Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, on whose behalf I am taking the question. The Minister and his Department consider all the issues raised in the Seanad.

Statutory responsibility for the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless households rests with individual housing authorities. The responsibility of housing authorities includes that of ensuring that contracted services are delivered in a professional manner, in line with any service level agreement in place. Supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness is a priority for the Government. To promote high standards of service delivery, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, has developed a national quality standards framework on behalf of the Department to ensure a more consistent approach in how local authorities and service providers respond to the needs of those experiencing homelessness, about which the Senator asked. The objective of the framework is to ensure that services for people experiencing hornlessness are well organised, co-ordinated, integrated and focused on moving people out of homelessness, as quickly as possible, into long-term sustainable housing, which we all want. This will be done by promoting safe and effective service provision to households experiencing homelessness, supporting the objectives of the national homelessness policy and establishing consistency in how households experiencing homelessness are responded to in different regions and models of service delivery, which addresses another of the Senator's points. The framework was implemented on a phased basis in Dublin, with site visits commencing in February this year. The experience gained from the recent completion of the roll-out in Dublin and the commencement of site visits has allowed the DRHE to evaluate how the framework should be implemented nationally and to advise the Department accordingly. Last month, the Department wrote to all local authorities to instruct them on the process for the implementation of the framework on a nationwide basis over 12 months, commencing on 1 July 2019. Upon completion of the implementation phase, local authorities will commence site visits to ensure compliance with the framework.Management of these site visits will be a matter for each of the local authorities. The implementation of the national quality standards framework will ensure the State provides safe and effective services to households experiencing homelessness. It will ensure that services are delivered consistently across all regions of the State, with a focus on ensuring that households experiencing homelessness are enabled to access and sustain housing with appropriate levels of support. The implementation of the framework will also promote stronger governance and monitoring of third party delivery through the integration of the standards contained in the framework. While the Department has no plans at present to introduce an alternative inspection regime the implementation of the framework will be kept under ongoing review by the Department.