Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien slammed for ‘distasteful’ homeless joke

Mr O’Brien made the poorly judged quip to a large press pack that had gathered for the launch of a housing charity’s annual report

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Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien has been slammed for making a poorly judged and “distasteful” joke about homelessness at the launch of a housing charity’s annual report this week.

Mr O’Brien said: “Have ye no homes to go to” to a large press pack that had gathered for the event. The Minister was the keynote speaker at the Respond housing body’s yearly presentation in Buswells Hotel across from Leinster House on Tuesday afternoon.

Respond was pleased to announce that it could complete 700 social or affordable homes this year – and Mr O’Brien welcomed this. However, it was on the steps of the hotel at a press “doorstep” for journalists afterwards that he may have put his foot in it with his “have ye no homes to go to” quip when he saw the sizable gathering of reporters.

Many of the reporters were young and middle-aged renters who did not have homes to call their own. The Minister’s remarks come as the country braces itself for the latest set of worrying figures on homelessness due to be released today.

They are widely expected to be the worst ever in the history of the State, as the full impact of the lifting of the evictions ban on April 1st starts to really manifest. The last month broke all records with 12,600 registered with the Government as being in emergency accommodation – and distressingly the number of families presenting as homeless shot up by a quarter last month alone.