Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Fitzpatrick, I acknowledge the enormous work being done by our local authorities and their homeless services, the NGO sector and the day services. I also acknowledge the significant contribution Professor O'Sullivan is making to the evidence base of our conversations on these matters. I also acknowledge two important submissions from other organisations. The Simon Community has given us a good and detailed submission on prevention and actions it believes need to be taken and Focus Ireland has made a submission on the deaths of people experiencing homelessness and how we - agencies, politicians and the media - should all respond to that. I strongly commend those submissions to members.

Dr. Sharon Lambert of University College Cork has an exceptional and timely article in the Irish Examiner today. Novas and a piece of work the organisation is doing, to which my colleague, Deputy Gould, will refer in the second round, is mentioned in that article. I also commend that to people to read.

I will direct my questions to Mr. Kenny and Professor O'Sullivan, and Deputy Gould will direct his questions to Novas and Ms Leahy. I have four specific questions. My first is for both Mr. Kenny and Professor O'Sullivan. Obviously, we are all very concerned by the significant increase in the number of reported deaths of people experiencing homelessness, whether in emergency accommodation or rough sleeping. I am not looking for an explanation of the reasons for that because I know reports by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, and the HSE will look into that, but more what needs to be done now to try to bring that trend down in terms of emergency responses, both from homeless services and the HSE, particularly in terms of addition and mental health supports. Should we be looking at the practice in the UK of holding adult safeguarding reviews and look-backs when people die in services or care to see how the care can be improved in the future for other users.

Specifically on three of the issues that emerged in the "RTÉ Investigates" programme, there seems to be a clear disagreement between the DRHE, as per Mr. Kenny's submission, and the Minister over local connection. What exactly is the situation on the ground? We are still hearing of people outside Dublin presenting in Dublin for emergency accommodation being sent back or turned away. Also, given some of the very distressing phone conversations we were privy to in that documentary, will there be a review of the freephone service? Are the relevant local authority staff getting the adequate trauma support that Novas is piloting in the south west to ensure they cope to the best of their ability with very difficult circumstances?

Specifically on Professor O'Sullivan's last point on housing, are we delivering enough Housing First tenancies annually? The number was below 200 last year. Given that he said we have about 3,000 people in this system, how many do we need on a year-on-year basis? Does Professor O'Sullivan think the emergency measures that have led to the dramatic reduction in homeless numbers should be continued after level 5 so that we keep managing those numbers down?