Mr. Brian Harvey:

The two strikes and out policy is also a problem. It might seem that if a person turns down a first offer they should take the second one. The problem is that the first offer is often not in a place that the person applied for. I can think of a father in one case and a mother in another who said they could not bring their children there because the place was in very bad condition and, more important, it was surrounded by drug pushers, people shooting up and needles. They said they would not attempt to rear their children in those conditions. That is why they said no and took the risk of a second offer. The second offer is normally a lot better. There is a sense among some homeless people that a really bad first offer is being cynically offered so that they will feel under much greater pressure to accept the second offer.

Private accommodation should be furnished but often is not. Local authority accommodation should be furnished but not only is it not furnished but it is often not floored either. The people then have to find money from their own resources, if they still have it, or go to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which generally does provide it. The way in which that is done was one of the strong good points in the report.

The poor treatment in local authority offices needs to be recognised and accepted, not denied. We have suggested dialogue but while local authorities by definition have authority, it strikes me that there is scope for the Minister to issue guidelines to them as to what is a reasonable standard of behaviour and to say there should be an independent appeals system and scanning of the removal of people from the local authority list. Instructions, guidelines or a desiderataof what they should do could issue from the Minister. That should be treated seriously by the local authorities but it would also mean that the advocates and the Focus Ireland case workers could go to local authorities and say that what they are doing is not in line with what the Minister has said should be the normal practice. Yes, there could be a charter of rights provided there is a mechanism to implement it, complain and work through it but the Minister should also say that the standard in respect of the points we have highlighted here in local authorities should be much better.