Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-17
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

From the Deputy's perspective, that is the short-term popular answer, is it not? All that would do would depress supply. The fundamental answer to homelessness is supply. The Deputy's party has never got that. All its proposals, in my view, would actually depress supply and reduce it. That is the fundamental difference between us. I am not going for the short-term popular thing, to ban this and all of that. It sounds great, but it would be damaging to getting more supply into the market. That is the bottom line. Homelessness is a huge issue facing the country. It is a complex issue, far more complex than the manner in which she has presented it. It is not all at the door of the Government. We had a good presentation at the housing Cabinet subcommittee meeting earlier this week, which illustrated the complex factors behind homelessness and different categories of people becoming homeless for different reasons, requiring a different response. It contained a whole range of issues outside of the control of some people which need attention.
I have to be careful in how I say this, but there are pressures coming from the increase in the population and migratory pressures do factor into the homeless issue. In Dublin, if you look at it, the figures are very clear. I will be talking to the Dublin regional executive about this and what we can do to help. That is why the issue is increasing. People coming out of direct provision, for example, and family reunification are creating challenges. It is the right thing to do. Our challenge is to provide housing solutions. Let us not pretend it is all just because of wanton neglect or that someone does not care.
Since this Government and the last Government came in, 50,000 social homes have been added to the social housing stock - over 50,500. That is way ahead of anything in three or four decades. You would have to go back to the 1970s to get as many social houses delivered by any Government. We are going to continue that in the new housing plan because social housing is key to dealing with the homeless issue. The level of investment is continuing to increase and will continue to increase to deal with that issue. The Minister, to be fair, is developing further approaches, particularly to child homelessness. He received in the budget a further €100 million additionally to focus exclusively on children and families with children to get them out of emergency accommodation as quickly as possible. In the last two to three years, the numbers that we are getting out in a more timely way out of emergency accommodation has increased. Obviously, the objective is to prevent people going into emergency accommodation, but once they are in there, we then must move to get people out as quickly as possible. We have said to the local authorities that they must prioritise families with children who are in emergency accommodation. You will begin to see the impacts from the initiatives that the Minister has taken, particularly because of the additional budget he has received. That is the way to try to address the issue.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-17