Last Friday marked a new and very troubling record on homelessness. We saw that 13,531 people on the homelessness list are now in emergency accommodation, more than 4,000 of whom are children. That is a really stark figure. Each one is an individual tragedy. In Dublin alone, nearly 10,000 are homeless and yet we are seeing simply no sense of urgency or ambition from Government in tackling the issue. Its house building targets are too low. The Taoiseach has acknowledged that to me in the past. The Government's renters' rights protections are too weak. As the Dublin Simon Community has said, the tenant in situ targets are also too low.

On renters' rights, last week I raised with the Tánaiste the scandalous practices of landlord and investor Marc Godart, who is trammelling renters' protections and employment laws. Despite this, today we see more revelations from Colm Keena of The Irish Times. He reports that two of Godart's companies said in their filings that they lodged all of their income through Dublin ATMs. What is the Government doing to address this?

When the Deputy raised this important question earlier, I referred to the budget funding available to homelessness services. This funding ensured that 1,161 households were prevented from entering emergency accommodation through the creation of a tenancy.

During 2023 we saw a 25% increase in the number of adults prevented from going into homelessness versus the previous year. The urgency is there and we will continue to take any step we can, through providing funding, to help those who are at risk of homelessness.

I ask the Ceann Comhairle to bear with me. I had neglected to answer Deputies Naughten and Boyd Barrett earlier. The Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly, has agreed to statements on rare diseases next week in the Dáil. This is responding back to the issues raised by Deputy Naughten. Deputy Boyd Barrett made the point about disability services. I indicated earlier the Government's willingness to opt into the additional protocol and a commitment to do that across the remainder of the lifetime of this Government.

Advocacy groups such as AsIAm, Down Syndrome Ireland and Inclusion Ireland have written to the Department of Education asking for the recently revised special education teaching, SET, allocation model to be paused until those most affected are meaningfully consulted. Countless families and advocacy groups felt as though their needs were ignored when the new allocation model was announced. Despite getting in touch with the Department, AsIAm, Down Syndrome Ireland and Inclusion Ireland believe they have not been provided with sufficient clarity that this new model will be inclusive and equitable for all students with the greatest level of need. The removal of complex need in particular has jarred with many. Suggestions from the Department that this is due to an increase in special classes in schools is nothing but a weak excuse.

Beyond that, many parents wish for their children to remain in mainstream schools in an inclusive and accessible setting but the new model makes this increasingly more difficult. In accordance with the wishes of those charities that do incredible work, will the Minister cease this model for the moment in order that we can have a full consultation with those groups? Has the Minister allocated from his Department a budget for any review or appeals?

I thank the Deputy for raising the matter. The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and the Department, will continue to engage with schools and families in relation to all of this. It should be emphasised that when schools are notified of their special education teacher allowance for this September, there will be an increase of 1,000 teachers to provide special education in our schools. There is an increase in the number of teachers we have, meaning there will be 14,600 special education teachers in place. The model that we are looking to make some changes to has been in place since 2017. I cannot commit to this model being stopped or paused but we will continue to engage with schools and families.

I extend my sympathies to the family and friends of Ann Delaney who tragically died on the streets over the weekend. Her tragic passing further underlines the failure of the Government to address the question of rough sleeping, the wider and worsening homelessness crisis and the number of people in emergency accommodation, the figures for which went up yet again at the weekend. Just bandying around money is not enough. The Government needs to commit to providing own-door accommodation to all those who are homeless and then actually deliver it. Many of those on the street end up on the street because they do not want to go into hostels and dormitories. They are afraid to do so. We also need proactive measures to prevent people entering homelessness. In my book, this means bringing in the eviction ban. It means local authorities having a clear policy of not allowing people to enter homelessness.

Again, I offer my condolences to Ms Delaney's family. Deputy Bacik raised the same matter with me some moments ago. This is the reason the Government is committed to building 9,300 social homes this year through our local authorities and approved housing bodies. This will give us the ability to respond back and support those who are on our housing lists and those using our homeless services. I will not repeat too much the figures I had given to Deputy Bacik earlier. I spoke on our efforts to prevent people going into homelessness and while the Deputy may describe them as figures, behind every figure is a life and a life story that we are trying to improve.