Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Ms Eileen Gleeson, the director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, came before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government and told us she was doing a study of mortality among rough sleepers. Unfortunately, the study will stop at approximately 2015 so we will not get more recent data. She said there were not enough step-down beds for rough sleepers, for example, particularly people who went through addiction treatment in the city. We also know that while some of the facilities mentioned are state of the art, an individual may have to go through several weeks, months or sometimes years of night to night dormitory-style accommodation before he or she can access those facilities. For people with complex mental health needs or addiction issues, there is not appropriate supported temporary accommodation available straight away.

All I am asking the Minister to do, in particular in light of the study by the DRHE, is to examine this again to ensure, for example, that no one refuses dormitory-style accommodation because they believe it to be unsafe, insecure or inappropriate or because of the lack of available step-down or temporary accommodation, especially accommodation provided for people with mental health issues.

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