Ms Fiona Barry:

The questions to me on Brú Aimsir are the easiest and I might be able to assist the others with their answers. Brú Aimsir opened as a cold weather facility for a definite time period and was due to end at the end of March, as would usually be the case for cold weather facilities. This relates to the point on whether accommodation for a night is a human right all year round or just for a few months in the winter. The Digital Hub Development Agency and the businesses within the Digital Hub have been phenomenally supportive of the service at every point along the way from day one. In some of the media, they have received negative attention.

Since the facility opened in November, we have moved nearly 200 individuals who would have been sleeping rough and in the one-night-only system to more secure, stable accommodation.

In other words, they have been moved through the chaotic rough sleeping stage to longer term placements, be that supported temporary accommodation, temporary emergency accommodation or tenancies of their own. Throughput at the facility has been phenomenal. While there are currently 43 people on-site, we expect to be as successful moving them through the system, following which, one by one, the beds concerned will be closed and the lease will expire. We have done what we were asked to do in terms of our contract, which was to move as many people as possible through the system, and the Digital Hub has done what it was asked to do in terms of the provision of the facility. However, we are now in a situation whereby the housing that was supposed to be provided has not materialised.

The private rented sector is not accessible to people in homeless services and there are many blocks to those individuals accessing local authority housing, which does not exist anyway. As pointed out, the flood of people into homeless services has been so dramatic that up to the point when we started the orderly wind-down of the facility we were operating at capacity, such that it was agreed that beds would only be closed as people moved through the system. In other words, rather than closing the facility on 25 or 26 March to 101 people, we agreed that a bed would be closed only when an occupant has been moved to a longer term placement. In terms of placement this week, as the central placement service was unable to continue to place people on a one-night only basis, we took in the people on rolling placements, with whom we will work to move them out of the system. Those 43 people remain in the unit. From a personal perspective, it is difficult for the Crosscare staff team to be in a building in which beds are empty while there are people sleeping outside in sleeping bags because they cannot access beds.

In regard to the facility, I understand it is a State-owned building which forms part of the property portfolio of the Department of Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources and that for the facility to remain operational the agreement of that Department would be required. That is not what we want. Although the facility is a converted warehouse, those who have seen it will be know that it is of a high standard. The people who came to stay at the facility yesterday told us they feel safe there and it is where they want to be. In comparison with sleeping rough, the facility is of a very high quality. In regard to Deputy Ó Broin's question, that is what needs to happen, but Brú Aimsir is only the tip of the iceberg. What we need is increased emergency accommodation while we are resourcing a housing scheme. Until that happens, we will have to invest in additional emergency accommodation for single people, couples and families. Otherwise, the number of rough sleepers coming into the system will continue to spiral. What we need is additional emergency facilities that are adequately resourced.