together and there is no mental health support for their daughter who is self-harming on a regular basis. She has no medication or psychiatrist. There is just a bloody waiting list. The human impact is mind-blowing.

I am glad that the Minister is here for the remaining few minutes of the debate because I want to ask him about the tenant in situ scheme. The very least that anyone could expect from a Government would be that it would not make things worse. Yet, I know of a family in Rush, comprising mam, dad and two kids, who have a notice to quit that expires in a couple of months. Their landlord is willing to sell to the council so the family wrote to the council. Not many landlords are willing to do it, but this landlord is willing to sell to the council. The family wrote to the council and the advice that came back was that Fingal County Council is no longer accepting new expressions of interest for the tenant in situ scheme and cannot advise whether it will be in a position to accept tenant in situ applications in 2026 as funding is determined by the Department of housing. I am delighted that the Minister for housing is here. Perhaps he will be able to tell me, so that I might tell my constituents, when the tenant in situ scheme will be open. There is a real chance to save this family from homelessness. The family comprises mam, dad and two kids, one of whom is a teenager and the other an adult. They could be saved from homelessness but the Department must release the funds.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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As the Minister is aware, data from the latest homeless quarterly progress report on the scale of homelessness clearly shows there were 16,734 individuals accessing emergency accommodation at the end of quarter 4 of 2025. This was an increase of 120 individuals on the position at the end of quarter 3 of 2025. There was an increase of 1,870 on the total recorded at the end of quarter 4 of 2024. There were 2,478 families accessing emergency accommodation at the end of quarter 4 of 2025, which was an increase of 35 families on the position at the end of quarter 3 of 2025 and an increase of 386 families on the total recorded at the end of quarter 4 of 2024.

On top of all of this chaos, we now have new residential tenancy rules and the mass exodus of many small landlords from the housing system. I have met many of these small property owners. They were all people who worked hard, contributed to our economy, paid their taxes and decided to buy a small property, which they rented. I know from my own constituency that in many cases, the arrangement with their tenants worked quite well. I am now hearing from tenants who are coming to me in floods of tears that landlords are forced to sell because of the Government's genius new laws. I condemn those laws because the Government is making a bad situation worse. It shows that Government parties are shifting further to the left. In fact, they are becoming more left than the left themselves. The Government has absolutely no right to dictate to citizens of this country what they should do with their own private assets that they worked hard for, bought and paid for. The Government has absolutely no such right. If that is not from the left-wing playbook, I do not know what is. The Government is certainly making a bad situation worse. I am calling for those laws to be reviewed. I have met many property owners who have told me that they were Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voters but are disgusted with this behaviour and the way they are being treated. I call for those laws to be reversed.

I have repeatedly spoken of my concerns around the laws and the growing fear that while in theory safeguards may be in place, in practice, the cure may be worse than the disease. Perhaps if the Government were to hit the top and the vulture funds instead of small property owners, it might make more sense and we might get more solutions and progress. Perhaps that would be the way to proceed.

All of that, of course, is at the macro level. We can see cases at the individual level and it is only when we see those cases that we can truly gauge the ineffectiveness of the so-called reforms and the harm that continues to be done to families. I am continuing to deal with a constituent who through no fault or desire of his own was forced to sell his home. He did so because he is now locked in a battle to get planning permission for another home as he already made use of the rule allowing a build if you have a local connection.

I established, through a series of parliamentary questions last month, that there are massive delays in the registration process within Tailte Éireann. I have repeatedly contacted Tailte Éireann. It is not acceptable. The organisation is totally ineffective and needs to be overhauled quickly. If the Government is serious about making progress, it needs to ensure that Tailte Éireann is doing its job. From what I can see, it is failing. Indeed, the data provided to me confirms a rapid and exponential build-up in property registration delays in recent years, with the 2025 figure alone showing over 57,000 applications still pending from that year's lodgements. Surely this can be called out. Surely the Government Ministers can get a grip on that as soon as possible.

