Ms Eileen Gleeson:

The Deputy asked what the blockages were. The blockage is the shortage of affordable secure housing. That is at the root of the crisis. The figures for July and August show 236 families entered emergency accommodation in the Dublin region in those two months alone. On average, 98 families a month come into homelessness in the Dublin region and that does not count the single persons who come in. There is no homeless HAP list. People go onto the housing transfer list once they have HAP. The difference between homeless HAP and HAP is that we have placefinders in place in the DRHE and now nationally to address the position of people who are eligible for homeless HAP if they are in emergency accommodation. We have now expanded that to include people with notice to quit to prevent people from ever entering homeless services at all. They get the deposit and two months' rent in advance to give them access to a level playing field in finding rented accommodation in the private market because that is where the supply is. To go back to the Deputy's question, the blockage is a shortage of affordable and secure housing, that is why the crisis continues.