Eoin O Broin

The quality is very poor.

How do we know many of the people who are forced into that emergency accommodation subsequently raise issues of standards, of complaints, of insect infestations, etc.?

For me, however, the real concern is

We've a decade now of year on year rising homelessness and rising costs.

And there's no actual plan to take us from now to where we should be in 2030, which is ending long-term homelessness as per the government's commitment.

The homeless services sector and Sinn Féin and others have been calling for the publication of a plan

for child, youth and adult homelessness, which sets very clear quarterly and annual targets.

What's going to be done different to reduce the flow of families into homelessness, to get them out more quickly and crucially, ramp up the delivery of social affordable homes so that far fewer people who end up in crisis end up in emergency accommodation for anything longer than a few months.

Well, first of all, if you look at the figures, this is a decade-long crisis and it predates the recent increase in net migration that we've seen since 2022.

But also it's government's job to look at what's likely to be future demand and then plan for that, both in terms of social housing, but also activating private sector supply.

So increased demand does not in and of itself create homelessness.

It's the failure of the state in conjunction with the private sector to deliver the volume of homes.

And also many of these people are working in architectural services and planning services and in... And actual construction of houses.

No, because you see, the problem here is when you start to go down that route, and I don't mean you, Matt, but when I hear some politicians suggest that, it's almost like you're blaming people who are coming to this country to work and contribute.

for the housing crisis.

The government gets the ESRI to do population projections that underpins the national planning framework, the national development plan and government's housing plans has done for a decade.

And despite the fact that we've known where demand is going, there hasn't been an adequate response.

So here are the facts.

Seamus is right.

There were 9,000 new-build social homes delivered last year.