The total arrears across all years now exceeds 90,000, highlighting a massive accumulation that has built up despite efforts to address it. This data underscores the overwhelming scale of the challenge. Applications have grown, year on year, outpacing earlier resourcing and leading to this backlog. This backlog has escalated dramatically in the past few years, potentially impacting property transactions, agricultural transactions, conveyancing and housing market efficiency across Ireland. This highlights the urgency of ongoing efforts to clear applications and prevent further escalation and delays.

I was also able to establish, through another series of parliamentary questions in the past few weeks, that the so-called deemed disposal rule is adversely impacting housing. I know the Business Post carried an article on the issue last week. I placed the questions primarily because the issue was raised with me by a number of concerned constituents who feel that the current rules are overly complex and out of kilter with other EU member states. My constituents are also of the view that as currently drafted, the deemed disposal rule is contributing to a hoarding of property by ensuring that people keep what capital they have firmly locked into residential property. This keeps houses off the market and contributes to pent-up demand and inflated rents. I am asking the Government to perform some basic joined-up thinking on this issue. If we are serious about tackling the housing crisis, we must get under the taxation bonnet and properly assess what aspects of the taxation regime can be changed to facilitate greater supply while also allowing people to maximise their investments and returns. By that I mean private Irish citizens who have contributed to this economy, paid taxes and worked hard. They deserve respect and fair play.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank all Deputies for their contributions. Addressing homelessness and increasing the supply of homes required to do so is my absolute priority. The programme for Government is committed to working towards ending homelessness by 2030. To meet this commitment, Delivering Homes, Building Communities was developed as an integrated housing and homeless plan. The new plan is based on two key pillars: activating the supply of 300,000 more homes and supporting people to have a home of their own. The plan will ensure that the funding and strategies deployed to address housing and homelessness are fully aligned at all times.

Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness. The Government is focused on making sure that everyone has access to good-quality, affordable and secure homes that suit their needs. The Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, spoke to the actions in the plan that are focused on increasing supply with over €9 billion in capital funding being made available for housing in 2026 alone. In addition, we are progressing significant measures to improve both security of tenure and supply in the rental market through the new rental legislation and the regulation of short-term lets. The new rental legislation will introduce stronger tenant protections by significantly restricting no-fault evictions. New tenancies created for the first time between parties on or after 1 March 2026 and the current provision for tenancies of unlimited duration will be strengthened by the incorporation of tenancies of a minimum duration of six years.

In addition, the regulation of short-term lets will bring back a proportion of the houses and apartments being used for short-term letting purposes to the traditional long-term rental market.

Ownership measures and actions already under way are having an impact. Supported by increased social housing delivery and supports such as HAP, more than 650,000 adults were helped to exit emergency accommodation in the past two years. However, the housing plan very much recognises that delivery alone is not enough. Despite a significant increase in the number of new homes being delivered and the high number of people being supported to exit homelessness, the numbers of households, including families with children, in homeless emergency accommodation has continued to rise. In order to see this number of people experiencing homelessness fall, there has to be an increased availability of homes for households at risk of homelessness not only as an exit pathway but also to prevent people from needing access to emergency accommodation in the first place. Prevention of homelessness in the first instance is an absolute priority.

There are many prevention initiatives already under way in my Department and across Government. They include the provision of social and affordable housing, the HAP and homeless HAP schemes and our strong tenancy protection legislation. In addition, we support local authorities to provide prevention services through significant funding each year. The level of expenditure on prevention services increased from €15.4 million in 2021 to €24.7 million in 2024, an increase of some €9.3 million, and now accounts for 7% of the total homeless budget. To ensure a fully aligned all-of-government approach under the plan, we are developing a national homelessness prevention framework within which homelessness can be prevented in a structured and planned way, with tailored prevention measures for each potential at-risk cohort. This framework will be in place in 2026.

