2026-05-19

140. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the action he proposes to take to address the monthly rise in homelessness and the record number of evictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37893/26]

142. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to detail the interventions, schemes, programmes and policies employed by his Department to avoid people being made homeless by eviction, prevent them from entering into homeless accommodation and reduce the number of people evicted into homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37934/26]

I want to ask the Minister what actions he proposes to take in light of the monthly rise in homelessness and the record number of evictions that we have seen detailed in the release of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, data last week, and if he will make a statement on the matter.

I propose to take Questions Nos. 140 and 142 together. Supporting individuals and families experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness is an absolute priority for me, my Department and the Government. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026, which came into effect on 1 March 2026, provides the strongest tenancy protections in the history of the State. The new Act introduced a new national rent control for all tenancies which limits rent increases to inflation as measured by the consumer price index, CPI, up to a maximum of 2%. For new-build apartments and student-specific accommodation, however, rent increases are capped at the level of inflation only. These changes were introduced to promote greater investment in the rental market and to increase the supply of rental properties. while strengthening the protection of tenants. The Act also provides significant improvements in security of tenure for renters. The latest data published by the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, on 14 May shows that the number of registered landlords and tenancies have increased on a quarterly and a yearly basis. Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness, meeting need and addressing the challenges in the housing market. Therefore, we are building more than ever in recent times. A record level of investment is being provided for the delivery of housing in 2026, with €5.2 billion in Exchequer capital funding complemented by investment through the Land Development Agency, LDA, and lending from the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, bringing the total capital funding for housing in 2026 to over €9 billion. Delivering Homes, Building Communities aims to deliver 300,000 new homes in the period to 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 starter home supports. The Government is targeting the delivery of more than 300,000 new homes over the next six years, an average of 50,000 per annum, with annual targets increasing incrementally to exceed 60,000 by the end of 2030 or 2031. This means 12,000 new social homes will be delivered on average each year to the end of 2030. Delivering Homes, Building Communities recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face and introduces a number of key measures to address homelessness. Ensuring the implementation of these measures will be a priority for me this year. 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 the response by Government, local authorities and their service delivery partners. The most recent meeting of NHAC took place on Wednesday 4 March 2026. I will continue to work with the committee to ensure that 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 underway in my own Department and across government. This includes the provision of social and affordable housing, HAP and 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 homelessness prevention. Work has commenced on developing a national homelessness 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 another key priority for me, my Department and the Government. Under the new housing plan, we will develop a dedicated child and family homelessness action plan. This will bring together key stakeholders to drive the continued focus on preventing children and families entering emergency accommodation, providing enhanced supports for children experiencing homelessness, as well as measures to accelerate exits and reduce the time spent by children and their families in homeless emergency accommodation.

The RTB data shows that 7,062 eviction notices were issued in the first three months of this year. While there is an increased number of landlords, some of that is down to the regularisation of tenancies. Will the Minister's homeless prevention framework, which he said is coming, have clear targets and timelines, year on year and quarter on quarter? If it does not, then it will effectively become redundant very quickly . What legislative measures similiar to, for example, the homeless families Bill or the Simon Community's homelessness prevention Bill will the Minister introduce to in order to bring the homeless figures down?

I said earlier that this Government is the cruellest since the foundation of the State. The Minister waffles on about homelessness prevention but he will not do the one thing that could actually prevent people being made homeless, which is to put in place a ban on evictions. He has become and will be known as the Minister for evictions. We have record evictions and record homelessness, and the Minister will not do the thing that he can do to prevent families and children being made homeless, which is to put in place a ban on evictions. Every month the figures come out, the Minister is in hiding and never has to answer. In here is the one time that he does have to answer, and it is a disgrace.

