Barnardos raises concern over delay of Housing Action Plan on Child and Family Homelessness

31 July 2026. Barnardos is raising concern as the publication of the long overdue Housing Action Plan has been delayed until September and a further increase in the monthly homelessness figures is to be expected when published this Friday. The number of children in Ireland living in emergency accommodation during the summer holidays is deeply concerning, damaging childhoods and distressing parents across the country.

Moving to and living in emergency accommodation can be deeply traumatic for any child at any point of the year, harming their wellbeing and development and leading to difficulties maintaining friendships and engaging in school. However, it can be particularly challenging while children are on their extended summer holidays.

During the school term they have access to appropriate space to learn, develop and play, and opportunities to engage with their peers and friends, vital parts to any childhood. Unfortunately, during the summer this is taken away and they are forced to spend far more time in cramped, overcrowded and generally unacceptable conditions. The accommodation will often only consist of one room or one bedroom and will rarely have any areas in which to play indoors or any outdoor space at all.

While in the accommodation they are required to be under the constant supervision of their parents, regardless of their age, meaning 16 or 17 year olds can’t help by doing any cooking or laundry by themselves or look after younger siblings while their parents do so. Parents are inevitably forced to entertain children more frequently with the use of phones and tablets as there is no other choice. Parents often discuss the safety concerns they have for their children playing outside the accommodation as it is routinely in very built up urban environments with extremely limited green space.

Barnardos National Policy Manager Stephen Moffatt said: “Earlier this year there was an announcement to develop and launch an action plan on child and family homelessness, something that was long overdue. Those involved in developing the plan, teams within the Department of Housing alongside the Child and Poverty Wellbeing Office, appeared to engage well with both those directly affected by living in emergency accommodation and professionals and experts working in the area. They were well informed of the most pressing issues and demonstrated a real commitment and desire to alleviate some of the harms facing children in emergency accommodation.

“It is concerning that the publication of the action plan has been delayed until September. Such a delay requires justification and if it is the case the Government is seeking more time to secure the necessary funding to resource the action plan then there is a cause for concern. There is a call to prioritise this as a matter of urgency for the nearly six thousand children spending their summer, for some their second or third, in emergency accommodation. Too often the staggering statistical increases become almost normalised, each statistic represents an individual childhood, and individual child. Because childhood lasts lifetime.

“It is our hope that the action plan could introduce additional measures and supports in the immediate term to help reduce some of the harms and trauma children face when they enter and live in emergency accommodation. While any additional measures in and of themselves would not greatly reduce the number of children facing this issue, but could make their experience of it less harmful to their childhoods. Delaying the publication means thousands of children not benefitting from those measures and supports now and hundreds more who enter emergency accommodation over the next few months.”

Barnardos Policy Reports regarding Child and Family Homelessness