The Last Word with Matt Cooper
State Spent Almost €500m On Emergency Accommodation Last Year
26 May 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Front page of the Irish Daily Mail today had a story on how much the government has spent on emergency accommodation. Over the last decade, about... Four and a half billion, I think it is. Certainly half a billion euro last year. Owner Bryn Sinn Féin TD and housing spokesperson as well as we'll hear from Seamus McGrath Fianna Fáil in a moment. Sorry, what is the overall figure now?
Chapter 2: How much has the government spent on emergency accommodation?
Probably isn't as high as I just said there is four and a half billion, but it's still very high, isn't it?
It is, yes. And I suppose the more startling fact is it's gone from a figure of just over 70 million in 2015 to shy of half a billion last year. And well, obviously, that's a huge amount of taxpayers' money. it doesn't for a second amount to any kind of count of the human cost on adults and children from prolonged stays in emergency accommodation.
And while we might not be surprised at the dramatic growth because we've gone from less than 6,000 people in emergency accommodation to 17,000, 5,000 of which are children. But one of the things that has to be said about this is part of the reason why the cost has increased so dramatically is increasing reliance on very poor quality private sector emergency accommodation, B&Bs, hostels.
hotels, converted buildings. They're services that have no key workers, no on-site support, there's no inspections and certainly no independent inspections by the likes of HICWA and it's costing phenomenal amounts of money. I got some data from the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive last year to show
If you wanted to put a family in new emergency accommodation, private sector emergency accommodation last year, the cost per year is from €140,000 to €180,000 per family. One can expect that has increased more significantly.
So, sorry, for one year, between €140,000 and €180,000, because that would imply that... You wouldn't quite build a new house or apartment for that, but certainly the cost of looking after people for three years could be dealt with just simply by building a housing unit.
No, absolutely, and this is the point of releasing the figures. Typically, larger families that have a three-bed or a four-bedroom housing need are likely to spend two to three years in emergency accommodation. And the problem is a lot of the private sector emergency accommodation is not only of low quality, but the state gets charged what's called a night-for-night fee for that.
It's different if you're paying Respond, for example, or Focus Ireland. They're a not-for-profit voluntary approved housing body. They have on-site wraparound supports. They are subject to high standards and inspected by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. The private sector stuff isn't charged night for night. 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.
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Chapter 3: What factors have led to the increase in emergency accommodation costs?
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.
Okay, actually, it is 4.9 billion over the last 10 years when you take all the various temporary house settings into account. The amount to private and third-party providers would not make up that full 4.9 billion, but last year it was 493 million, which went up from 423 the year before. Seamus McGrath, Fianna Fáil TD.
This is actually quite shocking when, as I've just said to Eoin O'Brien there, If it's costing £140,000 to £180,000 per family per year, why not just build houses to rent to people or have low rents rather than actually having to spend that on an annual basis on them?
Yeah, good evening, Matt. And look, the first thing I want to do is agree with Owen in terms of the human impact here. We all agree on that. We all recognise that there are over 17,500 individuals made up of some families and individuals in homeless accommodation. That is too high. That has a very significant impact on those individuals.
of all ages a devastating human impact and we recognise that and that is why we are determined to try and reduce this figure and look it is correct to say that this figure has increased in recent years but as a government we are determined to reduce that figure down and provide those individuals and families with permanent homes and to get to your question we are doing exactly that
Last year, we constructed over 9,000 newly built social homes.
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Chapter 4: What is the human cost of prolonged stays in emergency accommodation?
That's the highest number on record in this state. And that's something we are going to continue. We want to increase our ambition in terms of delivery of social homes. But the solution to the homeless crisis is the same solution to the housing crisis. It is about building new homes across the board. social, affordable, private and rental homes.
And that is what the government is determined to do.
Sorry, but Seamus, you know, you just said there are about 9,000 been a record number. Surely back in the 20th century, we were building way more than 9,000 council houses a year at the time. Those were the social houses of their era. You can't be claiming what's been built now at a time of a massively increased population is some sort of worthwhile record.
We are building a record number of social housing, Matt. We are also building an increase in overall housing output, which is, as I say, part of the solution here. We focus a lot on social housing. And of course, that is usually the direct type of housing that people in homeless and emergency accommodation receive. But other forms of housing are also critically important.
And we saw last year there was an overall 20% increase in our housing output. We've seen in the first quarter of this year, over 33% increase in completions. We've seen very positive figures in terms of commencements. So we are making progress here, but we have a lot of hard work to do. We are dealing with, you know, possibly 15 years of undersupply in housing.
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Chapter 5: How does the quality of private emergency accommodation affect costs?
During that period, we had a rising population in this country. So it has brought about a chronic shortage of overall properties. But what I am making clear here this evening is the government will not be found wanting In terms of providing funding, we have over €275 billion in the National Development Plan.
One in every €3 will be spent on trying to accelerate the delivery of housing, and that's as it should be. We also have reformed how we do our business, setting up the likes of the Housing Activation Office, for example, so that under the one roof you can have a coordination between the local authorities, the utility companies,
and the Department of Housing itself, so that we can streamline processes and speed up the delivery of housing. And that's critically important. But it is important to point out, Matt, that the figures that are in the emergency accommodation is not a static figure.
While every month the figures come out and there is an increase, and it's in and around the 17,000, there are significant situations there where people are actually receiving long-term homes. So, for example, last year, over 7,000 individuals either exited homeless accommodation or were prevented from entering homeless accommodation. So a lot of good work is being done.
Yeah, but for when people go off the shameless, go off the list, more go on. And the number of 17,000 homeless is a record.
Yeah, we have a high number of presentations and that is presenting a challenge to us. But what we need to provide are long-term and medium-term solutions here. And that is about increasing our overall number of homes. Why are the numbers going up? The numbers are going up because, as I say, we have a chronic... Because you're not providing enough new accommodation quickly enough.
Is that the reason why they're going up?
Obviously, we need to accelerate the delivery of housing. And that is why, as I said, we are undertaking the reforms we have undertaken in the first 12 months of this government and putting record finance into it. We are also expanding the role of the likes of the Land Development Agency, for example, which are directly out there building homes for people. And we are doing everything we can there.
But also in terms of short-term interventions...
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