Varadkar: Ireland not facing 'tsunami' of homelessness
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has denied claims that Ireland is facing a 'tsunami' of homelessness.
It comes a day after the Government announced a €35m plan to restore vacant houses for the use of at-risk families.
Campaigner Father Peter McVerry claimed at the weekend that the situation was "beyond crisis".
However Minister Varadkar said the 'tsunami' image doesn't apply - and the problem isn't news to politicians.
"It's not a tsunami," he said.
"Tsunamis are things that happen quickly, without warning and are devastating and cannot be stopped.
"This is actually a problem that has been coming for some time. And it began with the collapse of the construction sector and the banking sector which you need to build houses back in 2008.
"The media has only got interested in it in the past few weeks. Those of us who deal with constituency work have been seeing it emerging as a problem for a number of years."
