Dr. Dermot Kavanagh:

From Cork Simon's perspective, it would have been fairly unheard of to have people in this situation. Work was one of our most effective pathways out of homelessness actually. We have a significant employment, education and training programme for that . We did a snapshot a couple of months ago and we found that there were eight people using our Night Light emergency shelter who were in full-time, taxable employment, which is a very high number out of approximately 70 people per night in the emergency accommodation that we provide. Eight others were engaged in the informal economy, so that is a very different situation compared to a few years back.