Sinn Féin TD Paul Donnelly has said that Fingal County Council having funding for the tenant-in-situ scheme cut by 73% is a major driver of record-high homeless figures.
With homeless figures anticipated to break 17,000 upon publication on the afternoon of February 27, Donnelly said the government parties have no one to blame but themselves.
The tenant-in-situ scheme is seen as a major tool in local authorities’ arsenal to prevent people from slipping into homelessness, but funding was significantly cut for Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council across 2025.
Fianna Fáil’s Minister for Housing, James Browne, has been accused of undermining local authorities, and Donnelly said the Minister’s actions are directly making the homeless crisis worse.
When Browne was appointed as Minister for Housing in January 2025, the nationwide homeless figures stood at 15,286.
The most up-to-date round of figures for December 2025 revealed that 16,734 people are in homeless accommodation across Ireland, pointing to a direct correlation between the Minister cutting funding for local authorities and the rise in homeless figures.
Donnelly said “the first major decision made by Minister for Housing James Browne on taking office was to cut funding for vital homeless prevention supports, including the tenant-in-situ scheme.”
“While the Minister denied that he was cutting the funding, figures provided to Sinn Féin’s Housing Spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin, by a number of local authorities, show not only that funding was reduced – but it was also slashed.”
The Sinn Féin TD noted “in councils right across the state, including areas with some of the highest levels of homelessness, funding cuts range from 72% to 96%, compared to 2024 levels.”
He explained, “the tenant-in-situ scheme is part of the wider social housing acquisition programme, which allows councils to purchase second hand homes to prevent homelessness or to get people out of emergency accommodation.”
Per Donnelly, Fingal County Council purchased 131 homes in 2024 as part of the tenant-in-situ scheme, and that figure dropped to 36 in 2025.
“The direct result of these cuts is that fewer tenant-in-situ purchases took place in 2025. This is one of the reasons why homelessness, and in particular family and child homelessness, continued to rise last year,” Donnelly stated.
Donnelly said, “we (Sinn Féin) warned Minister James Browne that this would be the case, but he carried on regardless.”
“Now we learn that the Minister for Housing is considering cutting the funding even further this year. The 2026 allocations have not been made to councils yet, but indications are that the government is set to wind the scheme down even further.”
The Dublin West TD stated, “at a time when eviction notices from landlords are rising, any reduction to funding for vital homeless prevention supports is utter madness. I am urging the Minister for Housing to restore the funding to 2024 levels and remove the restrictions imposed on the operation of the scheme last year”