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

Before I move on to the two reports, I have to say the Minister's response is deeply unsatisfactory. We are confused because he will not give us the information he has available. One of my concerns about the reports is that we all know that the reluctance to engage with the HAP scheme is an issue. There is nothing new in the reports and there are no data to substantiate them. I am very concerned by the line in the inter-agency report that refers to the withdrawal of emergency accommodation from people on the basis of their difficulties with the HAP scheme. The reports are silent on the solutions to the crucial problems with the HAP scheme. If a family moves to the HAP scheme, the length of time they will have to wait before they get a council house is extended and, in many cases, greatly extended. There is a six-year wait on South Dublin County Council's transfer list. There is a genuine fear of insecurity in the private rental sector. There is a lot of misreporting or misinformation in the media today about people refusing the housing assistance payment, even though that interpretation is not supported by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive report. Ms Eileen Gleeson said this morning that there was a degree of nervousness in that regard. The solution is to do what South Dublin County Council is doing which is not even mentioned in either report. It involves allowing people in receipt of the housing assistance payment to continue to access the mainstream choice-based letting list on the same basis they have done so previously. This ensures they are not disadvantaged in any way by moving to the HAP scheme. I would like to know why this option to solve the problem is not mentioned in either of the reports.

I do not like to be critical of those who produce these reports, but I have a difficulty with the wording used in one section of a recent report which claimed, "It can be assumed that a significant percentage of the Non-EU individuals may not have entitlement to housing support". I do not think that can be assumed. Either there are data to show that non-Irish families do not have an entitlement to a housing needs assessment, or there are not. The idea that it "can be assumed" out a very dangerous signal. Perhaps there are data to back it up. If there are, I would like the Minister to share them with us.

It would be an enormous mistake to move away from the monthly reports. I am one of the few who spend a great deal of time looking at the quarterly reports. They are very good, but the problem is that they receive virtually no media coverage. It takes approximately a day and a half to try to interpret them because they are complex and difficult to understand. The value of the monthly reports - it is different - is that they provide a clear monthly indicator of whether things are getting better or worse, almost like a canary in a coal mine. I understand the reasons for the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive's proposal to move to quarterly reporting. Although I disagree with these reasons, I respect them. If the Minister moves to quarterly reporting, rightly or wrongly, it will give people the impression that he is looking to conceal the month on month fluctuations in the homeless figures at a time when they are potentially getting worse. It would be an enormous mistake to hide them in a much bigger and more turgid quarterly report.