Written answers

Thursday, 23 February 2017

Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Children's Rights

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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58. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on comments in the ninth report of the special rapporteur on child protection that the State is in breach of its international obligations due to the numbers of children in emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7087/17]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to my reply to his previous question on this issue, Parliamentary Question No. 461 of 17 January 2017.

The Report refers to the work of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which reviewed Ireland’s compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during 2015. The UN Committee had expressed concern at the housing situation in Ireland, and noted in particular the limited supply of social housing and the level of homelessness amongst families and children.

However, as I indicated previously, the UN Committee’s observations were made on the basis of the position at the end of 2015. Since then the Government has published Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Urgent action is being taken to deal with the challenges that currently exist in the housing sector and which were referred to by the UN Committee. The Plan sets out a clear roadmap to achieve the Government’s goals to significantly increase and expedite the delivery of social housing, boost private housing construction, improve the rental market, and deliver on the commitment to see housing supply, in overall terms, more than double to some 25,000 new homes every year by 2020. With regard to social housing, 47,000 new social housing units will be provided by 2021 at a cost of €5.35 billion.

The Plan has a particular focus on meeting the housing needs of the most vulnerable members of Irish society. It is recognised that accommodating family units in hotels is inappropriate for anything other than a short period of time and a very clear target has been set to ensure that by mid-2017, hotels are used only in very limited circumstances for emergency accommodation for families.

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