The Number Of Homeless People In Ireland Has Reached An All-Time High

The number of homeless people across Ireland is about to hit 10,000 for the first time in the country's history.

It’s reported there were 130 homeless people left sleeping on the streets in Dublin alone on Monday night.

Inner City Helping Homeless previously called the rocketing figures a "national disgrace" and said numbers would often be even higher if they included people couch surfing or sleeping rough outside Dublin City centre.

Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ’s today, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy denied he had failed in his role and insisted his policies "were working".

He said: “Whether or not they hit 10,000 this month I can’t be certain now. What I have said before is while the numbers are obviously too high, hitting 10,000 doesn’t tell us anything that hitting 9,000 didn’t tell us, which is that we have a very serious crisis.”

"Hitting 10,000 [homeless] doesn't tell us anything that hitting 9,000 didn't. That we have a very serious criris." - Eoghan Murphy says on #TodaySOR

I would argue it tells us the situation is getting worse...??

— Kevin Doyle (@KevDoyle_Indo) August 28, 2018

Murphy added: “The evidence is that the policies are working. The housing crisis is incredibly deep, it was never going to turn around in two years.”

But The Labour Party’s Jan O’Sullivan shut down Murphy’s claims when speaking to the Irish Times, calling for “an aggressive effort to bring vacant and empty houses back into use in the coming weeks and months so that homes can be provided to families”.

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