Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. It is good to hear that he intends to establish a task force and that additional resources will go into homeless services.

Like the Minister of State, I want to express my gratitude to all of the people who have worked in homeless services from March onwards. It was quite a remarkable feat in terms of the outbreak within homeless services. Everybody pulled together. It is important we ensure that no more homeless families enter homelessness. While it is good to see the figure stabilising this year, that is in large part due to the eviction ban. We know that most people coming into homeless services come from the private rented sector. In the new year we should consider extending the eviction ban beyond the restrictions in level 5. I thank the Minister of State for his response and look forward to working with him over the winter to ensure there is no repeat of the very tragic number of deaths over the past couple of weeks.