Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. As always, Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust have succinctly outlined the issues and rent supplement plays a very small role in this respect. Mr. Brian Friel spoke about the resources needed to secure private rental accommodation and that is one of the key areas. That is particularly the case when people are motivated, want to get accommodation and they link in with the services. However, if they are pushed back and the provision of the accommodation is delayed for weeks on end, there is the possibility that they could relapse into drug abuse or return to being homeless. Can the Department of Social Protection set up a protocol whereby once the witnesses, who are directly dealing with the trust to solve these problems, have the deposits or advance rent payments ready to be transferred, that there would not be a question of every individual having to be dealt with differently or separately? It is a matter of getting the process moving and dealing with it closely. The trust would approach the Department and advise that it has a person who needs accommodation, that the rented accommodation is available and that it needs the rental money now. That approach would not give the landlords the excuse to be able to play around with the issue and say there is a problem. Mr. Mike Allen was right in saying there is a degree of discrimination in that some landlords will not get involved with the Department because of the hassle of getting the moneys and deposits in place. I would like to hear the Department's response to that issue. It is also what I have experienced even with the housing first model. It is probably not related to rent supplement as such but it is the issue of how the Department links in with the organisations that supply the service for homeless people.

People are asked what are their emergency needs, for example, white goods and so forth, but a link should be established immediately with the organisations working with homeless people. This would mean that things could move quickly when a council flat or private rented accommodation becomes available as there would be a one-stop-shop for dealing with these issues. The Department and the relevant organisations would work together and one would not find three weeks after accommodation has been found that this, that or the other had not been sorted out. Everyone must get together to address this issue because the money has to be spent on the people in question in any case.

How many people are moving from satellite towns to Dublin to seek support they are unable to obtain from their local authorities? I am aware, for example, that Traveller families are moving from Kildare to Dublin because the capital is the only area where they can link in to emergency services. How will the Department address this issue? The housing organisations in Dublin are under severe pressure as a result of the housing crisis. I do not know how their front-line staff cope with it. Every day, five families become homeless and the homeless charities have to deal with them, which is not sustainable.