Housing Provision
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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James Browne (FF), Wexford

I thank the Deputy for his question in relation to my plans to address the month on month rise in homelessness. Addressing homelessness is a priority for my office, the Department and this Government. Our new housing plan is an integrated housing and homeless plan based on two key pillars: activating the supply of 300,000 more homes; and supporting people to have a home of their own.
Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness. The Government is focused on making sure everyone has access to a good quality and affordable, secure home that suits their needs in their local community. More than €9 billion in capital funding will be made available for housing in 2026. Our new plan recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue we face and introduces a number of key measures to address homelessness. Ensuring the implementation of these measures will be a priority for me in 2026.
Meeting the Government commitment to eradicate homelessness requires a whole-of-government response. The national homeless action committee, NHAC, which I chair, supports the co-ordination of this response by Government, local authorities and their service delivery partners. The most recent meeting of NHAC took place yesterday, on Wednesday, 4 March. I will continue to work with the committee to ensure a renewed emphasis is brought to collaborating across Government to implement actions in the new housing plan.
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. This includes the provision of social and affordable housing, HAP, homeless HAP and our strong tenancy protection legislation in order to ensure a fully aligned all-of-government approach under the plan. The programme for Government includes a commitment to a holistic cross-departmental approach to homeless prevention. Work has commenced on developing a national homeless prevention framework to ensure all possible measures are being taken across Government to prevent homelessness. It is intended that this framework will be in place later this year.
Addressing family homelessness is absolute priority for me. Under the new housing plan, we will develop a dedicated child and family homeless action plan as well.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05