Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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This Topical Issue debate was supposed to take place last Thursday. In the past month, I have been continually in touch with the homeless services checking whether the night café proposed in the Focus talks on 9 December had been implemented. Up to today, the café has been open until 10.30 p.m. and today I heard that, from tomorrow, it will open 24 hours including over the weekend. Although more than 200 dormitory beds have been put in place, which has helped many people to access emergency accommodation in the miserably cold weather we have had over the past week and over Christmas, there are still 55 to 70 rough sleepers on the streets of Dublin alone. I do not have the figures for the rest of the country. The source of these figures is the Simon Community and the Inner City Helping the Homeless voluntary group established by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke. Even if nine dormitories had been available on the night of the tragic death of the Lithuanian man in Temple Bar, 55 to 70 people cannot access them.

I welcome the fact that the café will be open tomorrow night. It will cater for non-nationals because of their many issues regarding language, entitlement and mental health. It will also cater for those who do not want to go into dormitories. What is the Minister of State's opinion on how we can bring in more single-room accommodation for the 55 to 70 people who will not touch the dormitories? While they may use the night café, and I hope they do, to get off the streets, the services must be put in place where there is single-room accommodation where people can feel safe and that they will not be robbed, away from the chaos of the drug and alcohol use which causes many problems in the community. Dr. Austin O'Carroll claims that smaller rooms would draw more people in to emergency accommodation in the city. Will the Government give a regular update to the Dáil on the homeless oversight group the Minister established? Although it is probably discussed in the environment committee, it is important that other Deputies who are trying to keep a finger on the pulse of what is happening on our streets be regularly informed about what is happening.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Joan Collins for providing me with the opportunity, on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Kelly, to update the House on actions being taken to address homelessness, including the night café in Dublin. At yesterday's meeting of the Cabinet committee on social policy and public service reform, the committee considered the progress on implementing the action plan to address homelessness.

The Minister, Deputy Kelly, spoke about this plan and its development in this House on 10 and 16 December last. A copy of this action plan and yesterday's progress report is available on my Department's website.

The action plan, which committed to more than €20 million in expenditure, includes the immediate provision of additional emergency beds for people sleeping rough in Dublin, the provision of a night café to provide a contact point for homeless people who do not wish to be placed in emergency accommodation and the provision of transport with support services to bring people who are sleeping rough to emergency accommodation. A total of 271 new homeless beds were put in place in the Dublin region before Christmas in order that accommodation would be available for all those sleeping rough and that no one would need to sleep rough unless he or she chose to so do. The number and availability of emergency beds is being monitored closely with Dublin City Council and further beds will be provided should the need arise.

Not all homeless individuals wish to stay in the emergency accommodation that now is available for them. The establishment of a night café was considered to be an essential contact point for those who do not wish to be placed in emergency accommodation in order that they can be provided with food, a rest area and showering facilities. This service will provide the food, rest area and showers as needed. At full capacity, this facility will accommodate 50 people and will operate throughout the night seven days a week. As the Deputy has stated, the night café service has already opened, having started its initial operation on 15 December, with services available up to 10.30 p.m. Arrangements are being made at present to have it fully operational through the night. A recruitment process has now concluded and it is expected that the staff will be in place to ensure the night café service can operate efficiently and effectively, as outlined by the Deputy. The night café will link in with the new transport and support services, which have been operational since early December 2014 for those sleeping rough, as an integral part of the Housing First service. This initiative transports homeless persons to emergency accommodation and provides them with the necessary health and care supports in conjunction with other State providers. When a homeless person does not wish to be placed in such accommodation, the Housing First intake street team will refer the person to the night café in order that he or she will not feel obliged to sleep rough on the streets. I assure the Deputy and Members that addressing homelessness will remain a priority for the Government. It can and will continue to engage on and regularly discuss this important issue.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The written reply provided to Members states: "Arrangements are currently being made to have it fully operational through the night by the end of this month." I happen to have been in contact with the Merchants Quay Project today and its staff told me it would be open tomorrow night all night, which is a huge step forward. A total of 44 days have elapsed since 9 December, when it was proposed to establish the night café, and perhaps an opportunity was lost to move faster in this regard. Perhaps the recruitment process was slower than expected, because the staff must be well trained. Obviously, they must also be given a decent wage to work such night shifts.

The key point in this regard is that there are still 55 to 70 homeless people sleeping rough on the streets. Even were the night café to take in 50 - perhaps there is an over-capacity of nine to ten beds per night in the additional beds that were provided - this is the area on which Members and the homeless services must focus, namely, the question of how to work with those 70 people and possibly get them either into long-term accommodation or into an area in which they feel safe. I again ask the Minister of State whether the issue of setting up single-room accommodation has been raised in respect of some of these people. I refer to those who will not go into the dormitories and may not go to the night café either, although I hope they do and that the transport bus will bring people to the night café. However, this will be important. I am aware from talking to homeless people that they will not touch the dormitories because of their sometimes chaotic nature and because of the conflicts in respect of drug use, drink and so on, which can create quite a violent situation. I note that Dr. O'Carroll and Peter McVerry have stated that consideration must be given, even in the short term, to setting up short-term private rooms into which people can go.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I can confirm to the Deputy that it was important to engage in the recruitment process and that qualified and competent people were found to run the service to give the essential supports required for the homeless people. However, I am glad to state that, as the Deputy has outlined, this process now has been completed and the night café will be open 24 hours a day, which is important for these people. As for the beds that were provided before Christmas, I acknowledge the input of NGOs and the various stakeholders that work in this area. Additional emergency beds have been provided and, to be fair, this issue has received the highest priority across the Government, involving all Departments, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and myself. In conjunction with the NGOs the Government has provided those additional beds, and if more beds are required the Government certainly will address that as well and has committed to so doing. I also wish to note that homelessness is not just a Government issue, although it is most acute in the Dublin region. One must be conscious that other cities, such as Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway, also have homelessness issues, and arrangements are in place to provide additional emergency accommodation in order that no one is obliged to sleep rough in those cities either.

It is acknowledged that the provision of emergency accommodation is not a viable long-term solution to homelessness, and I acknowledge this point on the floor of the Chamber. This is why the efforts of the Government and of everyone must be focused on ensuring that long-term sustainable accommodation with appropriate supports is provided for those in emergency accommodation, as articulated in the Government's homelessness policy statement. The Government acknowledges that a person who is homeless also has many complex social and health needs, and it is not as simple as merely providing a bed. Social supports and the health supports also must be provided in parallel with that.

Essentially, the long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes. Last December, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, launched the Government's social housing strategy. This six-year strategy sets out to provide 35,000 new social housing units at a cost of €3.8 billion, which is a strong commitment by the Government to address long-term solutions to this extremely difficult issue for society.