Mr. Rónán Hession:

Food banks and so on were mentioned. We also have the Fund for European Aid to the most Deprived, FEAD, which is a European-funded programme that happens across all European countries. It provides that sort of funding to food banks. We deal with local groups all around the country where they have allocations. As far as I am aware, there is no excess demand in that way. We have enough resources and it is quite well funded through European programmes but if there are particular issues in Galway that the Deputy wants us to look into, I ask him to let us know. I am not sure if the group the Deputy is talking about is part of that programme. Sometimes there are community-based programmes and others that are networked through us. I would certainly be happy to follow up.

To add to the Deputy's earlier point on people with addiction issues, as Mr. Egan said, we do not really have information on how people spend the money but - and I also say this with regard to child homelessness - the statistics can only capture so much. It is a bit like getting your blood pressure checked. It is an indicator of something but it is not everything you need to check. Our community welfare officers and teams around the country are often dealing with people who, unfortunately, for whatever reasons, have chaotic lives and a lot of issues where you have multiple agencies in place. At local level, we do engage, whether it is with the HSE or other local groups, to try to support those families but often it involves different agencies working together. We also have the homelessness agency in Dublin.