Professor Eoin O'Sullivan:

In regard to the number of rough sleepers, the most recent count was over a week in Dublin in November. Some 137 people were numerated in that week. The weekly count is a new methodology: previously, it was a one-night count. Based on the quarterly performance reports from Dublin, approximately 700 people sleep rough over a period of the quarter but the majority are in and out of shelters so it is not that they are exclusively rough sleeping. Despite some of the comments that people do not go into shelters, the vast majority of people who rough sleep also use shelters.

In regard to my concluding comment, it is very clear from the data relating to the number of people who entered emergency accommodation and exited it that the most successful and sustainable route out of homelessness is social housing tenancies. There is no doubt about that. The housing assistance payment, HAP, is very useful in helping to get people out of homelessness. There is no doubt about that but we know also that the private rented sector, because of the legal ability of landlords to terminate tenancies for a number of reasons that are provided for under legislation, is the biggest source of new entries into emergency accommodation. If we are serious about providing secure tenancies, we need to do it through the local authorities and approved housing bodies and utilising existing stock. An excellent report produced two years ago by Professor Michelle Norris and Dr. Aideen Hayden refers to the use of local authority stock and the disincentives that exist for local authorities to make maximum utilisation of stock. Homelessness is not that complex. There are a small number of individuals who have complex needs, but in terms of our response, it is not particularly complex.

We know the answers and we know what works for prevention. We know, from the majority of people who enter homelessness it is the provision of a secure tenancy that will resolve their issues. They do not need a huge amount of support. There is a small group that do need that support and we know Housing First works there. All of the things that we need to end homelessness are there.

On the overall numbers, our numbers are comparatively low. There is no other city like us that I am aware of in Europe even with different methodologies for counting. In England during Covid last March, they had to put 50,000 people into hotels from rough sleeping. This gives an indication of the scale of rough sleeping in England versus our numbers here. We have had the trade-off. We have had a massive increase in the numbers of shelter beds in Dublin but it has had the impact of massively reducing the necessity to sleep rough that we see in other European cities.