Minister for Housing Eoghan Murphy has defended the removal of approximately 600 families from the March local authority homeless figures.
He was responding to Sinn Féin's housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin, who said it was "deeply dishonest" to remove families in emergency accommodation from the monthly statistics.
Mr Murphy said that a total of 247 adults and 331 dependents were categorised as being in emergency accommodation and these categorisations were corrected prior to the publication of the March figures.
"I'm satisfied that individuals and families who are being accommodated in publicly funded houses or apartments - whether it be social housing or homes leased from the private rental sector - should not be considered as living in emergency accommodation," he told the Dáil during ministers' questions.
Mr Murphy added that there were "further miscategorisations in the system" that still have to be worked out.
"No one was removed by me, this was an agreement between my officials and the local authorities once we discovered that actually people were in homes, with their own front doors, their own keys, some for as long as two years. And they were being counted as being in the situation as someone in a hostel who has to walk the streets every day," Mr Murphy said.
WATCH: Housing Minister @MurphyEoghan defends removal of approx 600 families from March homeless figures, saying they shouldn't be counted as being in emergency accommodation. But @EOBroin calls it "deeply dishonest" and says he's "changing definition of emergency accommodation" pic.twitter.com/mUDFepcgUj
— RTÉ Politics (@rtepolitics) May 8, 2018
However, Deputy Ó Broin said that he had examined the figures again and was more convinced than ever that the individuals and their dependents should not have been removed.
He accused the minister of "actually changing the definition of emergency accommodation" because the figures were going in the wrong direction.
"The idea that because someone is left languishing in emergency accommodation for two years you are now going to say they are no longer in emergency accommodation is truly astounding," Deputy Ó Broin said.
"It is deeply dishonest and deeply insulting to these families," he said, adding that the minister would have to climb down on the issue.
