Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

I asked the Minister a couple of questions and he answered none of them. Why is 100% of the funding not being given to homelessness service providers? Why are they put into a bidding war with each other in trying to provide homelessness services for people? Was there any oversight of what was happening? There had to be a €15 million bailout of the Peter McVerry Trust, a trust that was set up to support homeless people. Government policy over the years has been to farm these services out and to do a Pontius Pilate and wash its hands of it. We need funding now. What we should have is funding to 100% and providers given the support they need to provide the services. What changes does the Minister intend to make to ensure this does not happen again? I know he said a report is coming shortly. How many private contractors or suppliers have not been paid by the trust arising from its near collapse? What is the value of these liabilities and what are the Minister and the Department going to do to ensure these liabilities are cleared and paid off?

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