Ms Fiona Barry:

I would love to be sitting here thinking we did not need emergency accommodation. Previous speakers have done a great job of bringing it back to the people we serve and provide services for. I would like to thank the committee for their support of Brú Aimsir and of emergency accommodation on behalf of the residents of that service, those who are sleeping rough tonight and the 58 people who could have been in those beds last night and tonight. I really appreciate the support on their behalf.

I am not sure it is Dublin City Council that the committee needs to pursue to intervene at this stage. My understanding is that it is probably a conversation that needs to happen between the two Ministers at this point. I particularly appreciate Deputy Catherine Byrne's support, given that we are in her constituency. I am delighted that she has not been ringing me for any other reasons because the support and feedback we have received from her local community have been second to none.

There was a question about the links with Merchant's Quay and the medical facilities there. The experience is that people tend to move around services, but it is a particular niche group that attends Merchant's Quay. Obviously, many people do not have addiction issues and do not want to access services there. We have also seen a massive increase in people accessing our services in wheelchairs. That provides a real difficulty in terms of access to services.

We need to provide medical services on site. Sometimes people cannot leave their room or leave the facility to access medical services due to their mental health. We have great support from Safetynet for Brú Aimsir and our other emergency facilities through the provision of medical facilities on site. Unfortunately, what it can provide is very limited. As a matter of priority, I ask that the HSE hospital discharge policy be implemented as soon as possible, because we need to stop people from being discharged into homeless services.

I want to return to the issue of vacant properties. From a personal perspective, last year I had the unfortunate task of applying for the fair deal scheme on behalf of my mother, who has since passed away.

There is an absolute disincentive within the fair deal scheme to rent out a property. If my mother was in a nursing home the property would have been vacant to this day. We need to look at the question of a disincentive under the fair deal scheme to rent out vacant properties when people are in nursing homes. A lot of properties in this category are probably vacant.

A group of residents, known to our services, made their own submission to the committee yesterday. They are very anxious for their voices to be heard and they would relish the opportunity to come before the committee. I am sure other organisations have also made submissions.