Mr. David Carroll:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to appear before the committee. Our approach to our work is straightforward. We try to stop people becoming homeless in the first place, support people to get out of homelessness and keep them out of homelessness. We have a number of recommendations relating to the four themes outlined by Mr. Dunne.

The first is ceasing the flow into homelessness and prevention. Our first recommendation relates to housing advice and advocacy. The Government's homelessness policy statement and the implementation plan on the State's response to homelessness state that preventing homelessness has a key role. Therefore, all local authorities should have a statutory obligation to provide information and advice for those threatened with or at risk of homelessness. I will pass over to Ms Fionnuala McLoughlin, who will discuss our second recommendation.