Darragh O’Brien has insisted that he has “confidence” in himself as Housing Minister, despite record-breaking homelessness figures.
Although homeless figures increased every month in 2022, the Fianna Fáil TD stated that homelessness figures are now “levelling off”.
Figures released by the Department of Housing last week showed that there were 11,632 people living in emergency accommodation during the week ending December 25.
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This included 8,190 adults and 3,442 children. It was the sixth month in a row that homelessness figures broke records.
Speaking at the launch of the Vacant Homes Action Plan on Dublin’s Parnell Square, Minister O’Brien accepted that homelessness numbers were still “too high”.
He said: “We're seeing a levelling off in homeless numbers. It's still too high.
“I want to see those numbers come down because behind all those numbers are people, are families, are kids.
“But there are complexities within the homeless situation at the moment. We brought in very significant new protections around the winter eviction ban to give us space to deliver more properties.
“I'm hopeful for this year. I'm hopeful in relation to new housing delivery.”
When asked by the Irish Mirror if he would consider his position if homelessness figures got worse, he insisted that he had “confidence” in himself.
“The Dáil also has confidence in the work I am doing,” he added.
Mr O’Brien said that more emergency beds have been provided and more people are taking up these emergency beds and there is a “levelling off”.
“I want to see a reduction,” he added
The Minister was lambasted by the opposition for the statement, with the Social Democrats’ Cian O’Callaghan questioning if he was “unaware that the numbers of people who are living in emergency homeless accommodation have reached yet another record high”.
He told the Irish Mirror: “Every month for the last 12 months the numbers of homeless people have increased with record levels now being reached month after month.
“To describe this as a levelling off is a cynical attempt to dismiss the devastating impact that homelessness is having on families and individuals across Ireland.”
Elsewhere, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told Newstalk’s Pat Kenny that he accepted 30,000 homes is “not enough” and he wants to exceed the target of 29,000 set for this year.
He said: “We're doing everything we can now at Government [level] to work out if there are things we can do to increase supply.
“Supply on its own won't solve the problem but we’re not going to solve the problem without more supply.”
Minister O’Brien said that the main focus of the Cabinet subcommittee on housing on Monday evening would be homelessness. When asked if tax breaks for developers were on the agenda, he indicated that this was off the table until the Budget.
Minister O’Brien made the comments as he launched a new Vacant Homes Action plan and a €150m fund for local authorities to tackle vacancy and dereliction.
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