The Minister for Housing could not say whether the number of people in emergency accommodation will decline before the next general election, after a record number of people became homeless earlier this year.
Darragh O’Brien said tackling the country’s issues around homelessness is the Government’s “number one challenge”.
Figures released at the end of May show that a record number of 14,009 people were accessing emergency homeless accommodation by the end of April.
The latest Quarter 2 update under #HousingForAll, shows continued strong momentum in the delivery of new homes and significant progress on fundamental reforms so that we continue on this upward trajectory.
More info: https://t.co/9tKvJ11Ctw pic.twitter.com/uSUOXvCgn2— Department of Housing, Local Government & Heritage (@DeptHousingIRL) July 16, 2024
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It was the first time that the number has surpassed 14,000 since the records began.
The number of homeless children also hit the highest number ever recorded at 4,206, according to the data.
The children come from 1,996 families.
The data related to the week between April 22th-28th.
Asked if his department could bring down those numbers before the next general election, Mr O’Brien said: “It’s very difficult to answer that question.
“It’s our number one challenge, is to provide homes for people who don’t have homes and whilst people find themselves in situations that they don’t have a home to live in, this Government supports them with providing temporary emergency accommodation.
“Thankfully what we’re seeing is more people exiting now, and more people are being prevented from going into homelessness than we’ve seen before.
“We’re still seeing, for a variety of reasons, new presentations.
“I met very recently with our urban local authorities the week before last to redouble our efforts on allocations of new social homes to those who don’t have homes.
“Thankfully, because we’re seeing that significant increase in social housing output, we have more options.
“So in parts of the country, we’re seeing significant decreases in those in emergency accommodation in the regions, in Dublin though it still remains an issue that is acute and one we need to continue to tackle which we will do. And I earnestly hope that we will see a levelling off of that.”
It comes as the Government said that a “record” 32,121 new homes started construction in first five months of this year.
Mr O’Brien said it will surpass the targets for this year as set out in the Housing For All plan.
Publishing the latest quarterly update under Housing for All, the figures shows that 52,000 new home were started in the 12 months leading up to May 2024.
The Government said it is confident that it will continue to surpass its targets.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said: “There are some very encouraging signs within that report, we’ve now seen over 52,000 new homes commence construction in the 12 months to the end of May.
“We are confident to say that we will exceed our output targets for 2024 and this indeed will be the third year in a row that we have exceeded the target.
“This is good progress, but it also provides a good platform from which we can further scale up our delivery to meet future demand.”
Mr O’Brien also said that legislation brought in to prevent the bulk buying of homes by investment funds has led to 60,000 homes being protected for owner-occupier or single purchaser.
“What we’ve seen in a couple of incidents is legacy issues prior to the changing of that legislation,” he added.
“Unquestionably, we have levelled the playing pitch for first time buyers, that’s why we are seeing those numbers increase substantially.
“We still need investment in the areas where we want it, particularly apartment developments.”
He said that only two companies have been involved in bulk-buying houses, including Ryanair, in recent times.
Mr Harris said that planning changes introduced by Government have been “very effective”.
Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said that Government is responding to the public’s concerns.
He said that while there is a “significant amount of work still to be done”, the figures published on Tuesday are “undeniable proof that we’re moving in the right direction”.
