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

No one wants to categorise people within this. All I am saying is that I used the example of that gentleman and there are others, who are people who were accessing homeless services and counted in these terrible figures and shocking statistics. That is just to simply state a fact. I chair the north Dublin regional drugs and alcohol task force and I am aware of the need to increase funding. I see the work that is done through Housing First. Up to the end of September, 459 individuals were housed through Housing First and we have committed as a Government and have secured additional funding for budget 2021 to expand Housing First further. We discussed this at the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage when I attended last week. That is something that we need to do and to also ensure that the mental health and addiction ancillary services are in place. Housing First is an excellent approach. We need to continue to expand that further and that is what we are going to do.

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