Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 29 together.

The programme for Government is committed to adopting a housing first, housing led approach to homelessness and to ensuring more effective prevention strategies. There is no single solution to increasing the level of social housing supply for the homeless and maximising delivery will require flexible and diverse approaches. The initial emphasis will necessarily be on the Dublin region, where homeless numbers are most acute, and moving away from the current over reliance on emergency accommodation provision to a more permanent accommodation solution. This is to be achieved through a number of measures including: directly linking the provision of funding with specific targets and outcomes; making better use of the existing available accommodation units in the local authorities and in the voluntary sector; additional social housing provision through acquisitions and remedial works or upgrading of vacant local authority housing stock and a leasing programme; ongoing engagement with NAMA to secure properties; targeted use of the rental accommodation scheme; an enhanced role for the private rental sector; better co-ordination with the voluntary and co-operative housing sector; and the establishment of homeless action teams across all regions.

My Department's funding provision for the running costs of homeless accommodation and related services for 2012 is €50 million, which together with 10% provided from housing authorities' own resources, brings the total available funding to €55.55 million in 2012. This level of funding means that there will be no reduction in the provision of essential front line support services.

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