Homeless Persons Supports

94. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will consider an emergency response to the growing number of people homeless in emergency accommodation and the very high estimates of those who are living in hidden homelessness; to outline the measures his Department is already taking; if he will declare the situation a crisis requiring an emergency and coordinated response; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69315/26]

Rail Network

143. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Transport to provide an update on the current estimated timeframe for the delivery of Luas Finglas. [67012/26]

Construction Industry

139. Deputy Rory Hearne asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to detail his Department’s plans to address construction labour force shortfalls and the impact that will have on housing delivery; if he will consider a State construction company to increase to build public construction capacity to ensure Ireland has the workers needed to directly deliver affordable housing, attract skilled labour home from abroad and an expand of the use of modern met

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Rory Hearne This week, I met three different people who are in homelessness in emergency accommodation, in particular, parents of children. Any length of time spent in emergency accommodation is deeply damaging. It is a trauma to a child. The trauma started even before they entered emergency accommodation, with the stress and trauma of being evicted from their home. It is having to take a child, having to take their teddy bears and their few little toys, put them into a bag, bring them a

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Rory Hearne Last week, we saw record levels of homelessness in this country with 5,830 children in emergency accommodation. What emergency action is the Minister taking to immediately stem the flow of families and children into homelessness and the length of time people are spending in homelessness? I have not seen an emergency response from the Minister to this homelessness disaster. What will he do about it?

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Rory Hearne The Minister knows the main cause of families and children being made homeless is eviction from the private rental sector. He says he has brought in measures that give the strongest tenancy protections we have seen but he knows also that those tenancy protections do not apply to all existing tenants. There are hundreds of thousands of tenants, including tens of thousands of families and children, who are as vulnerable to eviction as they were before the Minister brought in th

34th Dáil debate — 2026-10-01

Deputy Rory Hearne I thank those who spoke in favour of the Bill, including Sinn Féin, the Labour Party, People Before Profit and my colleagues in the Social Democrats. They all spoke clearly and eloquently and made the case that was needed to be made as to the importance and significance of this Bill. I express my deep disappointment that the Government is opposing this. I am trying to figure out its reason for doing so. I do not think the Minister of State believes these arguments about distr