Ms Mary Heavey:

This issue arises frequently in our work. It is also the experience of other independent law centres, like the Mercy Law Resource Centre and FLAC. By way of example, we were working with a family of five, two adults and three children, just last year. The three children were born in Ireland and the two parents were citizens of another EU member state. They had a legal entitlement to be here and a legal right to reside, but their right to reside was not one set out in the circular we keep mentioning. It excludes several categories of people who do have the right to reside in this country, and this family fell into this category.

The reason this came to our desk is that this family presented to the local authority as homeless. They were told they would not be accepted as homeless until they had applied for social housing support. This again just shows a conflation of the two systems and how the circular itself has been preventing access to basic, vital services. This family were effectively roofless. We intervened and issued pre-litigation correspondence to the local authority and the Minister. As soon as we issued that correspondence, the matter was resolved and our clients were accepted onto the housing list. It frequently arises that we must issue such pre-litigation letters, and as soon as we do so, the matters are settled. I suppose this shows the sentiment and perhaps the knowledge in local authorities that this is an unlawful practice. This is just one example, though, of many similar cases we see coming into our clinics. Ms Wall will take the second part of the question.