Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I also raised at that time the fact that homeless people who were not from Dublin and who were presenting to homeless facilities were being turned away and told to go back to their own counties. This was despite the fact that another arm of the State was telling them not to travel because of the Covid-19 restrictions. Months after I raised that issue, the Minister appeared on the "RTÉ Investigates" programme and he seemed to be shocked by what had been uncovered, even though I had brought details in that regard to the floor of the House previously. The truth is that what I am referring to here has happened again since. Five instances have been reported to me of people who are homeless in Dublin being told that as they are not from the county and cannot not avail of the relevant services. The Minister stated earlier that it is up to particular Deputies to make this information known to him. However, the has responsibility in this area.

There is an organisation, Inner City Helping Homeless, which is on the front line night after night. It has made requests to appear before the committee in Leinster House. Opposition Deputies on that committee have requested that it be facilitated in this regard. I understand, however, that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party Deputies have refused to allow Inner City Helping Homeless to appear before the committee and bring to people's attention the information it possesses.

I also tabled a parliamentary question to the Minister on the number of people from the other 25 counties in the State who died in homelessness in the past year. In his reply, the Minister stated that he did not know and that figures in this regard do not exist. Pleading ignorance in respect of an issue of this importance is not a reasonable response. How can we tackle a situation if the Minister is unaware of the scale of it? What is the situation with regard to homeless deaths in Limerick and in the other 24 counties outside Dublin? Why is information in this regard not collected?

The other question I asked the Minister previously is when are we going to have the standardisation of services for homelessness within the State? There is a great variation as to the provision of services for homeless people. That is one of the reasons many people sleep in tents and on the streets, night after night. Can the Minister answer those two questions, please?

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