Put your house in order, Leo

THE ability to sound sincere is an essential skill any politician must master or else face the consequences from voters.

Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty told Taoiseach Leo Varadkar he had “some cheek” when he responded to criticisms of the Government’s inaction on homelessness.

While acknowledging there is a crisis and admitting results so far are disappointing, we expect more from him to say “however bad or good we’re doing, the opposition would make it worse”.

Unfortunately that’s not good enough and isn’t the basis of a responsible Government’s policy on one of the most demanding issues facing Irish society today.

By any measure the figures are shocking. The number of homeless children in the State is now 3,755, up 47% on the same time last year. Last month another 488 kids joined the list.

The total number has passed crisis point, there are officially only a few dozen less than 10,000 at this week’s count, and who knows, that could be exceeded this weekend.

The key measure of the Government’s actions lie in the figures and they don’t stack up.

The Opposition and homelessness campaigners have been trying to play ball with the Government on this, but frustration is setting in, it must seem to them that it’s a bit like trying to play handball against a haystack.