Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan Public Consultation

Government’s new housing plan ‘Delivering Homes, Building Communities’ is an integrated housing and homelessness plan. The new plan is based on two key pillars: activating the supply of 300,000 more homes; and supporting people to have a home of their own.

Increased supply is key to addressing homelessness. Government is focused on making sure that everyone has access to good quality, affordable and secure homes that suit their needs. Over €9 billion in capital funding will be made available for housing in 2026.

The new Plan recognises that homelessness is the single most pressing social issue that we face and introduces a number of key measures to address homelessness.

One such measure relates to the development of a dedicated cross-Departmental and agency led Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan. Given the importance of this issue for child poverty and child well-being, the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are working together on this Plan, supported by relevant Government departments and State bodies.

It is intended that the Plan will place a particular emphasis on prevention measures and measures to accelerate exits and reduce the time spent by children and their families in homeless emergency accommodation.

It is also intended that the Plan will address issues currently experienced by children in emergency accommodation and put in place additional supports in areas such as education, nutrition and mental health. The Plan will also put in place additional supports for parents and expectant mothers who are experiencing homelessness in order to support the whole family.

The Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are now launching a public consultation to gather views to inform the development of the Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan

Submissions are welcomed from all interested parties.

Your submission should be no more than 2,000 words and should focus on key priority areas and additional measures that can be taken to address child and family homelessness. If desired, your submission could include a short background note on your interest in this issue and you can include references to any further material that you believe is relevant to the development of the new action plan.

You can send your submission via email to childfamilyactionplan@housing.gov.ie or by post to the Homelessness Policy, Funding and Delivery Section, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Custom House, Dublin 1, D01 W6X0.

Closing date for receipt of submissions is Sunday 8 February 2026.

All responses received will be considered and will inform the development of the Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan, due to be published Q2 2026. Please note that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage may publish a summary of the submissions received and may also publish anonymised data from the responses received.

All submissions received are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and Data Protection legislation.

Personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information should not be included in your submission and it will be presumed that all information contained in your submission is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act 2014.

Child and Family Homelessness Action Plan privacy statement