Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for attending today. The number of 13, 531 people in emergency accommodation is one that haunts us all and I thank the witnesses, their staff and everybody who works in their organisations for the work they do every day to try to prevent homelessness and to help people exit homelessness.

At the outset, I acknowledge the significant progress they have been able to document in respect of last year. It is encouraging to see a significant increase in the number of people exiting homelessness and being prevented from entering homelessness. The 25% increase in preventions is welcome and the 90% in quarter 4 is really encouraging and hopefully that is going to continue through the next year. It is very important that it does.

I have two questions. As all that progress is being completely undermined by the increased presentations, my question to the DRHE is what in its opinion is driving the presentations and what data can it share with us to explain that increase in presentations? I note that 72% of all emergency accommodation is being provided in Dublin. It is largely a Dublin issue . More than 70% of that accommodation is located in Dublin Central. When we did our report in 2021, we specifically called out two actions. First, we wanted a phasing out and an end of private emergency accommodation and second, we sought a reversal of the over-concentration of that emergency accommodation in Dublin Central. As neither action has happened, I would like to know from the Department what actions specifically are being taken to address those two issues.