Ms Niamh Lambe:

I will address some of the specifics. The family home section team in Focus Ireland works with the majority of homeless families in Dublin. Last month we worked with 1,074 children in homelessness. Every one of those is a child who is struggling, who is in trauma and in accommodation. I am struck by Ms Quinn's comment that many of these children are under the age of five. Some of them are born into homelessness. Our child support workers and our team are seeing this week in and week out. I welcome the report from the Ombudsman for Children's Office and the recommendations for more child support workers in hubs. Family hubs are not the ideal, but while children are in hubs, we need to have a better support mechanism in place for them such as child support workers allocated to families. My team has children linked to our services in 24 locations all over Dublin. Only 9% of those children have child support workers. I would suggest an increase in those supports.

On the standards of accommodation, the hubs are not ideal, but while they are in hubs, we are all agreeing to improve that. For the move-on options for families, last year the family homeless action team moved on most families to housing assistance payment, HAP, accommodation. This year it is the same. The majority of move-on options are with HAP. We are all too aware that the private rented sector is not the ideal move-on option for families. There is a good possibility that many families are returning back into homelessness from HAP accommodation.

It is about having better and more long-term sustainable accommodation for families with an increase in social and affordable housing.

I echo what Ms Keatinge said about bringing an end to self-accommodating families. These families are the most traumatised. There are layers of trauma in homeless families. Each night these families do not know where they will stay the next night so they pack their belongings on a nightly basis. They must also tell their children they may be unable to bring them to school in the morning and that they are not sure where they will stay the next night. These families walk the streets by day with nowhere to go. To hear 80 families are self-accommodating is quite stark. We should never forget these figures represent many children and their parents.

Finally, I agree with the stance by Focus Ireland on independent inspections, and that HIQA is best placed to do the work.