Dr. Austin O'Carroll:

STA is funded by voluntary agencies such as Depaul Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust, the Simon Communities and Crosscare. The private emergency accommodation, PEA, agencies are the private funders. The death rate in the STAs was actually higher than in PEAs, but that was to be expected because the DRHE knows that people in STA have higher medical and social supports so it tends to put people who are more unwell into those agencies. Therefore, that explains why there is a higher death rate. However, the death rate between PEAs and STAs is narrowing, and also the number of people in PEAs is becoming closer to the number of people in STAs. Traditionally, more people were in STAs than in PEAs, but that gap is narrowing and the mortality rate is also narrowing. We definitely need to look at how to address issues such as access to healthcare in PEAs and to social supports in them. Does that answer the question?