93. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to set out his plans to address the worsening homelessness crisis. [69619/26]

As the Minister will know, last Friday, his Department published the August homelessness report, which saw a very significant increase in the number of adults and children in emergency accommodation funded by the Department. Some 17,885 people, including 5,830 children, are in bed and breakfast accommodation, hotels or family hubs. Will the Minister outline to the House what he is going to do differently in the weeks and months ahead to stop this relentless rise in homelessness?

I assure the Deputy that the Government is taking a comprehensive approach to tackling homelessness, focusing on increasing housing supply, strengthening protection for renters and, crucially, preventing homelessness in the first instance.

Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness, meeting need and addressing the challenges in the housing markets. We have therefore been building more than ever in recent times. A record level of investment is being provided for the delivery of housing in 2026, with €5.2 billion in Exchequer capital funding complemented by investment through the Land Development Agency and lending from the Housing Finance Agency, bringing the total capital funding for housing in 2026 to over €9 billion. Our housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities, aims to deliver 300,000 new homes in the period to 2030. This includes 72,000 social homes and 90,000 starter home supports. This means an average of 12,000 new social homes will be delivered every year to the end of 2030.

Supply alone is not enough. We also need to protect people in their existing homes. The Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2026, which came into effect on 1 March 2026, provides the strongest tenancy protections in the history of the State. The new Act introduced a new national rent control for all tenancies. This limits rent increases to inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, up to a maximum of 2%. For new-build apartments and student-specific accommodation, rent increases are capped at the level of inflation only. These changes were introduced to promote greater investment in the rental market and to increase the supply of rental properties while strengthening the protection of tenants.

The Act also provides significant improvements in security of tenure for renters. The latest data published by the RTB in September 2026 shows that the number of registered landlords and tenancies has increased on a quarterly and yearly basis.

Alongside this, we are strengthening our focus on early intervention and prevention through the new homelessness prevention framework and forthcoming child and family homelessness action plan.

It seems to be that the Minister lives in a parallel universe. In the 22 months he has been Minister, homelessness has increased by a staggering 17%, child homelessness is up by 27% and family homelessness is up 29%. The number of people over the age of 65 in emergency accommodation is up 14%. That has not happened by accident. It has happened because of the Government's policies. The targets for social housing are too low and the Government is missing them. It has slashed funding for vital homelessness prevention schemes, such as tenant in situ. The Minister has fumbled his way through the tendering process for Housing First. He has delayed the child and homelessness strategy and has no proposals that are different from what he has been doing for the past two years to address this crisis. If the Minister keeps doing the same thing over and over again, we will get the same results; more adults, more children, more families, more single people and more pensioners trapped in unsuitable and inappropriate emergency accommodation. Will the Minister do anything different in the time ahead from the failing policies he has implemented since becoming the Minister for housing?

We are taking a number of very significant measures, including significantly increasing the number of social houses delivered. Last year, new builds were at the highest number delivered in the history of the State. I expect it will be higher again this year. They are crucial to bringing people into social housing and giving them a secure, safe home for the rest of their lives. That is reflected in the significant decrease in the number of people in HAP properties moving from rental properties into permanent State social homes that are owned by local authorities or approved housing bodies.

We also have our new plans coming out, such as the child and family homelessness action plan. There is also the homelessness prevention framework as well. One person in homelessness is one too many. Like everybody, I am deeply concerned about the increase in homelessness. We are making significant strides in providing social homes for people and providing housing solutions but we are dealing with a rapidly increasing population. It is proving challenging to be able to provide sufficient homes, even with the significant increase in housing delivery. Housing delivery will increase again this year. We will get ahead of this but we are in very challenging times. There is no question about that.

There is nothing in what the Minister has said that suggests he will get ahead of it. In fact, what he is telling us and all of those people out there at risk of homelessness is that the numbers will rise. HAP numbers have reduced but council waiting lists have increased. The Government delivered more new-build social homes last year than the 1970s but since then, the population of the country has doubled and we have far greater social housing need. The Minister talked about protection for renters but he has trashed the key protection for renters in terms of rents, which will see rents rise and the risk of homelessness rise in response. This is not a comprehensive response to a homelessness crisis that the Minister and his colleagues in Government have created. We do not have the homeless prevention protocol as yet because it has not been published. We do not have the child and family homelessness plan as it has yet to be published. The youth homelessness strategy has expired and we do not know what the future of it is. Unless the Minister is willing to bring something new to the table, we will be here in November, December, January and February with rising numbers. I again ask the Minister if he can confirm there will be no new policy initiatives from this Government to address the ever escalating level of homelessness. In the absence of any new policy initiative, when will he accept this crisis will only get worse?

I have already outlined a number of new policies. The key is to prevent people going into homelessness in the first place so we can keep them in the home they have, which is the best home they can be kept in. We are doing everything we can to prevent homelessness in the first place. The reality is we have a supply challenge in this country. The comprehensive support is driving supply and we are seeing that increase already, with a 20% increase in supply last year. We will see an increase again this year. There are record numbers of new-build social houses being delivered as well.

The Deputy mentioned tenant in situ. Buying up existing homes is not the solution to solving the housing crisis in this country. Sinn Féin's own housing plan proposed slashing tenant in situ, as the Deputy knows full well.

Absolutely not. That is just not true.

It did.

We would have funded 2,000 of those this year.

The Deputy wanted to cut it down to 800.

The Minister halved the funding to 750. The Minister is misleading the House.

It is in the Deputy's party's own plan. I know it hurts when these things are called out to Deputy Ó Broin but it is actually true.

It does not. I am correcting the record so people have factual information.

Sinn Féin's proposal is to slash tenant in situ down to 800 homes. The nature of homelessness is changing as well so we have to evolve to meet the challenge and ensure people who are becoming homeless exit it as quickly as possible, wherever that homelessness may be coming from.