In the context of the actual questions put forward by Deputy Sheehan, I would say that we are putting in a number of measures to target homelessness, not just preventing people from becoming homeless, and particular measures where we are aware that people might be going into homelessness. There are also measures relating to exits and how we get people out of homelessness as quickly as possible. The implementation of those prevention measures by every local authority across the country is absolutely crucial. We also have a series of specialised interventions. We have the national homeless action committee, which meets on a regular basis and in the context of which I engage with all of the NGOs. The latter are engaging with all of our action plans to address homelessness, including the child and family homelessness action plan and the youth action plan. Homelessness is complex. The more than 17,000 people who are homeless are not all in the same situation and do not require the same solutions. Obviously, each of them needs a roof over their heads, but many also need different supports put in place. Many need different types of accommodation, so we are putting a multitude of different measures in place. When Deputy Hearne talks about the Famine, he does a real disservice to all of those people who died during the Famine. That was a shocking period in our history. To come in here and start throwing that word around in respect of the housing crisis we are in is wrong. There is no comparison with what happened back then. It shows the low level of hyperbole the Deputy is prepared to go to just to get his little social media clip, as I have said before, but this is about policies. While I do not agree with their policies, at least the other two Deputies from the Labour Party and Sinn Féin are putting forward policies. Deputy Hearne just comes in here with his usual personalised rant. It achieves absolutely nothing, and it certainly does not help the people who need help.

The Minister spoke about prevention measures but the fact of the matter is that the most effective prevention measure that we had in recent times was the one that he severely restricted, namely the tenant in situ scheme or the ability of local authorities to acquire homes through second-hand acquisitions. The number acquired halved between 2024 and 2025. Will the Minister prioritise homeless prevention by allowing local authorities to use second-hand acquisitions for homeless prevention where it is not practically possible to offer an allocation? Local authorities are really severely restricted at the moment. Will the Minister support my Bill to ban no-fault evictions? I ask everybody in this House to support that legislation.

I absolutely stand over the comparison with the Famine. What the Minister is doing is refusing to acknowledge the trauma that is caused to every household that is evicted. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stood over, year after year, evictions and homelessness rising. Deputy Browne is just another Minister who is standing over record homelessness and evictions. He said that I have no solutions. I set out my solution very clearly for him, namely a ban on no-fault evictions applying to existing tenants. The Minister is getting up in here and lying.

The Deputy cannot say that.

He cannot say that.

The Minister is spinning mistruths that he has put in place the biggest protections for tenants-----

The Deputy should withdraw that remark.

-----when he has not protected existing tenants. He should correct the record.

I want that remark withdrawn.

Deputy Hearne-----

The Minister has not give any protection to existing tenants.

Deputy-----

They are all still as exposed to being evicted onto the streets in the same way they were before the Minister's new measures.

Has the Deputy finished?

Yes.

I am going to ask him to withdraw that comment.

I will withdraw that it was a lie; it was a mistruth.

I hope people at home can see exactly the kind of behaviour we get from the Deputy.

I hope people at home can see the Minister's behaviour, which is being visited on them in the streets.

This House must be about finding solutions to address the housing crisis. We have put our policies forward to address that crisis and we stand behind them. That is why we saw a 20% increase in housing delivery last year and the highest number of social houses built in the history of the State. We are going to build more houses, including an increase in affordable provision. An eviction ban does not and will not work. It has already been tried in the State and all it does is kill supply. I want to help not just the people already renting but also those living at home who need somewhere to rent. I bring in policies to do that, while the Deputy has the luxury of putting forward an eviction ban, which is fine. However, the consistently personalised nature of his contributions in this House does a disservice to every public representative in the country.

The Minister never acknowledges the human impact.

I cannot imagine what people at home who are interested in policy think when they hear the kind of personalising of politics in which the Deputy engages. It epitomises how little he actually has to say about policy in this area. Deputy Sheehan spoke about no-fault evictions. Of course, what he proposes would protect people in the short term but, as I said, it would kill supply. I need to see greater supply in order that people have places to rent. Our population has increased by more than 800,000 since 2014. Off the top of my head, that requires approximately 250,000 homes. As well as delivering the homes for those people, we must deal with the undersupply that was there before that, which requires delivering even more homes. It has to be about driving that supply. I think we will see fewer notices to quit as we move forward with that.