Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Darragh O'Brien for his questions. His first point related to the response to the report from Focus Ireland. The response of Focus Ireland, in attacking the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive in this way, was disappointing. The DRHE is on the front line, helping thousands of people and doing an incredible amount of work. It works with Focus Ireland, Dublin Simon and the Peter McVerry Trust and together these organisations do excellent work.

This report is a detailed study, although not as detailed as I would like it to be. It is clear that we need to do more work in this area. The report also comes with some robust recommendations and speaks to some truths that we need to speak to regarding people's fears around HAP. We need to be honest about these matters.

It is a welcome report. I am interested in driving the solutions and working together with the committee to do that. That is what we should be focused on. Focus Ireland seemed to have picked a particular line out of the inter-agency group report, which is a different a report, and attacked the DRHE on that basis. There is a misinterpretation of the relevant line in the inter-agency group report and maybe we can come back to that in a further round of questions.

No decision has been made on the recommendation in both reports that we move to quarterly reporting and we will not jump to a decision either. What we have is the kind of detail that we would like to see in a quarterly report and some additional detail.

It is important to note that increased frequency does not mean increased transparency. There is a reason a number of bodies produce quarterly reports. We can better understand trends over one quarter and get more detail and the kind of detail that we do not get in monthly reporting. Monthly reporting gives us different figures, some of which increase, while others decrease, but does not give us the detailed information that we have in this report. We need to reform the pathway accommodation and support system of information known as PASS to obtain more detailed information in it. We will see if it can be upgraded and ascertain what is the best way to publish information that informs us about matters that are helpful in terms of policy formation. The report has told us something helpful about HAP - I am sure we will get into that in more detail - that the monthly reports do not tell us.

On the operation of HAP, roughly 2,270 tenancies have been established through HAP this year alone. That includes the establishment of approximately 900 homeless HAP tenancies. We continue to establish 300 to 350 HAP tenancies a week. HAP is working; it is successful.

There are some problems that need to be fixed and thus help people who get trapped in emergency accommodation or fear going down the HAP route because of either what they have heard or it might not meet some of the needs they feel a permanent home would meet, which I understand. We need to talk about some policy responses that will help fix those issues.

An inter-agency group was established following the September housing summit but I think the Deputy referred to another group called the national homeless consultative committee, NHCC.