Tipperary TD Martin Browne believes the Government doesn’t recognise the seriousness of the housing and homelessness problem.
The Sinn Féin deputy says the amount of enquiries from constituents on housing issues has increased even further over the last 12 months.
His comments come as the Department of Housing reported a further increase in people accessing emergency accommodation at the end of November.
In Tipperary, there were 47 homeless adults that month – up almost 50 percent from a figure of 32 in the same month of 2020.
Deputy Browne says the construction of social housing needs to increase hugely.
“Only last week on Daft.ie, there were only 16 properties available for renting and the majority of them were falling well outside of the Housing Assistance Payments limits.
“So it must start clicking with Government. It’s not just Sinn Féin (highlighting this) at this stage. The monthly figures from their own Department are showing an increase month on month on month.”
He says that boosting supply is crucial, and that Councils need to be given more resources to construct social housing:
“Someone at some stage must realise that unless we start back building like we were in the 1950s and 60s, when everybody was telling you the country was poor, that we’re never going to get on top of this problem.
“I suppose they (the Government) need to recognise it first and that’s one of the biggest worries. They just keep telling us that they’re on top of it and they understand it. And they don’t.”
