Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. The Short-term Lettings Bill is due to be debated in the Seanad from 6 p.m. onwards and both myself and Senator Boyhan are scheduled to speak on what is important legislation.

I wish to raise the HAP scheme with the Minister because it affects so many people, particularly in rural areas. Unless major changes are made to the HAP scheme, we will end up with more homeless people in rural areas because rents are increasing in all of the areas that have not been designated as rent pressure zones. More and more people are coming to my office who will become homeless shortly. The homelessness crisis is causing many people to fall through the net.

The Department is holding a summit involving all of the local authorities shortly. The Minister needs to sit down with them and stress the importance of joined up thinking. I know of areas where no homeless clinics are held and I know of local authority areas that have no emergency staff available at weekends. What is happening at local authority level? The local authorities are key because they are at the coal face. They are also the source of the Minister's figures. I believe that every local authority should have a homeless clinic but that is not the case at present. I urge the Minister to obtain the relevant information from the local authorities in the coming weeks so that this committee can determine what exactly is happening in each local authority area. The Minister has started to move on quite an amount of legislation, for which he must be given credit. Furthermore, in my own area in Carlow, the local authority is buying houses and the Department is definitely providing funding for the building and purchasing of homes. Progress is being made, albeit slowly. Homelessness is still a major issue but if the funding is provided and the local authorities address the issues involved, it will be sorted.