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

It is, and in fact this is an area in which I would like to see the laws strengthened elsewhere. Right now today, there is nothing to compel a local authority, including by homeless services, as the legislation in the 1988 Act uses the word "may" and not "shall". The only requirement for a local authority is to provide a housing action plan. If we take Traveller accommodation as a good case in point, there is no legal requirement on local authorities to actually provide Traveller accommodation. They have a statutory obligation to produce a Traveller accommodation plan, in the same way as they must have a housing action plan, but the actual delivery of units is not driven statutorily. It is driven through the dialogue and the provision of funding between the Department and the local authority.