Mr. Mike Allen:

I will refer to how that came about. That is the Focus Ireland model which we developed as a social impact bond from our experience with the then Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. Around 2012 we thought there was a major problem with family homelessness. At the time in Dublin there were about 160 homeless families, some of whom had been homeless for eight or nine years and been forgotten. We set up this team to work with them. We argued that the children needed this, that it was good practice and that it actually helped to end homelessness. One of the reasons families are unable to sustainably move out of homelessness is the difficulties their children experience. The HSE funded the child support workers in the initial phase. Two years ago, under the Government, Tusla gave us three more child support workers. The team is funded partly by the HSE and partly by Tusla. However, there are now twice as many homeless children as there were at the time of the last increase. The system of child support workers has not been adopted as the model in most of the hubs or by any other local authority. The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive is recruiting a family team for its own staff, but it is entirely concentrated on the needs of adults, which is not just bad for the children. As Ms Lambe said, it is also less effective in tackling homelessness.