Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think the tenant in situscheme is a really good initiative on the part of Dublin City Council, born out of a particular set of circumstances. It was not widely applied across local authorities. I know our own local authority did not pick up on it. The real issue is that it should never have been shut down. It was shut down from 2020. When it was was reopened last April, there was not the urgency behind it that there is now. I am only saying that because if we decide to do anything on the other side of this meeting, the suggestion that the scheme should actually become much more mainstream is a good one. Many of the things that the local authorities, to their great credit, have done since March, including the protocol and the additional flexibility shows that this could continue to be a significant intervention, subject to proper controls of value for money and a reasonable pragmatism in terms of property types, etc. It cannot just be buying everything. There are good reasons why some properties could be bought, but I just want to recommend that.

My first point is for Ms Hayes and Mr. Stanley and his team. I am strongly of a view that the thresholds for Housing First are set too high and the targets are too low. Because it works so well, if we lower the threshold for entry and increase the targets, many of those people who are stuck in emergency accommodation for long periods, but not eligible for Housing First, could be taken out of emergency accommodation. This would be much better for them as well as for the pressure points.

My next question is for Ms Hayes. The Health Research Board, HRB, produced that very important report on premature mortality among people experiencing homelessness. It builds very effectively on work the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, and the HSE commissioned previously. Is there an initial response from the DRHE or is it still assessing the findings of the report? How does it indicate practices can be improved?

My next question is for Threshold. From what we know, there are only a small number of illegal evictions. However, there was the very significant Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, report to the Minister last November that, through the good work of a number of journalists, including those at the Dublin Inquireris now publicly available. I invite the witnesses to comment on that piece of research.

I also ask the witnesses to comment briefly on the relevant findings of Threshold's recent research report with Alone to the conversation we having today, so not specifically on that wider issue of ageing and older people in the private rental sector but specifically in terms of homelessness.

My final question relates to the Cathaoirleach's policy solutions. We are still scrambling around trying to cope with the increased pressure. Is there not a compelling case, in addition to taking the kinds of measures that people are outlining here, for Government to reconsider the ban on no-fault evictions, even on a temporary basis? I will not ask the Cathaoirleach to answer that policy question for Government but I will ask Simon and Threshold.