Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, with regard to Alan and Kelly, if the Deputy has been advising them as constituents, I strongly suggest that he ask them to get in touch with the community welfare service in the area. That has been the consistent advice to people in housing difficulties. They should go and talk to the community welfare service, which has complete discretion with regard to the amount of rent that may be paid. At this point, there have been well over 1,000 cases dealt with by the community welfare service. A total of 1,200 cases are in the Dublin local authority areas and 700 to 800 are throughout the rest of the country. I am surprised if the Deputy has been dealing with the case, as I would hope he would advise the couple to contact the community welfare service. In addition, in the six months of this year so far, there have been 6,000 renegotiated or new rent supplement tenancies.

The bulk of these are in Dublin. It is not the best option to go homeless. It is much better to deal with the community welfare service to see if a property can be accessed that suits the needs of the individuals in question. As I stated, we have done this in approximately 6,000 cases so far this year, specifically for people under threat of homelessness for the reasons the Deputy outlined. We have done it specifically in approximately 1,200 cases in the Dublin local authorities.

I met recently with representatives of the Simon Community, Threshold and other housing bodies, all of which agree that the protocol is working well. Therefore, I strongly recommend the protocol to Deputy Murphy and Alan and Kelly as a way of perhaps assisting them. I do not know what Alan and Kelly's precise requirements are but given that Alan has been ill, the couple probably needs specific provision.

On the overall provision for homelessness, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, has provided €55.5 million in Exchequer funding for homeless services managed by housing authorities and overseen by the Department.

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