Letter to the Minister for Housing about amendments to Homelessness Legislation

Dear Minister,

I refer to the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026 and to my previous correspondence to you dated 9 June 2026 which enclosed FLAC’s preliminary analysis of the 2026 Bill.[1] The 2026 Bill proposes to add strict new eligibility conditions for access to social housing supports which will require people seeking social housing to demonstrate that they are legally resident in the State and that they satisfy a “habitual residence” test.

I am writing to you now about your proposed Report Stage amendments to the 2026 Bill which were circulated to FLAC yesterday. This letter also responds to a number of matters arising from Committee Stage consideration of the 2026 Bill.

The Government’s Report Stage amendments to the Bill would be the first changes to Irish homelessness law in almost 40 years. They propose to create legal and habitual residence conditions for access to emergency homelessness accommodation. While time to analyse those amendments has been extremely limited, it seems highly likely that they will lead to a rise in the number of people who are forced to ‘sleep rough’ and who may effectively become destitute in the absence of entitlement to access even basic shelter. This, in turn, will likely impact on individuals, families and children’s fundamental and constitutional rights, and lead to litigation.

The 2026 Bill is scheduled to undergo Report and Final Stages in the Dáil tomorrow evening (Wednesday, 8 July). In advance of that debate, FLAC wishes to reiterate our profound concerns about the 2026 Bill and the amendments to it, the manner in which the Bill has been advanced, the lack of adequate consultation and scrutiny, and the absence of any detailed human rights, equality or homelessness impact assessments in relation to these major law reform proposals. A radical and regressive overhaul of homelessness legislation should not happen by way of late-stage amendments to a Bill and the absence of scrutiny and consultation.

Given the extent of the issues arising and the potentially unconscionable consequences of the provisions contained in the Bill, FLAC are asking that the Bill does not proceed.

Report Stage Amendments to the 2026 Bill: New Conditions for Access to Emergency Homelessness Accommodation

The Government’s proposed Report Stage amendments provide for the introduction of new legal and habitual residence conditions for access to emergency homelessness accommodation. This alters the current position where a local authority may provide emergency accommodation to any person who meets the statutory definition of a ‘homeless person’.[2]

Under the proposed new provisions, individuals, families and children who do not satisfy the new conditions may, at the discretion of the local authority, be provided with night-to-night accommodation (“between the hours of 8 p.m. …and 8 a.m”). This accommodation would only be provided for one night but may be extended for one further night, again at the discretion of the local authority, where it is satisfied that no “alternative arrangements, assistance or accommodation” is available. A local authority “may refuse” to provide night-to-night accommodation in circumstances where a homeless person has refused an offer of “alternative arrangements, assistance or accommodation” in the previous two years. There is no provision for appeals in relation to decisions concerning access to emergency homelessness accommodation.

The amendments also provide that local authorities will be empowered to withdraw emergency homelessness accommodation in circumstances where a homeless person refuses “one reasonable offer” of certain social housing supports or where they “intentionally or recklessly [engage] in conduct which causes death or serious harm to another person in the accommodation”. An appeal is provided for in relation to decisions to withdraw emergency accommodation.

Finally, the amendments provide that, where a local authority is providing emergency homelessness accommodation to people with children, it “shall have regard to the best interests of that child when considering available accommodation or lodgings”. However, this requirement to consider the best interest of children will not apply to families who are being provided with emergency accommodation on an interim basis while their legal and habitual residence is being assessed or to families in receipt of night-to-night accommodation (having failed to establish that they satisfy the new eligibility conditions).

Preliminary Analysis of the Changes to Homelessness Law

The proposed amendments constitute an overhaul of Irish homelessness law. Their effect would be to shrink the social safety net and to reduce the protections from homelessness and destitution which have been provided for in Irish law for almost four decades. It is impossible to square the proposals with the Government’s stated aim of eradicating homelessness. They run directly counter to the recommendations of the previous Oireachtas Housing Committee which followed from consultation and which were evidence-based.[3]

Given the short timeframe, it is not possible to carry out a full analysis of the proposed changes to homelessness law by reference to relevant legal, constitutional, equality and human rights standards. However, it does appear that the practical consequences of the proposed changes may be to:

• Remove the safety-net of emergency accommodation for communities already most at risk of homelessness and, in turn, lead to a rise in the number of people and families ‘rough-sleeping’ and at risk of destitution.
• Create additional administrative barriers which may delay or prevent people and families experiencing homelessness from accessing emergency accommodation. The Government’s own Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy refers to habitual residence conditions as a “major barrier” and notes that “[d]ifficulties producing the documentation needed to prove habitual residency were exacerbated when individuals were experiencing homelessness …despite living in Ireland for several years.”[4]
• Artificially reduce headline ‘homelessness figures’ (as currently calculated and reported).

