Housing Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Eoin Ó Broin (SF), Dublin Mid-West

It seems to be that the Minister lives in a parallel universe. In the 22 months he has been Minister, homelessness has increased by a staggering 17%, child homelessness is up by 27% and family homelessness is up 29%. The number of people over the age of 65 in emergency accommodation is up 14%. That has not happened by accident. It has happened because of the Government's policies. The targets for social housing are too low and the Government is missing them. It has slashed funding for vital homelessness prevention schemes, such as tenant in situ. The Minister has fumbled his way through the tendering process for Housing First. He has delayed the child and homelessness strategy and has no proposals that are different from what he has been doing for the past two years to address this crisis. If the Minister keeps doing the same thing over and over again, we will get the same results; more adults, more children, more families, more single people and more pensioners trapped in unsuitable and inappropriate emergency accommodation. Will the Minister do anything different in the time ahead from the failing policies he has implemented since becoming the Minister for housing?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01