Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Children and Youth Affairs

Annual Report of Ombudsman for Children 2016: Discussion

1:30 pm

Ms Nuala Ward:

As members may be aware, the Ombudsman for Children's Office published an investigation statement last year on the quality of accommodation experienced by a woman and her children as they were homeless for nearly 20 months.

They were staying in hotel accommodation and described stained mattresses, cramped overcrowded rooms and how they had to move on multiple occasions. We consider this a very serious matter and recommended that the quality assurance standards would be implemented as soon as possible. We also wrote to the Minister recently seeking an update on the matter.

Standards are only good enough if they are implemented, so we believe that there should be a compliance mechanism and sanctions for non-implementation of these standards. They should also be embedded. As the committee knows, a number of NGOs and private providers are providing emergency accommodation. It is, therefore, important in any service level agreement that these standards are met. It is taxpayers' money that is providing this accommodation for very vulnerable families and, at the very least, we should be assured that they are experiencing good quality accommodation.