Mr. Tom Gilligan:

We did see an increase in homelessness for 2022. Prior to 2022, we had an average of 100 presentations per annum but that increased in 2022 to approximately 120 at this stage. It is a very complex issue and homelessness is something that can happen to anyone at any particular time. The moratorium on notices to quit is certainly helping at the moment to give people some sort of security even if only for a couple of months. In Mayo we are proactive in dealing with the homelessness issue. We have a homeless HAP placefinder and she is there to work with people to identify rental properties. One of the big issues we have, and we are not dissimilar to other counties, is that when one looks at daft.ietoday there are only 41 properties for rent in Mayo and there is a huge issue in relation to the number of rental properties out there. We see a significant exodus of small landlords and individual accidental landlords from the market, which means that properties for HAP are much more difficult to find.

We also have a tenancy sustainment officer and, as I mentioned earlier, we try to work with someone who might be at risk of homelessness to deal with that individual and mediate as best we can to ensure he or she can remain in his or her home. We have an number of emergency housing units around the county but we are under pressure. We are identifying additional units and working with various agencies to deal with this. It is a challenge but it is a very complex area and we are proactive in this area to try to reduce homelessness because of the number of people are presenting to our offices.