Ms Oonagh Buckley:

I do not have a figure for the average time spent in emergency accommodatioin. We try to move people through the system as quickly as possible and into a direct provision centre. There are individuals who have been in emergency accommodation for upwards of nine months, which is very unfortunate. Part of our issue is we have approximately 730 people who have the right to remain in direct provision centres. We are working intensively with a number of NGOs and the County and City Management Association, CCMA, to try to move those residents into mainstream housing. In effect, if we could solve the over-stairs problem, we would not need emergency accommodation. An important part of our structures is moving people out of direct provision centres into mainstream accommodation in order that we can, as best we can, cease our use of emergency accommodation.