Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his questions. I refer to the points he raised about Tusla. When the Ombudsman for Children released his report, perhaps three months ago, I met him and we talked through the different recommendations in the report. We discussed the need to ensure all necessary care and supports are being put in place, including by agencies that do not report directly to me, of which Tusla is one. We needed to make sure there is a line of sight between the people providing the care and the parent Departments in order that the right procedures and protocols were being followed.

We had a conversation around that. One of the important outcomes of the work we have been doing with the NGOs is the quality standards framework. We had it as a pilot project but it has now been rolled out nationally, which is important.

Regarding private operators, a number of whom I have visited in the last couple of months because I wanted to look into it in more detail, everybody working in the these facilities are Garda vetted and trained in child protection and there is other mandatory training to take place also. We are in continued engagement with the ombudsperosn on things we want to do around standards, inspection, care and safety for people in emergency accommodation.

On institutional care, the Senator is correct. One of the things I remember addressing initially when I came into the Department was where people leave hospital or prison, for example, and do not have a home or accommodation sorted, ensuring arrangements in place. It has been happening between some NGOs and hospitals, for example, on an ad hocbasis, but through the interagency group I established in September of 2017, we are trying to put in place more formal engagements in that regard. Some things are moving well on the health side, for example. There will be some new facilities coming on board and the health side has made a commitment to support these facilities if we support the capital contribution to get them open. Where people might be in long-term institutional care, we must ensure it is the right kind of care and they are not just seen as being in emergency accommodation. They will not be able to maintain an independent tenancy on their own and will need these long-term supports and we must ensure these are in place for them.

On the Place Finders service, it is proving successful. They were new when I came into office. We have offered Place Finders to every local authority. Most importantly in the Dublin area, we recruited 15 new staff members to the Place Finders service who will be starting work in the coming weeks. I spoke to Dublin City Council about that earlier in the week and I am sure they will do much the good work there.

On the question of non-nationals and those who do not have rights, it is important for the public to understand that where outreach teams go out at night to people sleeping rough, they do not ask any questions about people's rights. Their immediate concern is to get them into safe care. I saw that happen quite dramatically at the time of Storm Emma, where many people who were squatting or otherwise were brought into the system. It is then a question of trying to get them through the system in the most effective way possible for them. We had a protocol agreed with the Department of Justice and Equality. That was one of the outcomes of the interagency group, that is, to have a person in the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, to help with these types of issues. There is a protocol now in place for the sharing of information, which is important.

It is also is important to ensure emergency accommodation is emergency accommodation and not a substitute for direct provision or other care and supports needed by people who do not have rights, or are in the process of establishing their rights, or who are fleeing persecution or seeking asylum. It is about getting the right kind of care and support. To be honest, people in the Dublin Region Homeless Executive and other local authorities are not trained in those types of supports. It is important we keep those two things separate, notwithstanding the fact that, immediately, whenever we come across an individual who needs help, he or she gets that help, regardless of his or her status and rights. The most important thing is to treat people with compassion and care.

On social house building and the numbers for the first and second quarters, 2,537 was the increase in the stock of social housing in the first half of this year. Like in other years, the programme ramps up in the third and fourth quarters. That speaks to the question the Senator asked about the financial drawdown so far from the Department in that we always see it, and, from memory, we have never underspent on our capital side. We always get there or thereabouts towards the end of the year. In fact, I had to seek additional funding towards the end of last year because we were doing better than expected in the supports we provided in the course of last year. That is not an option open to me given the financial considerations that we are all aware of and that are on the way because we are planning for no-deal Brexit. We will be spending our budget in full this year and will be delivering the supports that we said we would.