Ms Niamh Randall:

We all will leave here today quoting Professor Lynch on the intersectionality of disadvantage. It rings true for the people experiencing homelessness with whom we work. I will come back to the point Senator Kelleher raised about intersectionality at a departmental level. There is a national homelessness consultative committee. The idea of that is to acknowledge the cross-cutting nature of homelessness and to ensure there are interdepartmental responses. The challenge is that this committee has not been meeting. That means that the opportunity to identify shared barriers and quick solutions is not being allowed. I think some pressure to encourage this committee to meet would be really beneficial.

As Senator Kelleher identified, there are excellent examples across Simon Communities Ireland of supporting people back into education, training and employment. They really work. They really make a difference, and one can really clearly see that education, training and employment is a pathway out of homelessness. It is a way to support people to access secure accommodation, which is really difficult at this point in time with the housing market as it is. It is a way to ensure that people do not return to homelessness in the future. A lot of it is based on excellent links on the ground at a local level, including education and training boards and community employment. Local employers are fantastic at engaging with people and being willing to take what they feel is a big risk in taking people on. It really does make a difference.

It is really difficult at present for organisations like my own and for all the organisations working on responding to the housing and homelessness crisis. We are working in the eye of the storm. We have increasing numbers turning to us every single day. There is a huge amount of pressure. We are working really hard to deliver housing solutions, to identify ways to ensure that there is more emergency capacity and to try to support people. We are also trying to ensure that we are looking at the bigger picture by supporting people out of homelessness into secure housing, training, education and employment. It is important to note that because it is a massive challenge at this point in time with the numbers we are talking about. It is critical to mention how important secure and stable housing is to ensuring people can access education, training and employment. It is very clear that unless someone has a place to call home, he or she does not have stability, security or certainty. There are a lot of people who are stuck in the private rental sector or who are staying with friends or relatives. They are dealing with such uncertainty that they could not even think of taking on an education or training programme until they have much more stability in their lives. One of the key focuses has to be on ensuring that people have access to affordable and secure housing.