Eoghan Murphy admits progress on tackling homelessness 'is too slow'
The Housing Minister has admitted progress on tackling homelessness is too slow.
Minister Eoghan Murphy said the number of homeless families in hotels in Dublin is falling.
The Government is also highlighting a drop in the number of homeless families in Dublin for the second month running.
He was commenting in the Dáil after new national figures showed that a record number of more than 8,300 people are now in emergency accommodation.
Minister Murphy said there are signs of improvement in Dublin.
"I know it's too slow, I know we need to do more. The Government recognises that," he said.
"That's why we have increased our funding for homelessness and services next year. We've also increased our HAP supports for next year as well," he said.
"There are still 690 families in hotels. Any one family in a hotel or B&B is one too many, but it is significantly down on the high point that was reached in March earlier this year," Minister Murphy said.
Meanwhile, Homelessness charity Focus Ireland has called for greater government action to stop buy-to-let landlords evicting families.
Focus Ireland spokesperson Roughan McNamara said the Government should be trying harder to keep families in their homes.
"The really shocking thing about these figures is 37% of the total number of people homeless is made up of children under 18," he said.
While there is some good work being done to get more families and children out of homelessness, we still believe the Government needs to do more to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place," he added.
