Ms Fiona Barry:

There were two other questions I felt I was able to come back to Deputy O'Sullivan on. One related to the number of families out of homelessness. Unfortunately, I did not bring that with me. However, I can tell her the number of singles, which was 413 in the first quarter of this year in Dublin. The Dublin Region Homelessness Executive compiles a great set of statistics on its website illustrating the trends in and out of homeless services and the tenancies created.

I wish to return to the issue raised about foreign nationals. For me there are a number of issues although I am not an expert on this area. I have colleagues in Crosscare who are much more familiar with this issue but there are a number of aspects to it. First, I wish to highlight the issue of those in direct provision who have achieved refugee status, that is, those who now have status to live in the country. In some ways, we have not counted those individuals, who will require housing, in the numbers for the housing build and allocations going forward. Those individuals are also given a timeframe to access the private rented sector. However, some of those individuals also start accessing homeless services. They have their status and they are entitled to be here. I am not an expert on it, but it is a significant issue in terms of those in direct provision.

Foreign nationals were mentioned. I know I drive my colleagues on the Dublin network demented when I keep coming back to the "ineligible" issue, although I think Mr. David Carroll agrees with me on this one. There is a difference between those who we call eligible for placement - those six-month placements where one can do a full assessment and assess people to exit homelessness - and others. However, the issue of people being eligible for those placements is much broader than whether one is a foreign national.

Therefore, if a person is from Cork and she comes to Dublin, she is not eligible for a long-term placement. Instead, she stays in a one night only system. If we cannot get hold of a person because she is going through that one night only system, she does not then get assessed. She is in the emergency system or potentially sleeping rough but she is not eligible for longer-term placement. That category also includes returning Irish and internal migrants as well as many migrants who potentially cannot establish the fact that they have lived in Dublin. Such people may have sublet or may have been in house-sharing arrangements. They may have worked here for a substantial length, even for many years during the boom, but it may have been work on the black market for cash in hand and therefore they cannot establish their history. Some also have significant language difficulties when it comes to being able to access services.

We have people who are out of status. We have a significant document which I would be more than happy to send through to the committee. It covers all the categories of status and those we deem ineligible for placement. The issues in respect of all the categories are rather different in terms of their pathway out of homelessness. We also have the new communities unit. Again, I am not an expert in answering queries on that work. Perhaps Mr. Carroll might be able to answer more thoroughly but my understanding is that some of those individuals are counted on PASS while some are not. Therefore, we have a cohort of people who are also placed by the new communities unit in private emergency accommodation with no supports on site. That is another category. All the people in that category are probably rather hidden in terms of the extent of the problem.