The Government must develop a specific child- and family-focused homelessness strategy, which should prioritise prevention measures as well as timely access to secure, long-term housing, the Ombudsman for Children has told the Minister for Housing.
In a letter to James Browne last month, Dr Niall Muldoon also said he was deeply concerned about the “proposed introduction of eligibility criteria” for those accessing emergency accommodation.
The Office of the Ombudsman told The Irish Times it was reiterating a point it had previously raised with the Department of Housing in 2023 when it was reviewing legislation which included the eligibility criteria for emergency accommodation.
It is understood that proposed amendments to the Housing Act 1988 to include requiring lawful and habitual residency as conditions for access to emergency accommodation were previously under consideration. While such changes were not included in the general scheme of the Bill last year, the final legislation has yet to be published.
“The proposed eligibility criteria risks excluding vulnerable groups, including undocumented families with children, Roma families with children and families seeking international protection, from emergency accommodation,” Dr Muldoon said in the letter dated April 30th.
The ombudsman also urged the Minister to reconsider the approach being taken to the eviction of refugee and asylum-seeking children from direct provision and accommodation for Ukrainian refugees.
“I would ask that you fully assess the impact of such decisions by using a children’s rights framework to better prioritise the rights of these children,” he said.
“Ultimately, the aim should be to ensure that they are not uprooted from their local communities and forced to endure further distress.”
Separately, the ombudsman and a number of housing charities and organisations wrote to the new Oireachtas housing committee urging it to prioritise a “comprehensive review” of child and family homelessness as a “matter of urgency”.
They wrote to the committee’s chair, Fine Gael TD Micheál Carrigy, over recent days stating that a report from the committee in 2019 on family and child homelessness made comprehensive recommendations, “but the majority are not implemented, despite the severity of the situation”.
The letter was signed by Dr Muldoon, Focus Ireland, Simon Communities of Ireland, St Vincent de Paul, Threshold, Clúid Housing, Respond (an approved housing body) and Crosscare (social care services provider).
The letter states that the continued rise in family homelessness underscores the “urgent need” to revisit “outstanding measures” from the 2019 report and conduct “a fresh analysis of systemic failures”.
[ Number of people in homelessness reaches new record high of 15,418Opens in new window ]
“We are asking the joint committee on housing to prioritise child homelessness and to provide robust oversight in relation to Ireland’s commitment under the Lisbon Declaration to end child homelessness by 2030,” it said.
“We are deeply alarmed by Ireland’s worsening homelessness crisis, highlighted by a record-breaking 4,675 children in emergency accommodation in the latest figures released in March 2025 — this is a 11 per cent increase since March 2024.”
The Oireachtas committee’s report from November 2019 made 14 recommendations.
These included practical supports, such as case managers and child support workers, being made available across all types of emergency accommodation and to each family and child experiencing homelessness within one week of entering such accommodation.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said Mr Browne was arranging a meeting with the Ombudsman in the coming weeks to discuss issues raised.
