Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Focus Ireland and the researchers. These are two really important reports, which is one of the reasons we agreed to bring the witnesses before the committee today to discuss them. It is not just important to give the witnesses the opportunity to put them on the record, but that after this meeting the committee would write to the Minister specifically requesting him to respond to the recommendations that have been set out in the report because we would like to hear what he has to say. It is very nice to be having an evidence-based discussion on family homelessness, unlike in one of our previous sessions and it is incumbent on us that we listen to the evidence in that respect.

I wish to make a couple of points, primarily to pick up on some of the points Mr. Harvey's made at the end. One of the things that has happened since the research has been done is that some local authorities have now changed their procedures for what happens when a family presents before the notice-to-quit period expires. For example, in South Dublin County Council it now gives families access to homeless HAP rates of payment, probably about two months out from the notice-to-quit date. It would be better if it did it from an earlier period but that is clearly something that should be standardised across all local authorities because it would give people another tool.

The recommendation on self-accommodation is one of the most important elements in the report, given the additional stress it adds to families. I do not mean just in terms of financing if one is low on credit but the huge efforts people have to go to.

It is important to state that last year South Dublin County Council made a change to how it treats housing assistance payment, HAP, tenants, partly because it realised, rightly, that families in emergency accommodation who had been on the housing list for a long term had a disincentive to go into HAP accommodation. What South Dublin County Council has now done is ensured that while one is still put on a HAP transfer list, one still has access to choice-based letting on the same terms as one had prior to opting for HAP. Essentially, it means that while one is not counted in the top line housing list figures one has access to the primary housing list exactly as one would have done previously, which is a very significant change. Again, we have raised it with the Minister to say that should be rolled out across all local authorities because, essentially, it means that one's access to council housing and the period of time one waits does not change by going into HAP. It creates a problem in terms of counting the figures but we can just add the HAP figures to the housing list figures and get over that.

On two strikes and out, where a local authority is using choice-based letting for the majority of its lettings then nobody gets an offer and therefore nobody has to refuse it because one applies for it. Obviously it is different with emergency accommodation. I strongly support the recommendation that has been made. There must be some other way of introducing not an element of choice, because that makes it sound like people are choosing properties willy-nilly, but something that gives the applicant or the family in emergency accommodation some degree of decision-making over it. I have dealt with offers where, for example, families in emergency accommodation who have children with severe special needs were being offered accommodation directly in front of a canal. When I say directly, I mean outside the gate of the house with no barrier. In that case there was a severely autistic 18-year old young man. On the basis of the information alone one can see how it is inappropriate. In that particular instance it took us some months of fighting with the local authority to withdraw the offer but one should not have to fight in that way. The independent appeals process is important.

Have the witnesses had any response from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, the Minister or the Department on the recommendations? The report is important but unless we get a response from them it will not make a difference. I am interested to hear about that. I was at the launch of the report. I genuinely support the recommendations which tally not only with the research but the experience of many of us who are working with lots of families who are presenting as homeless in emergency accommodation. It confirms what we already know, anecdotally, in the constituency office.