Ms Niamh Randall:

I also thank the committee for meeting us this morning. I am here representing Simon Communities Ireland which is based all around Ireland in places like Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, the midlands, the mid-west, the north west and the south east. We work with people at risk of homelessness and people who are currently homeless. We also support people to help them move out of homelessness. One of the key things I wanted to mention this morning is the fact that this Government has committed itself to ending long-term homelessness by 2016 by using a housing-led approach. Simon Communities Ireland is very supportive of this approach and believes it can be achieved but only with sufficient resources, political will and national direction. It must be achieved for all the reasons outlined here this morning.

Cutbacks in funding for housing support, health services, probation, welfare and drug and alcohol services have knock-on effects and contribute to homelessness. The current climate also gives great cause for concern. As Mr. Allen mentioned, cuts to the 2013 budgets are being announced. They are not all confirmed and it is September 2013. These will have a very significant effect on homelessness in the future. Not only do they undermine our service delivery, they also undermine efforts to end rough sleeping and long-term homelessness. The cuts must end. We are at crisis point and homelessness must be prioritised in budget 2014.

Obviously, there are very specific pieces in terms of access to housing and looking at increasing the supply of social housing. What is also key is ensuring there is some kind of ring-fencing in terms of social housing for people moving out of homelessness. Again, if homelessness is to be prioritised, this must be a key part of that. If we are to look in terms of housing supports, because a comprehensive, housing-led approach must have support for people in housing, many people will need support to move out of long-term homelessness. As was mentioned, there have been successive cuts in HSE budgets since 2008. There has been a rapid increase in opiate use. We have seen figures in recent weeks relating to that and community mental services. These are critical to ensuring we end homelessness in the long term. It is also essential to ensure we have action in terms of prevention and early intervention because it is only through them that we will ensure we end homelessness by 2016.