Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising these very serious issues. Without doubt, Covid-19 has had a significant impact on a range of services and activities and it has created much hardship and difficulties for many people.

The Deputy mentioned initially the screening programmes. In the first phase of Covid-19 and the first lockdown, screening programmes were not just scaled down but closed down. The emphasis of the winter initiative, but also the increased funding for health in 2021, is designed to resume a broad range of health services, including the resumption of national screening programmes. In particular, CervicalCheck resumed its services in July. It is estimated that all paused screening invitation letters will have been sent by the start of December 2020 and all women due a screening test in 2020 will have been invited by March 2021. Over 162,000 letters have been issued to date. BreastCheck resumed most recently, on 27 October. Approximately, 153,000 screening invitations were paused due to Covid-19. BowelScreen resumed issuing new invitations on a phased basis from 4 August. One hundred and twenty-three thousand invitations had been paused. Up to the end of October, over 39,300 new invitations had been issued with approximately 10,900 sample kits returned to the laboratory. In terms of diabetic retina screen, that service resumed screening on 1 July. Approximately 64,000 screening invitations had been paused due to Covid-19 and over 20,000 people had been screened at the end of October.

In relation to housing, first, we will, of course, conduct an assessment. Each case is different and what is essential here is proper cross-departmental co-operation, particularly in health and housing and the homelessness services, working hand-in-hand during the winter and the winter initiative itself. That is something that we are focused on.

It is very sad and distressing for the loved ones of people who die homeless. Homeless deaths are something we want to prevent and the most essential way to do that is to reduce homelessness. The homelessness figures are still too high but they decreased again in September. They were down 17% year on year.

Progress has been made on the wider homelessness front. Housing First is something we are committed to. It provides homes and the wraparound housing and health supports that are required to sustain a tenancy. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has prioritised addressing the homelessness crisis. He established the high-level homelessness task force in July. I will speak to the Minister about the points the Deputy raised. Particularly in terms of the current period, the cold-weather arrangements are in place now nationally for the winter period. The Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, which has responsibility for over 70% of all homeless persons nationally, activated its cold-weather initiative on Thursday, 29 October. That involves an increase in overall bed capacity, a 24-service and facilities, enhanced rough-sleeper outreach and increased contingency placements for families.

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