Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response and for the publication of the status of the 20-point plan on the website. I look forward to monitoring that progress. I acknowledge that a commitment has been given on a short-term basis to address the issue of people sleeping rough, and much progress has been made here in Dublin and in the cities in that regard. Has the Minister or his Department conducted any similar negotiation in the regions? Unfortunately, the issue is not confined to the cities, although there has been a crisis in recent times, which, thankfully, has been addressed in the short term. It is incumbent on the Minister and the Department to spread their wings as far as possible in order to address the issue on a regional basis. Even in my own county issues such as this exist, and it is important that non-governmental agencies are given every assistance in working with local authorities to address these issues in a meaningful manner so that they are all singing from the same hymn sheet and working off the same page. Assuming the Minister is amenable to providing such resources to those funding agencies, I ask for an update in that regard.

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