Mr. Richard Dillon:

I manage a facility called Brú na bhFiann in Smithfield Dublin. This is a 40-bedroom facility, of which 30 bedrooms are taken up under a homeless initiative with the remaining ten bedrooms used for helping serving members of the Defence Forces, our own members and other organisations which need overnight accommodation because people are in hospitals.

The reason people present to Brú na bhFiann is as a result of the lack of social housing for single people. The rent level in private rented sector is too high and those on pensions or in receipt of payments from the Department of Social Protection simply cannot afford it. Issues such as family breakdown, much of which is due to their military service, addiction and the current Defence Forces policy on retention are also factors. We are the only armed forces in Europe where members who do not reach a certain rank must leave. When people who join the Defence Forces at age 17 or 18 reach 28 or 29 years, they are suddenly out of a job and the Defence Forces do not want to know them and have no backup mechanisms for them. These people have no accommodation and most of them will end up without a job.

Basically, that is why we are dealing with so many people at the moment.