Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his question. He is correct that day services are crucial. My Department's role is to provide a framework of policy, legislation and funding to support housing authorities to address homelessness locally. To that end, I secured a further €60 million in a Supplementary Estimate for additional Covid-19 measures just the week before last, bringing the total funding for homeless services to €256 million. The Government was not found wanting in taking on the challenge of Covid to protect our most vulnerable - our homeless community.

Local decisions on sourcing, operating and funding homeless accommodation and related services are a matter for local authorities. My Department does not fund homeless services directly but contributes towards overall costs incurred by housing authorities in their provision. Under the funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services and may also incur additional expenditure. The precise amounts spent by housing authorities on homeless services, including day services, are, therefore, a matter for the individual housing authorities.

The DRHE provides a shared service of behalf of the four local authorities in the Dublin region. Some €121 million was provided in Exchequer funding to the Dublin region in 2019, with €160 million recouped to date in 2020. Certified end of year financial reports for 2019, broken down by region, are available on my Department's website and I will provide them for the Deputy. These reports include a breakdown of expenditure in each region, including day services. The DRHE financial report shows that €5.1 million in expenditure was incurred on day services in 2019. It estimates the total cost for provision of day services in 2020 will be in the region of €3.4 million, with expenditure incurred, to the end of the third quarter, of €2.8 million. End of year certified financial reports for 2020 will be published in January or February 2021.

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