Ms Andrea Fitzgerald:

To address the most concrete steps we have taken towards our prevention piece, we have recognised over the past number of years that the number of referrals not only in Galway city but also in County Galway have increased year-on-year. A large part of the income we get through our fundraising efforts goes towards our prevention service. We provide the prevention service in Galway city and county through a specific youth service programme as well. That is the most important concrete step we have taken. We have recognised it and we have seen there is a need for the service across the city and county.

To explain what our prevention service looks like, it can vary from very short pieces of prevention work with an individual to quite medium-term to long-term pieces of prevention. We have also recognised that there is a big difference between rural homelessness and urban homelessness. Our experience in the rural piece is that, yes, there is an awful amount of hidden homelessness, with overcrowding, and those people are reaching out to us because we have a presence in counties Galway, Roscommon and Mayo. The work can vary from assisting people with practical tasks, such as housing applications and flagging them with the local authorities, to much more longer-term work, if the cases are more complex.

I should point out that part of prevention is sometimes not as simple as just finding a home for an individual or a family and making that happen. Sometimes it requires us to stay engaged with that particular household for a period afterwards to ensure they are sustained successfully in their home. As I said, we meet people in a very client-centred way, so each case is different. Each individual has his or her own set of strengths and some individuals come with significant challenges, so we identify that quite early. The most concrete step we have taken in the prevention piece is the investment in and the rolling out of that service across the region.