Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

This Topical Issue debate was supposed to take place last Thursday. In the past month, I have been continually in touch with the homeless services checking whether the night café proposed in the Focus talks on 9 December had been implemented. Up to today, the café has been open until 10.30 p.m. and today I heard that, from tomorrow, it will open 24 hours including over the weekend. Although more than 200 dormitory beds have been put in place, which has helped many people to access emergency accommodation in the miserably cold weather we have had over the past week and over Christmas, there are still 55 to 70 rough sleepers on the streets of Dublin alone. I do not have the figures for the rest of the country. The source of these figures is the Simon Community and the Inner City Helping the Homeless voluntary group established by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke. Even if nine dormitories had been available on the night of the tragic death of the Lithuanian man in Temple Bar, 55 to 70 people cannot access them.

I welcome the fact that the café will be open tomorrow night. It will cater for non-nationals because of their many issues regarding language, entitlement and mental health. It will also cater for those who do not want to go into dormitories. What is the Minister of State's opinion on how we can bring in more single-room accommodation for the 55 to 70 people who will not touch the dormitories? While they may use the night café, and I hope they do, to get off the streets, the services must be put in place where there is single-room accommodation where people can feel safe and that they will not be robbed, away from the chaos of the drug and alcohol use which causes many problems in the community. Dr. Austin O'Carroll claims that smaller rooms would draw more people in to emergency accommodation in the city. Will the Government give a regular update to the Dáil on the homeless oversight group the Minister established? Although it is probably discussed in the environment committee, it is important that other Deputies who are trying to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening on our streets be regularly informed about what is happening.

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