Minister for Housing James Browne has announced that €50 million will be used to target the removal of families from long-term emergency accommodation.
It follows approval by the Government during the summer of €700m in additional capital funding to accelerate housing delivery and support key housing programs.
Some €50m will be allocated to the eight city and county councils with the highest numbers of households in emergency accommodation.
In the Dublin region, it will apply to families who are more than 24 months in emergency accommodation and families that are 12 months or more in the remaining four regional authorities.
Mr Browne has said the aim is to assist local authority efforts to exit families from homelessness.
A particular focus will be the acquisition of four-bedroom properties, which have not been available through other delivery streams.
Mr Browne has said that he wants to see children off the homelessness list "full stop".
He said today's "action" was about getting children who are in emergency accommodation for an extended period into safe, secure and permanent homes.
The number of homeless children rose to over 5,000 for the first time during the summer.
The €50m in funding will be provided in the first instance, for acquisitions that can be contractually committed and fully recouped in 2025 according to the department.
However, any funding committed but not drawn down in 2025 will be available to local authorities in 2026 to complete acquisitions.
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Indicative allocations announced today show that €2m will go to Cork City Council; €22m to Dublin City Council, €2.5m Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, €10m Fingal, €4m Galway City Council, €3m Limerick City and County, €5m South Dublin and €1.5m to Waterford City and County Council.
When the breakdown of funds were announced in August, the Department of Housing said €50m would go towards second-hand acquisitions including the tenant-in-situ scheme which allows local authorities to purchase privately owned homes where tenants are at risk of eviction, ensuring they can remain in their homes as social housing tenants.
Mr Browne has confirmed that sufficient funding remains available from an original allocation of €325m to allow all local authorities complete whatever priority acquisitions they have on hand for 2025 delivery.
It is estimated therefore that local authorities might potentially complete around 850 acquisitions this year from the €325m originally allocated, including hundreds of tenant-in-situ purchases according to the department.
It said that the tenant-in-situ acquisitions scheme, which was introduced as a temporary funding measure as part of the department’s second-hand acquisitions funding programme, "has not been paused or ended at any stage".
In response, Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson accused Mr Browne of "knowingly and willingly pushing ever more adults and children into homelessness".
Eoin Ó Broin said that earlier this year the Minister for Housing "slashed funding" for the tenant-in-situ scheme and introduced "significant restrictions" to the scheme.
He said the move meant councils had run out of funding and many purchases that would have concluded have now fallen through, leaving hundreds of adults and children at imminent risk of homelessness.
He said the Minister's announcement today dictated that the funding must only be used for vacant acquisitions for larger families trapped in emergency accommodation.
"This means that councils will not be allowed to use any of this funding for homeless prevention tenant-in-situ purchases, even where this may be a more appropriate approach."
While he said the €50m would assist around 150 families to exit homelessness, it would not address the month-on-month increases in family homelessness which are being driven by landlords exiting the private rental sector.
"The only way to stop homelessness rising is to fully restore and increase funding for all social housing acquisition programmes while simultaneously increasing and accelerating the delivery of social homes.
"Unfortunately, Minister Browne and his Government have set their face against both of these policies," he said.
