Martin says he wants homelessness figures falling ‘within 12 months’

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he would like to see homelessness figures to fall “within 12 months”.

The number of people accessing emergency accommodation has risen at a near consistent rate in recent years, repeatedly breaking new records. The housing portfolio is held by Fianna Fáil’s Darragh O’Brien.

In the last of Virgin Media’s “Big Interviews” with party leaders, Mr Martin said homelessness was his party’s number one priority and the reason it sought the housing portfolio in the coalition.

The official figures from the Department of Housing look at the number of people accessing emergency accommodation services over the last week of each month, and are published at 2pm on the last Friday of the following month.

October’s figures are due at on polling day, November 29th.

The latest figures for the end of September show there were 14,760 people accessing such services, including 4,561 children – record highs for both metrics.

The figures do not include people sleeping rough, those that may be couch surfing or homeless in hospitals or prisons, and those in a shelter for asylum seekers or domestic violence centres.

Mr Martin said his party would not interfere with the agreed process by publishing the figures in advance of polling day.

However, he accepted that there are “too many people homeless” and said homelessness is “very traumatic” for families.

Speaking on Wednesday night, he said there was a need to” build more houses faster”, prevent homelessness and reduce the amount of time people rely on emergency accommodation.

“The obligation is to get people out of emergency accommodation as quickly as we can, and get them a house as quickly as we can.

“That is why building 40,000 social houses is progress, and we need to build 12,000 social houses a year, I think, to deal with the homelessness issue.”

Asked if he was expecting the figures to be uncomfortable, he said: “We’re already uncomfortable with the homelessness figures, so next Friday isn’t going to change that to any significant degree.”

Pressed on when he expected the figures to peak, Mr Martin said he did not have exact timelines and added supply needed to be increased.

Asked when the figure would come down, he said: “I would like to see that within the next 12 months but I can’t give a guarantee on that.

“Population is growing, and that is a factor in all of this. But we have to get up to 50,000 houses per annum.”

Elsewhere, he doubled down on ruling out a Fianna Fail coalition with Sinn Fein.

Mr Martin said Sinn Féin’s tax proposals would “destroy” Ireland’s enterprise economy, as he made an appeal to Irish voters before polling day on Friday.

Asked how big the differences are between the two parties, he said: “They’re very substantial, fundamentally, in terms of the economic model that we have in this country.”

Mr Martin said the vast majority of Fianna Fáil members agreed with his position.

Pressed on Fianna Fáil’s past history of entering into coalition with Fine Gael in 2020 after initially ruling it out, the party leader defended that decision.

He said there were a number of factors, including the argument about obligations to elect a government.

He said the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green coalition was able to “protect a pro-European, pro-Enterprise” model.

Mr Martin said the Government was also formed in the context of a “one in 100-year” pandemic.

The Fianna Fáil stalwart also refused to rule out a future bid for President of Ireland, but said: “I haven’t considered it.”