Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have a crisis when it comes to homelessness and the Taoiseach has spoken about this on a number of occasions. Every time a person dies while rough sleeping I am notified. I am one of the first people to be notified about the circumstances of the death. It is a very difficult phone call to take, I can assure the Deputy of that. This is why I have made a commitment, and we are following through on that commitment, to make sure there will be a bed in place for any person sleeping rough. By the middle of December 200 new emergency beds will be in place so no one will be forced to sleep rough on the streets.

These are not just temporary beds for Christmas. They are permanent emergency beds being put into our stock of emergency beds. On nights when we have difficulties with the weather or other reasons, such as Storm Ophelia, we put in place emergency beds. There are 50 to 60 of these available on any given night. A couple of weeks ago, we launched the cold weather initiative because we were entering the winter season. This has been in effect on a number of nights over recent weeks, and it remains in effect because of the cold snap that is coming and the prediction of snow. In the cold weather initiative, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive works with the voluntary sector and rough sleeper units to try to get people into secure accommodation for the night. We are working on these facilities and opening them up. They are very good facilities with single and double bedrooms and all of the wraparound supports that can be there, and we want to get people from rough sleeping into sheltered accommodation and then get them into more permanent solutions.

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