Mr. Michael Layde:

On the Senator's specific question about the 2016 target, there is a commitment to achieve that target. The target is that involuntary rough sleeping and long-term homelessness would be eliminated by that year. We are working systematically towards that. Following the report of the oversight group that the Minister appointed, we are working on a detailed implementation plan. As it happens, the high-level group that is overseeing this is meeting this afternoon. It is the intention of the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning to bring this implementation plan to the Government in the coming weeks and seek its endorsement of it.

In parallel with that we are working very closely with local authorities and, crucially, the voluntary sector or the not-for-profit sector, as it is now described, on developing solutions to the problems that exist. They are significant. Even since the report of the oversight group in the latter part of last year there has been an intensification of some of the issues around homelessness, particularly in the Dublin area, and we are working very closely on a real time basis with local authorities, particularly Dublin City Council, on dealing with that.

The implementation plan will be quite precise when it is published in the coming weeks. One of our mandates is to report on a quarterly basis thereafter to the Cabinet committee on social policy. In terms of achieving the milestones towards its implementation, there is a full and whole of Government commitment to this matter because the solutions for homelessness are varied. They are not just within the remit of my Department and we work very closely with other Departments and agencies.

I wish to comment on the broader issue of housing supply. Obviously supply is central to dealing with homelessness as well as addressing housing need more generally. As the Secretary General has said, we will prepare, as a follow on to a finalised construction strategy, a specific strategy for social housing. It will seek to address a range of issues but, crucially, supply is a common issue for social housing space, commercial housing and the availability of suitable property for office purposes and more generally. We intend to have the social strategy, approved by Government in the first instance, published before the end of the year with clear timelines for the actions to be taken thereafter.