Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Single people who are homeless in Dún Laoghaire are not allowed to self-accommodate. I do not see why single people should not be allowed to self-accommodate if the alternative is to go into a hostel where there are active drug users. The person might be a recovering drug user. If there is no suitable and appropriate accommodation for a homeless person, whether single or whether he or she has a family, he or she should be allowed to self-accommodate if possible. That is a general comment. In Dún Laoghaire specifically there is a particular unfairness, which is probably the case in any part of the outer reaches of Dublin, where one is told that one cannot self-accommodate even though one can find a hotel or a bed and breakfast, and that one has to go into a hostel in Dublin city centre, specifically the Brú Aimsir hostel on Thomas Street. That is not fair, and it is not right. I would like some explanation for that policy, and I ask that that policy is changed so that people who are homeless and who are from Dún Laoghaire can find emergency or temporary accommodation as near as possible to where they live and to where their family are. If that means self-accommodation, they should be allowed to access that.

Second, why it is the policy that people seeking HAP approval from, for example, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and I assume this is true of Fingal and south Dublin county councils, have to go into Parkgate Street to get such approval? That is crazy. It is bad enough being homeless without being told one has to traipse all the way into Parkgate Street to get homeless HAP approval rather than simply being able to go to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdrown County Council to get such approval.