Darragh O’Brien has been criticised after saying he will not publish the latest emergency accommodation figures before the day of the General Election.
The official figures from the Department of Housing look at the number of people accessing emergency accommodation services over the last week of each month, and are published at 2pm on the last Friday of the following month.
October’s figures are due at 2pm on polling day, Friday November 29th.
The latest figures for the end of September show there were 14,760 people accessing such services, including 4,561 children – record highs for both metrics.
The figures do not include people sleeping rough, those that may be couch surfing or homeless in hospitals or prisons, and those in a shelter for asylum seekers or domestic violence centres.
Mr O’Brien, who is the Minister for Housing, said on Thursday that he could not bring forward the publication of October’s figures.
The Fianna Fáil candidate for Fingal East representative said he did not have control over their publication.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin described Mr O’Brien as the “minister for homelessness” and said it would be better if the figures were published on Thursday.
“There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Darragh O’Brien will publish those figures before polls open on Friday. Why? Because he knows the figures are going up – and they’re going up because he’s the Minister for Housing.”
Mr Ó Broin said homelessness has increased to levels “people never thought imaginable” under Mr O’Brien.
“So while I think it would be better we published them on Thursday, I think most people are expecting the numbers will rise,” he said.
“We will have more adults, more children, more pensioners, more singles, and more families in emergency accommodation than ever before.
“Why? Because Darragh O’Brien has consistently missed his social housing targets, targets that were too low in the first place, isn’t delivering a sufficient volume of affordable homes, and if you read the Fianna Fáil – and indeed the Fine Gael manifesto – it’s more of the same.
“There is nothing that these two parties are offering that will give any comfort to people in emergency accommodation, people at risk of falling into homelessness, but also, crucially, for renters.”
Aontú leader Peadar Toibin said it was important that the public could make a decision on who they vote for based on “what is happening in real time”.
“If a particular minister has the individual figures, logic would dictate that the minister would sure make those are provided.
“If he’s not, he is withholding information from the general public and one can only suspect that he’s withholding information because it will have a negative effect on Fianna Fáil’s electoral chances.”
He also called for the figures of homelessness deaths outside of Dublin, something he said was not officially published for any other county.
Asked on Thursday if voters deserved more transparency from his Department, Mr O’Brien said he had been “extremely transparent” throughout his term.
He said to publish them on the Thursday before the election would be to “change a process that’s been in place for over four years”.
“We’ve been consistent, totally transparent, more transparent than previous governments as well, with our quarterly reports with regard to homelessness, our exits, our preventions, those who enter into emergency accommodation.”
Mr O’Brien said the figures would be published as normal on Friday next week at 2pm, adding that the process was independent of himself.
Pressed on whether he could give indicative figures before their official release, he said: “I couldn’t because the figures have to be independently verified.
“They’re not just figures that I settle on. They’re figures that are independently verified, independently published and it will be done like every single other month at exactly the same time on the last Friday of the month.
“No change on that whatsoever, and completely transparent.”
