Tánaiste urged to withdraw 'dishonest and dangerous' homelessness comments

Simon Harris suggested that a 'significant number' of people in emergency accommodation 'don’t have a housing right in Ireland'

Tánaiste Simon Harris. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins

Tánaiste Simon Harris has been urged to withdraw comments about immigration and homelessness, which have been branded “dishonest and dangerous”.

Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin accused the Fine Gael leader of a “new low” by “conflating the issues of homelessness and immigration”.

In an interview with the Irish Times, Mr Harris suggested that a “significant number” of people living in emergency accommodation “don’t have a housing right in Ireland”.

The most recently published homelessness report stated that 16,766 people were living in emergency accommodation in October 2025.

Of these, 5,765 (50%) were Irish, while 2,299 (20%) were from Europe and the UK. 

Another 3,428 people (30%) were non-Irish or non-European.

Mr Ó Broin blasted the comments, stating that “rising homelessness is caused by bad government housing policy”.

“His comments are dishonest and dangerous, and I am calling on him to withdraw them immediately,” he said.

"The Tánaiste’s comments are a new low in the Government’s deliberate policy trying to displace blame for the housing and homelessness crisis onto others.

Sinn Féin housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin blasted the comments, stating that 'rising homelessness is caused by bad government housing policy'. Picture: Leah Farrell

“But this time he has been caught out. To access emergency homeless accommodation, you must be legally resident in the state.

“People 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.

Conflating the issues of homelessness and immigration is not only dishonest — it is dangerous.

Mr Ó 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.

Mr Harris’s comments come just weeks after Taoiseach Micheál Martin told the Dáil that “there are pressures coming from the increase in the population and migratory pressures [that] do factor into the homeless issues”.

During an interview with the Irish Examiner, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said that these comments were an example of the Government attempting to “shift the blame”.

“For as long as I can remember, Fianna Fáil 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,” she said.

“Every week we come into the Dáil. Every week, I question the Taoiseach, we question the Tánaiste, and you can be very sure that whatever you raise with them, someone else is always to blame.

“They 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.

Ms McDonald said that the Government's handling of the immigration system has been “awful”, including “small numbers of people making a lot of money through the Ipas system” and the Government’s “inability to just be fair and clear”.

“They look for scapegoats," she said.