Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is not available to take this debate today but has asked me to thank the Members for providing this opportunity to discuss the issue of homelessness and the Government's response to it. Dublin Simon has reported through the national media that 85 people were sleeping rough in Dublin city centre on 3 September 2013. This figure is comparable with the count of rough sleepers conducted in April 2013 and organised by the Dublin region homeless consultative forum, which found that 94 persons were confirmed as sleeping rough on the night in question. These rough sleeper figures indicate the significant challenge in dealing with the complexity of the homelessness issue and the difficulties in finding answers to it.

Rough sleeping is monitored closely countywide, but particularly in Dublin. The problem of rough sleeping is limited outside Dublin, as Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway city councils have reported sufficient bed capacity on a nightly basis and that no one was sleeping rough due to lack of a bed. The Dublin region's outreach team works on an ongoing basis to engage with all individuals sleeping rough with the specific goal of moving people into accommodation through Dublin City Council's central placement service. Dublin City Council commenced a public awareness campaign earlier this week to allow members of the public to contract the outreach team about people sleeping rough with a view to moving people into temporary accommodation and on to independent living.

The priority of the Government, as has been identified by the Deputies opposite, is to ensure that homeless people have access to secure, stable and appropriate accommodation. It is not acceptable that people should sleep on the streets of our cities and towns, and while the immediate hardship of sleeping rough may be solved through emergency accommodation, this is not a viable long-term solution. The recently published homelessness policy statement outlined the Government's aim to end long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. I assure Deputy Ellis that in setting out her ambition to end homelessness by 2016, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, has the full support of the Government in meeting that target. The statement emphasises a housing-led approach, which is about accessing permanent housing as the primary response to all forms of homelessness.

The availability and supply of secure, affordable and adequate housing is essential in ensuring sustainable tenancies and in ending long-term homelessness. While it is clear that a proportion of funding must be used to provide sufficient bed capacity to accommodate those in need of emergency accommodation, it is equally important that resources be channelled to deliver more permanent responses in a more focused and strategic way. In the Dublin region in 2012, 879 people moved from homelessness to independent living. A set of indicators is now being used to demonstrate the dynamics of homelessness as it is addressed across the country. These indicators will give a clearer picture of homelessness in Ireland and, in quantifying its ongoing extent, will support the introduction of realistic and practical solutions. As part of the new arrangements for funding housing authorities in dealing with homelessness in 2013, reports on indicators are being provided to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

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