Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

A lot was covered in the replies to Deputy Ó Cuív, such as application forms for the Traveller community and how specific they should be. Do the witnesses have any suggestions as to how they can be made clearer? What would a local authority require? Is legislative change needed to instruct authorities to do that specific work? At the end of the day, if a Traveller family has stated they want Traveller-specific accommodation in their area but a council does not build it, that does not resolve the issue. That is probably the problem.

The Ombudsman's report on Spring Lane stated on the one hand that the local authority said it offered Travellers accommodation and they had refused, while, on the other, the Ombudsman said there were no accurate housing records for the families concerned. No one could say that the Traveller families refused accommodation. The records were not clear or handled properly. That is a specific issue that I would like to get a grasp of. Mr. O'Connor, Ms Hennigan or Ms Molloy can advise the committee regarding local authorities.

Focus Ireland deals specifically with Housing First. Does it have records on how many people from the Traveller community, including individuals, males, females and families, it is dealing with in Housing First? For how long are key workers linked in with Housing First tenants in the process? I have experience of one particular person and I want clarification on how long a key worker links in with people engaged with Housing First, in particular in respect of the Travelling community. How does Focus Ireland link in with other ethnic groups?