John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to ask Dr. Una Burns one particular question. One of the areas of concern to the committee is how to prevent people becoming homeless. In her opening statement she made a comment that she might explain a little more. We had representatives of the Department of Social Protection here recently and they indicated commuity welfare officers were supporting uplifts in rent. They gave a figure of maybe 8,000 cases last year and the number will be higher this year. The community welfare officers understood the risk of homelessness and were acting responsibly in terms of requests from people who were finding themselves in this situation. We referred to people paying top-up payments and so on. If I understand the witness correctly, she is saying some community welfare officers are not doing that. Will she explain that a little more? That creates a real risk.