Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses and all their front-line workers who do so much work in this area. Mr. Stanley's call for better recognition of that was heard loud and clear. I am sure there will be pre-budget statements on that. I would be happy to support those calls. Ms Hayes clearly outlined the issue for us here in Dublin with regard to presentations being steady but exits from homelessness decreasing. This means that overall homelessness figures are effectively increasing as a result of that backlog.

The lack of rental properties available right now is perhaps part of that root cause. It highlights to all of us the importance of delivering new homes of all tenures, and delivering them as quickly as possible.

It was great to hear the representatives of all three organisations talk about how positive the tenant in situscheme has been. It is not necessarily new, but it is new this time round, and new at this scale. I would be interested in hearing from all three organisations if they have any feedback on how it could be improved or streamlined. Different local authorities are probably adopting different ways of dealing with it. I do not know if Ms Hayes can give me any indication as to how long things are actually taking in Dublin in different local authorities. She spoke about homes that are underutilised. I am getting a lot of queries from people who are living in homes that are technically overcrowded, but they are living there very happily and feel their needs are satisfied. They are therefore disqualified from the tenant in situ scheme. I wonder if the witnesses can give us any advice on that. I know it is a particularly tricky one, because we do not want people living in overcrowded homes either.

Threshold has called for the Government to be more ambitious and creative. Do the representatives of the organisation have any ideas they would like to put in the mix?

The rehab to home scheme mentioned by Mr. Stanley from Simon Communities Ireland sounds really interesting. It is an issue that comes up again and again for me in South Dublin County Council. I would be really interested to learn a bit more about it. We have nearly five minutes. I ask the witnesses to start with the tenant in situscheme and then to respond to the questions directed to Threshold and Simon.