There were heated exchanges in the Dáil in a row between Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy and a number of Sinn Féin TDs over allegations that he deliberately manipulated the homelessness figures to keep them below 10,000.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said Mr Murphy on Monday “alleged that local authorities had wrongly included 600 people in their homeless person figures.
“However, it now appears that none of the people in question is in private rented accommodation or a council tenancy and they are all in emergency or temporary accommodation.”
He said the Minister instructed councils to remove homeless families from the homelessness figures for March, which showed 9,681 people homeless including 3,646 children.
Mr Murphy in turn insisted “we encountered an error” in the figures and he claimed Sinn Féin were “so desperate is it to see the numbers go up that it thinks we should be counting people who are not living in emergency accommodation as homeless”.
Heated exchanges
Amid heated exchanges the Minister said the 600 families and individuals “are not living in hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation, hubs or hostels”. They “never went into homelessness”, he insisted.
Some were living in private rented accommodation, but Mr Ó Broin said that was “on a temporary basis”.
Leas Cheann Comhairle Pat "The Cope" Gallagher repeatedly called for order as Sinn Féin deputy leader Pearse Doherty said they were living in emergency accommodation and the Minister said they were not.
