Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has refused an offer to volunteer and help the homeless this Christmas.
Mr Varadkar did admit that homelessness and the housing crisis are the most important issues of the day and of the highest priority for his Government.
But when Dublin Live asked if he would consider showing leadership on this by volunteering on Christmas Day, he said no.
Instead he said he will be doing something else that he would like to keep private.
Mr Varadkar said: “Well, I’ll be doing something on Christmas Day, but it’s not related to homelessness.
“I’ll talk about that some other time.”
He added: “But I will certainly be acknowledging on Christmas Day the fact that for a lot of people it’s not going to be a very pleasant day and for a lot of people it’s going to be a day of work, because a lot of people need to work on Christmas Day for lots of different reasons and we’re very grateful that they do.
“To come to the other part of your question, I have been asked and I have been to visit family hubs and I’ve been out with Safety Net (a mobile health unit run by trainee GOs for rough sleepers) to visit people who are rough sleeping and I’m sure it’s something I’ll do again in the future.
“I would point out that we have managed to reduce rough sleeping considerably in the past year or so and we do have shelter for anyone that wants it.
“And we’re going to do our best to make sure that they know that and that they do come in and that they are offered that shelter.
“And I will be conscious as well on Christmas Day that in the past year more than 20,000 new homes and new apartments were built in Ireland, so there will be 20,000 families around the table on Christmas Day in a home that didn’t exist a year ago.
“And if we’re going to solve the problem of homelessness and the housing crisis we need to build a lot more homes next year and I’m targeting 25,000 new homes being built next year, including 11,000 for people in need of social housing.”
Dublin Live asked if he would like to tell the public what he will be doing on Christmas Day, and he replied: “No, not at the moment, I don’t want there to be a media scrum.
“I wouldn’t want to wreck your Christmas by forcing you to be out on Christmas Day.”
“It’s a private event.”
