Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 3 October 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Housing (Homeless Families) Bill 2017: Discussion

9:30 am

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

I acknowledge the significant volume of work carried out by Ms Hurley, Mr. Kelly and their team, as well as by local authorities.

It is important to say the criticisms we may have of the Government are political criticisms of policy, not of hard-working individual public servants. I have some factual questions as Ms Hurley is not here to give her personal opinion but the information we require.

There appears to be some confusion in the public arena about the number of exits from homelessness in the last year, of people who were in emergency accommodation but who have been assisted out of it. Will Mr. Hurley give us the most up-to-date figure for such exits, separate from preventions? Perhaps she might have figures for preventions, for people accessing the homeless HAP before their notice to quit date is up or not. That would be helpful because I heard some Government spokespeople - I presume mistakenly - adding the two figures together. It would be good to know the numbers of exits and preventions.

One of the fears some of us have is that while it is right and proper to improve the quality of emergency accommodation for families and children, there is not enough of a focus on prevention, of the difficulties we are having with the rental accommodation scheme in Dublin, where hundreds of RAS leases are coming to an end because the landlords are having difficulty with the scheme, or the continuing problem presented by vacant possession notices to quit that are pushing families into homelessness. Is the Minister or the Department considering other actions to ensure prevention? While it is right and proper to have more and better quality emergency accommodation, it would be even better if we could try to prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place.

Is the Department tracking the length of time families with children are spending in emergency accommodation from the moment they present to when they exit? If so, can we be given data? Is Ms Hurley aware of the difficulties members of the committee have raised about the acute problem larger families face in accessing emergency accommodation and, when they get into such accommodation, exiting it owing to the lack of larger four-bedroom properties in the rental market or council stock?

On the issue of supports for families with children outside school hours, has the Department raised it with Tusla? If not, is it something it could raise with it? It appears to be punitive that one receives a support during school time but not outside it. It would be valuable to raise the issue.

Has the Department examined or considered the statutory time limits in place in other jurisdictions for the length of time families spend in emergency accommodation, Scotland being one? In addition, important legislation was enacted in England and Wales earlier this year which places a statutory obligation on local authorities to put a prevention plan in place 48 days prior to a family becoming homeless. Is this something the Department has considered and, if so, does Ms Hurley have a view on it?

With regard to seeking accommodation in Garda stations, it would be helpful to have clarity on the facts. In her presentation Deputy Jan O'Sullivan outlined the information as we understood it. What is confusing some among the public is whether there is a protocol in place for the referral of families to Garda stations if there is no emergency accommodation available by a certain time. Is it a departmental protocol, a DRHE protocol or a protocol developed by the voluntary sector? In its absence, what is the Department's view of such a protocol? Is Ms Hurley satisfied that after the spike in the number of referrals to Garda stations, there are sufficient contingency beds available to prevent it from happening? Have there been other referrals to Garda stations since the spike in August? Any other information Ms Hurley could give us would be very helpful.

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