Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Okay. The Department would have had to have provided funding. Homelessness is an escalating problem. I remember the first time I raised the issue of a family sleeping in a car. It was ten years ago. It was 2014 and that kind of thing was unheard of before that. There would have been a cohort of people who would have been rough sleeping who would have had complex issues. It now primarily results from people getting eviction notices, not being able to pay the rent and so on. That is an area that is escalating and chaotic and it is new. It is difficult to forward plan unless the plan is to undo homelessness. Local authorities, in many cases, are partnering with homeless charities or the Dublin Region Homeless Executive has a remit to engage those charities to do the work directly. Is there a conflict of interest with the local authorities in terms of oversight? Does the Charities Regulator have a role in that? As the local authorities are part of the State, does the Charities Regulator anticipate that they do a lot of the regulation?