John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our guests who are here this morning to help us with our pre-legislative scrutiny.

I wish to take up Ms Wall on the last point she made about eligibility for HAP. To go back to the point made by Senator Fitzpatrick, we are trying to determine the emergency response versus the long-term response. There are discrepancies across the country in how some local authorities view HAP compared with others. In Waterford, for example, which is where I come from, HAP is not considered long-term housing. HAP is considered a short-term housing solution until a person gets a social housing allocation. I understand that is not the case in other areas. If we can come up with a system whereby short-term homeless needs are able to be met and we are looking at this legislation in terms of the longer term social housing needs then what is wrong with that once we are able to do both?