Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 October 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 10 - Funding and Oversight of Approved Housing Bodies
Vote 34 - Housing, Planning and Local Government
2017 Financial Statements - Housing Agency

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We asked for information earlier in the meeting on the numbers who exited homelessness last year.

I ask people to bear with me. I should not be trying to come up with this figure. The fact that this figure has not been recorded by anyone in the Department to date is awful. Mr. McCarthy mentioned earlier that 4,729 adults exited homelessness in 2017. He also said that 2,332 adults exited homelessness up to the end of June of this year. The document provided to the committee during the break refers to 3,079 adults exiting homelessness in 2016, 2,322 exiting in 2015 and 2,161 exiting in 2014.

That adds up to 14,623 adults who have exited homelessness since 2014. That figure excludes children. In the circumstances, I am going to add on another 5,000 for the children who exited homelessness. Shame on the Department that it did not count them. I cannot believe it does not count the children exiting homelessness. So 14,000 adults and approximately 5,000 children exited homelessness during that period and the officials tell me there are 9,800 people still homeless, which includes adults and children. That is over 28,000 people who have been declared homeless since 2014. I want to put that figure on the public record.

We all hear about the figures hovering around 9,000 or 10,000 but every year there are thousands going out of the system and thousands more coming in. Effectively, 20,000 people have been homeless at some point in the past four years. They were declared homeless and were accommodated in various centres and hotels. They are no longer there, thank God, but there are still another 10,000 or 9,800 there. The figure for those who have presented as homeless, adults and children, since 2014, at a minimum and based on what the officials are telling us, is over 28,000. That is a figure I have never seen or heard before and I am only putting it together on the basis of the information we have been given. Do our guests follow how I have arrived at that number? There were 14,000 adults and I am adding on a third again to account for children, making almost 20,000. There are nearly 10,000 still there, which means that over 28,000 people have been declared homeless since 2014. I want the public to understand that.

We talk about homelessness figures and hear that only 10,000 people are homeless and that the problem is not really getting worse. Almost 30,000 people have been declared homeless since 2014. I can understand why the Department is not getting on top of the problem if it does not even count all of those affected. I do not want to be dramatic but, as a public representative, I find this hurtful. After all this and after we have trusted the Department to deal with homelessness, the officials now tell us they do not even count the homeless children who are going into hotels, hubs and places of that nature. I have made my point and I ask the officials to reflect on it.

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