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

The reports contain various useful bits of information and a number of good recommendations. If the Deputy believes they do not cover everything, that is exactly why we are having this engagement. It is for the same reason I will be having an engagement with the local authorities at the next housing summit.

When there was some talk about non-EU nationals a few months ago, some unhelpful quotes appeared in certain newspapers. The fear is someone might be trapped in emergency accommodation because we have been unable to assess appropriately what his or her status is and whether he or she is in the right type of accommodation. It depends on the person's status, whether he or she is seeking asylum, whether there are other complications in his or her past and how he or she came here. Our first response must always be one of compassion and care. It must involve getting such a person into the system, looking after him or her and giving him or her support immediately. We can then try to find a sustainable path for him or her. That is on what we want to focus as we follow up on the inter-agency report and its recommendations. I have had a number of engagements with the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, on how we will work together to make sure we can do this. This is not just about people who are non-Irish or non-EU nationals. It also relates to protocols for the release of prisoners, etc. If there is a risk people who are coming out of prison might move into homelessness immediately, we need to look at how we can prevent that from happening.

The monthly reporting is not clear. When I receive this form of information in my office every month, I find when I start to ask questions that matters are not clear because the details for which I am looking have not been compiled. The month on month data are not useful in understanding trends or other things - one month we will see one number up and another down. We saw when the miscategorisation issue arose that the numbers were not necessarily the right ones. Some local authorities may have been too hasty in reporting back to the regional executive which then reports to us. We have to be careful what we are reporting is accurate. The Deputy is worried about the impression I might give if we were to move to quarterly reporting. He is concerned I might not want to talk about the numbers. I have no doubt that this is the impression he will want to give.