19 September 2026
By Tom Collins
tom@TheCork.ie
Politics
The State did not separately count how many young people became homeless after leaving its care until 2025, according to figures released to a Cork TD by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality.
The Department has confirmed to Ken O’Flynn (Cork North Central) of Independent Ireland that it only began collating specific data on homelessness among care leavers in 2025. Before that, these young people were included within a general “other accommodation” category and were not separately identified.
“The figures now being recorded are deeply concerning.” said the TD
File photo of a typical modern housing estate
At the end of 2025, 165 young people in the aftercare system were recorded as homeless. By the first quarter of 2026, that figure had risen to 181.
Of those 181 young people, 114, or approximately 63 per cent, were Separated Children Seeking International Protection.
The TD said
“That distinction matters for understanding the scale of the problem, but it does not diminish the underlying concern. These are two particularly vulnerable groups of young people who have been in the care of the State and who are now experiencing homelessness.
The State assumed responsibility for these young people when they were children. It determined where they lived, provided or arranged their care, and then supported them as they transitioned towards adulthood.
It is therefore extraordinary that, until last year, the State was not even separately counting how many of those young people were ending up homeless.
You cannot properly support a group of young people if you do not properly count what is happening to them.”
The TD continued
“I am calling on the Minister to publish a full historical reconstruction of care leaver homelessness going back to 2020, using the “other accommodation” records, so that the true scale and trajectory of this problem can be established.
The Minister should also set out what targeted accommodation and homelessness supports are being provided to both cohorts of young people leaving care, including Irish care leavers and Separated Children Seeking International Protection.
These young people deserve more than a place in a spreadsheet. They deserve to know that the State which took responsibility for them as children will not abandon them when they reach adulthood.”