Taoiseach's Communications
Dail Éireann — 2023-07-04
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Leo Varadkar (FG), Dublin West

The Deputy should be aware of that.
On the wider issue of homelessness, as I have often said, homelessness is a stain on our society. It is something I and others find deeply shameful. It happens for all sorts of reasons. Of course, a big part of the context is the housing shortage, which makes the situation so much worse. However, other factors are involved, for example, mental health issues and addiction. Family breakdown is one of the biggest causes of homelessness. Increasingly, homelessness is driven by migration. Approximately 40% of people who are homeless and in emergency accommodation are not Irish citizens. To say that the State is 100% to blame for all of that is too simplistic but, of course, the State is responsible for making the situation better in any way it can, by providing more housing, preventing people from falling into homelessness-----

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-07-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:52:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-07-04