Charities have warned of a ‘truly shocking’ scale of evictions coinciding with the introduction of the Government’s rent reforms, as homeless figures hit yet another record high yesterday.

Opposition parties also criticised the Taoiseach’s comments linking immigration with rising homelessness as ‘shameful’ and ‘an absolute disgrace’.

The number of people using emergency accommodation rose to 17,548 in April, an increase from 17,517 the previous month, according to the Department of Housing’s official figures.

The total is made up of 11,944 adults and 5,604 children – an increase of 33 children on the previous month.

Over the 12 months since April last year, there has been a 12.6% increase in the number of people in emergency accommodation.

The figures do not account for people sleeping rough or staying in hospitals, asylum centres or domestic violence shelters. The April figures follow the Government’s new rental reforms, which came into effect in March.

Pat Dennigan, Focus Ireland chief, said the Government had done ‘absolutely nothing’ to help thousands of people facing eviction as rents were expected to rise under the new reforms.

‘The scale of evictions and the misery it will create is truly shocking, with more than 7,000 notices issued in the first three months of the year,’ he said.

‘This points to the intense and growing pressure facing renters and underlines the strain on the housing system created by over a decade of failed housing policies.’

He said if evictions were the result of a ‘once-off adjustment’, as some landlords sell up, ‘it strengthens the case for a once-off but substantial boost in tenant-in-situ funding’, adding, ‘it is not too late to introduce such a protective measure to prevent families and individuals from being pushed into homelessness during this period’.

Ber Grogan, of the Simon Communities of Ireland, said landlords who have raised rents since the rental reforms were announced should put forward solutions to end homelessness.

She welcomed the decrease in homelessness among single households and people over the age of 65.

‘Headlines stating that “rents rise” make it sound as though rents are increasing automatically, in a vacuum,’ she said. ‘The reality is there are people behind the decisions to keep raising rents.

‘More accurate headlines and debates in the Dáil would be “landlords raise rents to the highest ever levels”. Unless the Government, local authorities, landlords, and homeless services come together to address the issue, we will continue to see more people entering homelessness each month.’

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said at Dublin’s Bloom festival yesterday that ‘pressures are rising from the migration side’. He said: ‘I get criticised when I say this, but I think the composition of homelessness today is significantly different from homelessness even five years ago or a decade ago’. He added: ‘More people are leaving Direct Provision, for example, and some don’t immediately get the necessary accommodation…’

Labour TD Conor Sheehan said the housing figures and the Taoiseach’s comments were a ‘false correlation’ and accused the Government of ‘gaslighting in terms of migration in order to get away with it’.

Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said: ‘They’ve blamed Covid, they blamed Brexit, they blamed the war in Ukraine, they blamed the rising cost of fuel, and now the Taoiseach seems to be blaming homeless people who happen to be born in another country for rising rates of homelessness. It is not only factually wrong, but it is an absolute disgrace.’