Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter, which presents a challenge in Irish society. There is significant pressure on homelessness services. Recent figures show that 127 people are sleeping rough and more than 150 families are residing in commercial hotels in the Dublin area. More than 2,500 individuals are using section 10 funded emergency accommodation nationally. On 20 May 2014 the implementation plan on the State’s response to homelessness was published, in which the Government’s approach to delivery on its objective of ending involuntary, long-term homelessness by the end of 2016 was outlined. A copy of the plan is available on my Department’s website. It sets out a range of measures to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation to house homeless households within the next three years and mobilise the necessary supports. This will be in line with the Government’s homelessness policy statement, which emphasises a housing-led approach, accessing permanent housing as a primary response to all forms of homelessness. The availability and supply of secure, affordable and adequate housing is essential in ensuring sustainable tenancies and ending long-term homelessness. The plan is a blueprint for how this challenging ambition will be realised.

Homelessness is a national issue and, properly, the plan reflects this, but there is a concentration of the problem in the Dublin area. For this reason, Dublin City Council, the lead authority for the region, is taking a number of immediate steps to quickly bring the problem under control and begin the process of finding permanent solutions for those affected. These actions are in the context of the national implementation plan and are set out in the Dublin action plan. In June, Dublin City Council launched a public awareness campaign aimed at households in the private rented sector seeking to prevent such households from becoming homeless. The results so far indicate that the campaign has been very positive in that a number of households have been prevented from becoming homeless.

Bringing vacant local authority properties back into productive use as quickly as possible is one of the critical actions in the implementation plan and steps are being taken across the country to bring 1,800 such units into use before the year end. Other suitable vacant residential properties in State ownership are also being considered to be brought into productive use as quickly as possible. Some large sites in Dublin City have been identified by key stakeholders including the OPW, the Department of Defence and the HSE, and they are being considered by Dublin City Council. I share Deputy Kitt’s concerns about Dublin City Council’s proposal to use prefabs. The Department will carefully consider such proposals before any further action is taken.

My Department, the Housing Agency and NAMA continue to work with housing authorities and approved housing bodies towards identifying suitable NAMA housing units and bringing them into social housing use, including accommodation for homeless households. The number of homeless families presenting in the Dublin region has increased significantly in recent months. An average of 32 families are presenting each month. With the volume of new presentations, it is becoming increasingly challenging to provide appropriate and suitable accommodation, particularly in light of significant housing supply issues in the Dublin area.

The Dublin local authorities are statutorily responsible for providing accommodation for homeless persons and, unfortunately, hotel accommodation has had to be used as a form of emergency accommodation so as to avoid the need for families to sleep rough. This is unsustainable. The homelessness policy implementation team, charged with overseeing and monitoring the delivery of actions outlined in the Government’s implementation plan has been considering the matter further and options are being considered to alleviate the immediate problems in the Dublin region. The broader supply of housing will be addressed in the short to medium term by the actions being progressed in the Construction 2020 strategy, as well as the social housing strategy, which will be published shortly.

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