We are also developing a child and family homelessness action plan, bringing together key stakeholders to drive the continued focus on preventing children and families from entering emergency accommodation and providing enhanced support for children experiencing homelessness, as well as measures to accelerate exits and reduce the time spent by children and their families in emergency accommodation. Since 6 October last year, I have written to and met with chief executives of local authorities asking that all necessary actions be taken to ensure families the longest in emergency combination are provided with housing solutions by utilising the various options available to local authorities, including HAP, RAS and allocations of local authority and AHB homes. To further support this effort, funding of €150 million has been ring-fenced for acquisitions that will support households the longest in emergency accommodation to exit homelessness accommodation. In addition, the new plan recognises that domestic violence can lead to family homelessness. A protocol will be agreed with local authorities to ensure victims of domestic violence can transfer previous time spent on a social housing waiting list to another local authority, subject to meeting all social housing eligibility requirements.

Housing First is another key policy response in our efforts to reduce homelessness among our most vulnerable citizens. The new housing plan recognises that individuals experiencing homelessness with complex support needs often become entrenched in emergency homeless services. Under the plan, the Department of Health will provide increased health support to households experiencing homelessness through the implementation of the HSE national strategic plan to improve the health of people experiencing homelessness. Under the youth homeless strategy in place for the past three years, we introduced a range of new measures, including housing support for use in shared accommodation schemes. Budget 2026 provides a total allocation of €563.5 million to address homelessness. This includes €513.5 million in current funding to ensure local authorities can provide sufficient emergency accommodation as well as essential related services. Housing First makes provision for homeless prevention supports and data services and tenancy sustainment measures.

Everybody in this House wants to address homelessness. We might have different approaches to doing so but nobody in the Dáil has a monopoly on compassion. We must be constructive. Challenging policies and legislation is absolutely essential but whipping up false anger in a kind of performative effort is outrageous. I have pulled people in here up previously for just wanting to create social media clips. We have seen prime examples of that here today. There is only one housing spokesperson in the Chamber for my closing remarks, and that is Deputy Boyd Barrett. Deputy Sheehan was apparently outraged that I was not here earlier, which was because I was at a Cabinet committee meeting. It is outrageous, apparently, that a Minister should attend a Cabinet committee meeting. I do not control the scheduling of the business of the Dáil or of Cabinet committees. A photo was sent to me of Deputy Sheehan when he had barely finished speaking in the Chamber. He was at a Luas stop with a coat and jacket on, no doubt heading back to Limerick with his credibility left back here in the Dáil Chamber. Deputy Hearne was equally outraged that I was not here and that I would, as a Minister, dare to attend a Cabinet committee. The Minister of State, Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan, explained why I was absent at the start of this debate. Again, the minute Deputy Hearne was finished speaking, he fled the building.

It is fine to try to whip up anger; that is straight out of the Trump playbook. However, I am struck by the cynicism and shallowness of it. Deputies opposite did not come in to talk about policy or legislation. We cannot expect people at home to understand the workings of the Dáil Chamber and committees. Members are regularly in other places around Leinster House doing work. We cannot always be in here, unfortunately. People at home do not know the workings of the Oireachtas but Deputies Hearne and Sheehan do know them. They are playing on the public's lack of knowledge of the workings of the Houses. They tried to whip up anger that I was not here for the start of the debate. I was doing my work as a member of the Cabinet at a Cabinet committee meeting.

There is also no one here from Sinn Féin, the Labour Party or the Social Democrats. Members of those parties spent the past hour and a half being outraged about homelessness but they are not here in the Chamber for my closing statement.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I am here.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I was called out for not being here and I am responding to that.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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The Minister said there was no one here from the Social Democrats.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is here to raise a Topical Issue; he is not here for this debate. We are seeing a race to the bottom with this Trump-style anger that is expressed only in the hope of getting elected if enough anger is created against the Government. The Labour Party did that in 2011, and where did it end up?

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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If the Minister keeps looking at me when making his remarks, I will keep responding to him.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The party created a kind of Faustian pact by whipping up anger among people.

I ask that Members opposite deal with the issues at hand and stop trying to create bogeymen for vote-getting purposes That will solve nothing. Everyone on this side of the House wants to solve homelessness. I do not expect Members opposite to agree with our policies. That is not how it works or should work. Challenging us on policy, as Deputy Boyd Barrett often does on a very deep level, sharpens our policies and at least gets the debate going.