The Government is setting itself up for failure on child homelessness, according to the leader of the Social Democrats.
Holly Cairns accused the Government of engaging in “constant spin” rather than providing solutions to the housing crisis.
It comes after the Children’s Rights Alliance issued its 2024 report card on the commitments of the programme for Government.
In particular, Ms Cairns highlighted that the Government had been given a ‘D-‘ on the commitment to reduce the number of homeless families.
The Children’s Rights Alliance described this as a barely acceptable performance with little or no positive impact on children.
Ms Cairns told the Dáil on Tuesday that child homelessness was up 55 per cent in the lifetime of the Government, with nearly 4,000 children in emergency accommodation.
She added that there had been a 20 per cent increase in family homelessness in the past year alone.
Ms Cairns asked the Taoiseach: “How, four years into this government, are we still seeing so many lives devastated by homelessness? How is solving this crisis not the primary focus of your Government?”
Mr Varadkar defended the Government’s record on children by saying the Children’s Rights Alliance had not decreased its grade on any of the 16 categories year-on-year.
This includes receiving the D- grade on family homelessness for two years in a row.
During Leaders’ Questions, Mr Varadkar said the Government had received an improved grade in the four areas of childcare reform, free school books, special education and food poverty.
He added: “Overall, if you look at that objectively, it’s a story of progress and not a story of going backwards.”
Ms Cairns had also called for a rent freeze, a return for the no-fault eviction ban and a tax on vacant properties.
However, Mr Varadkar said this would not address the main cause of homelessness in the country which he added was not primarily driven by evictions in the private rental sector.
He said: “The main cause of homelessness in Ireland unfortunately is family breakdown.
“And no matter who’s in Government, it’s very hard to reduce the number of families that are breaking down at any given time.”
The Taoiseach said the Government’s objective is to make sure that homelessness is rare, short-lived and not repeated.
He added: “But I absolutely appreciate that a few months can be a very long time in a child’s life, and stick with them forever.
“And that’s why we redoubled our efforts in particular to reduce family homelessness.
“We’ve increased resources for prevention in particular, and that’s really important. ”
Ms Cairns said this was further spin and added: “A large part of the problem in relation to housing is obviously that the targets have set us up for failure.
“So for a start they’re too low. And then you’re failing to meet them and so they’re nowhere near what we need to meet demand.”