Given that the new conditions for access to emergency homelessness accommodation mirror those which will be imposed in the context of access to social housing, the same concerns regarding compliance with EU law arise in this context. As discussed in more detail in previous correspondence, the new conditions may exclude certain people with a right to reside in Ireland under EU law from access to social housing and emergency accommodation.

We would also highlight that the provisions of the 2026 Bill may give rise to interference with people’s rights under the Constitution, in particular in circumstances where the changes result in attempts to withdraw or remove access to emergency accommodation.[5]

Committee Stage Consideration of the 2026 Bill

Dáil Committee Stage consideration of the 2026 Bill took place before the Report Stage amendments concerning access to emergency accommodation were published and was, as a result, limited to the consideration of the provisions of the Bill concerning access to social housing supports.[6]

At Committee Stage, in response to queries about the compliance of the Bill with EU law, you asserted that the Attorney General is satisfied that the Bill is “legally robust”. It is regrettable that no further details of the Attorney General’s analysis of the 2026 Bill was provided and, in the absence of that analysis being published, FLAC’s concerns about the Bill in this regard remain.

We also remain concerned that the proposed new “appeal” system will not provide an adequate safeguard. The appeal process is not accessible. The time limit for making an appeal is only 14-days. This is simply not enough time for people to prepare what may be a complex appeal raising issues of EU, housing, social welfare and migration law – particularly in circumstances where legal aid is not provided in the area of social housing.

We note that it is your position that the 2026 Bill does not, and indeed should not, allow people to submit additional information when they are appealing a decision refusing them access to social housing supports. This is remarkable and would completely undermine the utility of any appeal mechanism. FLAC has extensive experience of providing representation in social welfare appeals concerning decisions about habitual residence. New information and documentation is, in most cases, the only way to establish habitual residence on appeal. More generally, a review of a sample of successful social welfare appeals undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2020 found that 70% of those positive outcomes were the result of “significant additional information” being provided.[7]

The many issues and concerns relating to the 2026 Bill are not addressed in the Report Stage amendments which the Government intends to introduce. In fact, the only substantive change to the social housing provisions provided for in those amendments is a clarification that appeal decisions will be made in writing.

The Policy Development & Legislative Process to Date

FLAC has previously expressed our concerns about the short timeframe between the publication of the 2026 Bill and its progress to Committee Stage (with very little time for detailed consideration of the Bill or the formulation of amendments which could address issues with the Bill). Significant amendments to the Bill have now been circulated only two days before it undergoes Report and Final Stage in the Dáil. Those amendments will only be subject to a two-hour Dáil debate and they have not been subject to pre-legislative scrutiny or any consideration by the Oireachtas Housing Committee.

The details of these proposals have only been outlined in a high-level manner previously and the specific changes proposed have not been subject to any consultation. The one-hour briefing meeting between Departmental officials and NGOs on 17 June did not constitute meaningful consultation and, at that stage, the amendments concerning homelessness had not been published. There has been no clear statement of the rationale for those changes, nor is there any evidence that the Department has carried out a human rights or equality impact assessment of the changes.  

Next Steps & Conclusion

In light of the issues outlined above, FLAC is asking that the Bill does not proceed.

Given the urgency of this matter, I am copying this correspondence the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality, the Chief Commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, and the Chairperson and members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

 Eilis Barry

FLAC Chief Executive

[1] FLAC (2026), Preliminary Analysis of Part 2 of the Housing and Residential Tenancies (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2026.

[2] Section 2 of the Housing Act 1988 is the statutory basis for determining whether someone is homeless. If a person has no accommodation available which they could reasonably occupy and cannot provide for accommodation from their own resources, they are legally homeless. Section 10 of the 1988 Act affords local authorities broad powers to provide accommodation and financial assistance to persons assessed as homeless pursuant to section 2.

[3] That Committee recommended that: “A provision should be included in the [social housing] legislation setting out explicitly that the HRC for the purposes of social housing does not and should not affect an individual’s or a household’s eligibility for access to emergency accommodation.”

[4] Department of Children. Equality, Disability, Integration & You (2024), National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II 2024-2028, pp.44-5.

[5] People resident in emergency accommodation may enjoy the protection of the dwelling provided for under Article 40.5 of the Constitution which requires strong procedural safeguards and a proportionality assessment before they can be evicted or moved on. In McDonagh v Clare County Council [2022] IESC 2, the Supreme Court adopted an expansive definition of the ‘dwelling’ which only requires a person asserting the protections afforded by Article 40.5 to show that they actually reside in a specific place.

[6] As we have set out previously, those provisions could massively increase the risk of homelessness for non-Irish nationals and minority ethnic and migrant communities who may struggle to demonstrate that they meet the strict new conditions for access to social housing supports. Given the proposed amendments to the 2026 Bill which will similarly act as a barrier to non-Irish nationals accessing emergency accommodation, the likely consequence of the new conditions may be a rise in people with no access to basic shelter of any kind.

[7] Comptroller and Auditor General (2021), Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2020, Chapter 10: “Management of Social Welfare Appeals”.