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

I thank the Deputy for the question for his interest in this matter. As the Deputy will know, statutory responsibility for the provision of homeless services rests with each individual housing authority. My Department's role in homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and, importantly, the funding to underpin the role of the housing authorities in addressing homelessness at a local level. Thankfully, as I said earlier, we are seeing significant improvements in that area year on year, with a significant reduction in homelessness. It is still a high rate but the trend is good in that regard.

All emergency accommodation, whether provided by local authorities, NGOs, voluntary bodies or privately, are required to comply with standards and these standards are monitored. The national quality standards framework for homeless services is in place nationally for local authority and NGO-delivered services. Local authorities also carry out inspections on facilities that are not covered under the framework. This regime operates in parallel with, and is based on, the national quality standards framework.

The standards and facilities teams in the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, oversee all emergency accommodation in the region and seek to ensure that all relevant guidelines, policies and procedures are complied with in order to deliver a safe and comfortable place for people to stay. The DRHE has an inspection regime in place to deal with complaints and to ensure accommodation is appropriate and safe.

I ask any Deputy who knows of specific instances of breaches or who has concerns to raise them directly with me or the DRHE. Separate to the service standards expected of providers according to service level agreements, all homeless service providers must meet the requirements of statutory codes, in particular the requirements of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and, indeed, the Fire Services Acts.

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