Ms Eileen Gleeson:

This week, we had a tragic death on the street. No one should die on the street. People working on the front line and doing outreach knew the man who died.

It is even more upsetting for those people who are trying their best to provide a service. The issues around the number of people who die on the street and what we are doing about it overcame the actual tragedy of what happened. Six people have died on the streets - six people too many - in the Dublin region in the past 16 months, not the 26 or 27 that has been quoted all over the place. The public commentary on it is not helpful for those of us trying to deal with it.

Nobody should die on the street. That is the first and most important point. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive's winter strategy focuses on engaging with long-term rough sleepers and those who are reluctant to engage. Housing First deals, and will deal, effectively with people who do not want to come in, or who have other issues that need supports around them. There is outreach on the streets every night of the week until the small hours of the morning working with people. We hold beds in the system to deal with those people and get them in. It is very complex, as we know, and it would be easier to deal with if it did not become such an emotive issue when something tragic happens because it is so disappointing in the first instance.

We have just completed research around mortality in the homeless population in the Dublin region which we will publish shortly. It covers the period from 2005 to 2015. The committee might ask about the long delay, as we are in 2018, but there is a time lag with post-mortems and getting proper data. The findings of that report are stark. The average age of a male who dies sleeping rough within the homeless population is 44. It is 37 for females. More can be done. We need to do more outreach and we need more step-down facilities so that when people are going through detox or treatment, they can move to a step-down facility to continue their progression.

Deputy Ó Broin asked about the number who left, or the 801 in my report. They left emergency accommodation and 1,332 were prevented. There are two separate tables in that report. In the Dublin region, we report to our strategic policy committee, probably bimonthly at this stage.

HAP is causing additional pressures on the market. How can we avoid it? We cannot for the moment and we would be remiss in doing our job if we tried to avoid it. I go back to what our role is, and it is to provide a response to people who are homeless, or to prevent people from entering emergency accommodation in the first place. We will continue to do that by whatever means we can within the structures that are there. We are probably distorting the private rental market but if we are giving an advantage to a person who is at risk of homelessness, or who is homeless, we are not going to apologise for it.