2026-06-25

77. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out his response to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s report on homelessness published on 18 June 2026. [48577/26]

Last Thursday, the Oireachtas housing committee published an important report on homelessness. At the centre of that report is the call for the introduction of an emergency package of measures to prevent families and single people from becoming homeless, but also to get people out of emergency accommodation more quickly. Now that the Minister has had at least a week to consider the report, will he set out his initial response to its 14 recommendations? Will he let the House know whether it is his intention to bring forward an emergency response to finally get to grips with the ever-deepening homelessness crisis?

Supporting individuals and families experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness is an absolute priority for me, my Department and Government. I welcome the committee's focus on this important area. Indeed, many of the recommendations put forward are addressed in our new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, and are being progressed by my Department in collaboration with other Departments, local authorities and their service delivery partners. The report calls for a greater focus on prevention. There are many prevention initiatives already under way in the Department and across government, including the provision of social and affordable housing, HAP and homeless HAP, and our strong tenancy protection legislation. I recognise that more needs to be done and a co-ordinated approach is required right across government. That is why a cross-departmental working group was established to drive the development of a prevention framework. The first draft of the framework is being considered by working group members and the framework will be in place this year. The report also recognises the importance of a continued focus on measures to address youth homelessness and calls for the development of a child and family homelessness strategy. Again, work is well under way in these two important areas as committed to in the housing plan. I am establishing a standing sub-group of the national homeless action committee to ensure a continued focus on youth homelessness and my Department, in partnership with Department of the Taoiseach, will shortly publish a cross-departmental child and family homelessness action plan. Many other actions are under way that speak to the recommendations in the report, including the development of the of the housing delivery action plans, a review of the housing assistance payment and the continued funding of the second-hand acquisition scheme, including tenant in situ acquisitions. Ultimately, increased supply is key to addressing homelessness, meeting need and addressing the challenges in the housing market. The new housing plan aims to deliver 300,000 new homes in the period to 2030, including 72,000 social homes and 90,000 starter homes. This means 12,000 new social homes will be delivered on average each year to the end of 2030.

It is simply not the case that the Minister’s Department is already undertaking the key actions recommended in this report. If that were the case, we would not have wasted our time producing the report. Month on month, the number of adults, children, single people and pensioners falling into emergency accommodation is growing. That means the core recommendation of the report that we now need an emergency response seems to be ignored by the Government. There is an explicit call to fully reinstate the funding for social housing acquisitions, including for housing first and tenant in situ, and to remove the restrictions, something the Minister has set his face against, which is why the number of such acquisitions halved last year on the year before, resulting in many more people becoming homeless. Crucially, the volume of social homes that is being delivered is not meeting the need. In fact, on the basis of the most recent summary of social housing needs assessments, it will take 55 years to clear current and emerging social housing need. People are waiting ten and sometimes 14 years plus. I would really encourage the Minister to put in place a plan because if he is to have any hope of ending long-term homelessness by 2030 there needs to be a plan with clear targets. That is not in place at the moment and that is why our committee has recommended the 14 points in last week’s homelessness report.

We take the report very seriously and are giving it very serious consideration. Many of the recommendations in it are already in place or are being put in place. We are treating this as an emergency. I have already outlined many of the measures we are taking to make sure we address the situation where we have a very high level of homelessness. One person in homelessness is one too many. We have a very high number in emergency accommodation - I acknowledge that. That is why we need to do even more. I am treating it as an emergency. We are putting in emergency measures to tackle homelessness. Ultimately, we have to drive supply; that is how we will address all the key issues for people who are finding themselves in emergency accommodation and State-supported living as a result of not being able to have somewhere to live. In terms of homelessness, we cannot deal with everybody as a single group. There are those who need more targeted measures. Those suffering from trauma, mental health or addiction issues need very particular supports and we are putting those in place as well.

The report called for the Minister to extend the youth homelessness strategy out to 2030. My understanding is that despite the fact the strategy expired last year, there is no intention to extend it. Yes, the Minister is working on the child homelessness strategy but there is no sight of it. Will it be out this year? Is there a clear timeline? Can the Minister confirm that? On the housing action delivery plans, it is still not clear whether that will specify not just the number of one, two and three beds but also, for example, very clear targets for every local authority for people with physical and intellectual disabilities as well as right-sizing requirements. More crucially, those plans will not be based on objective need because they will ignore about half of the gross social housing need in the functional areas of the local authorities. There is no talk from the Department about better co-ordinating and ensuring the Minister’s counterparts in the Department of Health and the HSE provide the wraparound supports to sustain tenancies beyond where they currently are. Yes, the Minister or the Housing Agency is reviewing HAP limits but we have no idea where that is at. Of course, two key recommendations, namely, the need for at least consideration of the re-introduction of emergency ban on no-fault evictions and a referendum on the right to housing, are not on the Minister’s agenda. Again I ask when will he introduce an emergency response, above and beyond what he is doing, to start seeing the homeless numbers fall?

We are dealing with it as an emergency response. Last year, we saw a 20% increase in housing delivery overall and the highest number of social houses built in a single year in the history of the State. We are putting in record funding to address the housing crisis. Many of the measures highlighted in the report are already in the process of being implemented. I would remind the Deputy that, in his own housing plan, he proposes winding down the tenant in situ scheme – something he conveniently forgets every time he raises that scheme.