Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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2. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the action he will take prior to publishing his action plan for housing to deal with the rising level of family homelessness, given the dramatic rise of 86% in the past 12 months, that 2,177 children are homeless, that an increasing number of families are being forced to self-accommodate and that local authorities are turning away an increasing number of families who are seeking emergency accommodation. [18770/16]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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As the Minister knows, the number of families presenting as homeless continues to increase. The lack of emergency accommodation, particularly for families with children, means two acute problems are being experienced. The first is that a large number of families are being asked to self-accommodate, that is, to leave the homeless sections of the local authorities and to ring around to try to find hotel accommodation for themselves. We are also finding a significant number of families with children being turned away from the local authorities, having not been deemed eligible for housing, even though they are eligible. What emergency measures will the Minister introduce before his housing action plan commences to address this growing crisis?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We have already spoken about this issue a number of times and we will continue to do so. There is no silver bullet, as the Deputy knows. Many of the actions that will be announced in the housing action plan are under way. Key measures already implemented or under way include the programme of rapid delivery housing, whereby 500 units are to be provided in Dublin to accommodate homeless households currently in hotels. There has been a significant increase in homeless funding for 2016. As the Deputy knows, there was an intervention in regard to Brú Aimsir, which is a very important emergency hostel in the city, to keep it open when it was due to close. The Department of Social Protection’s tenancy sustainment measure has benefited 9,000 people who are on rent supplement but need extra assistance, which they are receiving. An extensive public awareness campaign is being implemented by housing authorities, the Department of Social Protection and the Residential Tenancies Board. We have made huge progress in returning void social housing units to use, with more than 5,000 units being returned to use in 2014 and 2015 and with further provision having been made to do more in 2016. Yesterday, we announced significant increases in the limits for rent supplement and housing assistance payment, which in a full year will cost approximately €55 million. I believe this was welcomed by the majority of stakeholders. Some people want more, of course, but it is a significant funding commitment.

I have just come from Dominick Street, where a €29 million regeneration project was committed to this morning that will provide 76 new units. Some of these units will house people currently living across the road from the site, but this will certainly free up more housing units.

The core issue is supply. It is going to take time to address the supply deficit that clearly exists around social housing availability. In the meantime, we have a responsibility to try to manage what are emergency cases of homelessness in a more effective way than has been the case.

We are trying to do this working with local authorities and many of the stakeholders involved.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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While many of these measures are welcome, and Sinn Féin has welcomed them publicly, none of them address the specific question I put to the Minister. We have a situation right now in the city of Dublin that when a family including children presents as homeless there is not enough emergency accommodation and these people are sent away to telephone hotels to try to find emergency accommodation for themselves. These are low income families under a huge amount of stress, who often have no telephone credit, and they are pushed out of the system.

We also have a situation where growing numbers of young families with children are being turned away by the local authority and deemed ineligible for emergency accommodation. This is not through the fault of the local authority but because there is not enough emergency accommodation in the system. Focus Ireland's intake team did some research. In April, 35 families were turned away by local authorities in the city of Dublin, and more than half of these were subsequently deemed to have an urgent need for emergency accommodation. Last Tuesday, ten families were turned by local authorities and some of them were not accommodated until 12.30 a.m. or 1.30 a.m., including a young mother with a four month old child.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Deputy Ó Broin.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What will the Minister do before the action plan is implemented to ensure families are not left sleeping on the streets?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Many organisations are combining to try to provide better outcome for families in very vulnerable situations. The primary responsibility, of course, is with local authorities to be able to put systems in place that can respond quickly to people's needs. It is true to say, particularly in a peak tourism season such as now, there is pressure to find hotel accommodation for the many families temporarily there, in unsuitable but temporary emergency accommodation. The numbers in the past month have reduced very slightly but they are still dramatically increased on where they were this time last year and I accept this. It is up to us, by which I mean the Government and the Department, working with local authorities to look at ways in which we can, in the short term, put in place more emergency accommodation that may be more suitable than hotel accommodation. We are looking at options in this regard.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Minister.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Deputy that funding will not be an impediment to this.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you, Minister.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I will finish on this.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am afraid we must abide by the clock.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We will launch our housing strategy in approximately three weeks, so it is not as if people will have to wait for very long to see the strategies we will adopt.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I am not trying to be awkward, but if we do not abide by the time schedule set out we will not reach several of the questions other Deputies have tabled.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I emphasise that in April, 35 families were turned away by local authorities. The number of families in May was 55, and more than half of these were subsequently deemed to have a need for emergency accommodation. I understand and welcome the fact the housing action plan will be published early, and I hope we will have time to debate it in the House and in the new Oireachtas committee, but tonight, tomorrow and the day after families will be presenting for whom either no emergency accommodation will be available or whom the local authority will be forced to turn away. Are there additional measures which can be taken now to ensure that whether it is ten, 20 or 50 families who present between now and when the action plan is published, they will not be left out on the streets until the early hours of the morning or left to sleep rough because of the lack of emergency accommodation available in the city?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The response this evening to this type of pressure will be to find more bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation, which is exactly what Dublin City Council and other local authorities have been doing. Everybody knows this is not a medium-term solution for families. It is a short-term solution while more sustainable solutions are found. It is important to say that so far this year in Dublin, almost 500 families have been rehomed in permanent sustainable accommodation, and it is predicted that by the end of the year this figure will be somewhere between 800 and 900. Good outcomes are being found, but there is simply not enough of them and there is not enough temporary or emergency accommodation which is more suitable than hotel rooms. This is something we need to try to address. People need to be realistic. We cannot do this overnight. In the immediate term, hotel accommodation will continue to be used.