Taoiseach says rejection of home offers contributes to homelessness figures

Coalition leaders and Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien gave an update on the Housing for All plan for Q2 of this year, but Mr O’Brien refused to give the number of social homes delivered so far this year until he had “verified” information.

When asked how the Housing for All plan is working, Varadkar said there are “many factors” at play and it would be “simply inaccurate” to say the Government has control over some of the issues causing homelessness to rise.

Varadkar also noted he is aware of homeless people turning down housing, which he says is a contributing factor to the country’s homelessness figures, which stood at 12,441 as of the end of June.

“It would be just simply inaccurate to say that the government has control over things like the number of family breakdowns that occur, the number of people who are new arrivals that are seeking emergency accommodation.”

“I work with a lot of people in emergency accommodation in my constituency and there are a lot of people in emergency accommodation who have refused multiple offers of social housing. It’s a much more complicated picture than people would like to make it out to be,” he said.

Varadkar said Government will measure success and progress on things such as the number of new homes built, the number of new social housing built, the cost of housing, and the number of first-time buyers.

The Housing for All report has been attacked by the opposition for lacking details, with Social Democrats TD Cian O’Callaghan dubbing it”political spin” while Labour leader Ivana Bacik remarked “Minister O’Brien is, no doubt, quietly pleased that the launch of the latest Housing for All progress report coincided with the blockbuster viewing in the Public Accounts Committee, but on a quieter week, he may have come under more fire for what is a blatant failure to deliver on housing.”