![\"Sinn](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4916276_6_articleinline_Sinn_20Fein_20plinth-9.jpg\" "\\"Sinn")
Sinn F\u00e9in housing spokesperson Eoin \u00d3 Broin blasted the comments, stating that ‘rising homelessness is caused by bad government housing policy’. Picture: Leah Farrell<\/p>\nT\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has been urged to withdraw comments about immigration and homelessness, which have been branded \u201cdishonest and dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s housing spokesman Eoin \u00d3 Broin accused the Fine Gael leader of a \u201cnew low\u201d by \u201cconflating the issues of homelessness and immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Irish Times, Mr Harris suggested that a \u201csignificant number\u201d of people living in emergency accommodation \u201cdon\u2019t have a housing right in Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n
The most recently published homelessness report stated that 16,766 people were living in emergency accommodation in October 2025.<\/p>\n
Of these, 5,765 (50%) were Irish, while 2,299 (20%) were from Europe and the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another 3,428 people (30%) were non-Irish or non-European.<\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Broin blasted the comments, stating that \u201crising homelessness is caused by bad government housing policy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis comments are dishonest and dangerous, and I am calling on him to withdraw them immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“The T\u00e1naiste\u2019s comments are a new low in the Government\u2019s deliberate policy trying to displace blame for the housing and homelessness crisis onto others.<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in housing spokesperson Eoin \u00d3 Broin blasted the comments, stating that ‘rising homelessness is caused by bad government housing policy’. Picture: Leah Farrell<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this time he has been caught out. To access emergency homeless accommodation, you must be legally resident in the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople applying for international protection or recipients of temporary protection are accommodated through Ipas, not homeless services. This has been confirmed by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.<\/p>\n
\n Conflating the issues of homelessness and immigration is not only dishonest \u2014 it is dangerous.\n <\/p>\n
Mr \u00d3 Broin further stated that while some people in emergency accommodation are not entitled to social housing, this is often due to their income being above the eligibility threshold.<\/p>\n
Mr Harris\u2019s comments come just weeks after Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin told the D\u00e1il that \u201cthere are pressures coming from the increase in the population and migratory pressures [that] do factor into the homeless issues\u201d.<\/p>\n
During an interview with the Irish Examiner, Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald said that these comments were an example of the Government attempting to \u201cshift the blame\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor as long as I can remember, Fianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael will always try and shift blame for their failures, whether it’s in housing, whether it’s in their management of immigration, onto others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery week we come into the D\u00e1il. Every week, I question the Taoiseach, we question the T\u00e1naiste, and you can be very sure that whatever you raise with them, someone else is always to blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are never responsible. They never put their hands up. They never even take time to reflect and actually even consider that maybe, just maybe, there might be something in what we are saying to them.<\/p>\n
Ms McDonald said that the Government’s handling of the immigration system has been \u201cawful\u201d, including \u201csmall numbers of people making a lot of money through the Ipas system\u201d and the Government\u2019s \u201cinability to just be fair and clear\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey look for scapegoats,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has been urged to withdraw comments about immigration and homelessness, which have been branded \u201cdishonest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,18,13,14,6,14382,3847,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-260926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-homelessness","15":"tag-housing","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-latest-news","19":"tag-latestnews","20":"tag-main-news","21":"tag-mainnews","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-simon-harris","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115817569681052656","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}