Ms Niamh Randall:

Prisoners who are homeless or at risk of homelessness are some of the most marginalised of an already marginalised group and as a society, we are failing them time and time again. We see many of these people trapped in our emergency accommodation services all around the country. The number of people in emergency accommodation is at an all time high, almost 7,500 are trapped there. We have included an appendix with our submission to update the committee on figures for housing and homelessness which are really shocking in the context of today's discussion.

The prison system does not support prisoners who are homeless to break the cycle of rough sleeping, time in emergency accommodation, cycling into drug and alcohol services and the prison system. We often see people cycling around that system. We need to break that cycle. Planning is particularly important to ensure this happens. Interagency and interdepartmental support are critical to this. It is not only an issue for the Department of Justice and Equality but for the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the HSE and the Department of Social Protection to provide protection and housing support, such as rent supplement, housing assistance payment, HAP, and a range of measures to support particularly those on low incomes. We are happy to answer any questions the committee might have this morning.