Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 343: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of persons who are homeless and without shelter in Dublin city and who are obliged to sleep in the open each night; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that a number of such persons have died of the cold as a result since the onset of winter; and his plans to provide emergency shelter to prevent further deaths in 2005. [39447/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Local authorities and the Health Service Executive are responsible for meeting the accommodation and health care needs of homeless persons. The Government's integrated and preventative strategies on homelessness provide the framework within which the agencies fulfil these responsibilities. Under the terms of the integrated strategy, homeless fora, representatives of the statutory and voluntary homeless sectors, were established at local authority level and homeless action plans, adopted under their aegis, are being implemented. These developments have resulted in the provision of a wide range of additional accommodation and services for homeless persons.

Significant progress has been made in the Dublin area over the past number of years in providing for and improving services to homeless persons. Rough sleepers have been enabled to access emergency accommodation and homeless persons have been facilitated to move out of emergency accommodation into accommodation more suitable to their needs. Increased levels of day care facilities, together with specific provisions to meet the needs of people with addiction problems or who are sleeping rough, as well as homeless ex-offenders, have been put in place.

Rough sleeping is the extreme manifestation of homelessness and statutory and voluntary agencies work in close co-operation to minimise it. In Dublin, where the largest incidence of rough sleeping occurs, Dublin City Council operates a night bus service whereby clients are given access to accommodation and appropriate outreach services. This service, which originally operated as a cold weather response, now operates on a year round basis. An on-line system to facilitate the prompt identification of vacant emergency accommodation on a nightly basis has recently been introduced by the Homeless Agency, with funding from my Department. This will ensure optimum use of the accommodation to meet the needs of rough sleepers. Rough sleeping initiatives also operate in the other main urban areas with specific measures put in place during colder weather if considered necessary.

The continued implementation of a cold weather strategy in the Dublin area by the Homeless Agency with the co-operation of the voluntary service providers serves to minimise the risks posed during this time with the provision of additional shelter and services for rough sleepers. The statutory bodies continue to monitor the level and capacity of service required and seek to ensure that harm reduction measures are at an optimum level at all times. In this regard, I understand that the Homeless Agency, in conjunction with Dublin City Council, is providing additional accommodation in two facilities for the winter months.

I do not consider that recent coverage on homelessness has given a fair and accurate report of all the individual circumstances involved or of the services available and accessed in each case. More generally, there has been a significant decrease in the number of persons reported as sleeping rough. According to Counted In 2002, the assessment of homelessness in the Dublin area undertaken by the Homeless Agency and the ESRI in March 2002, 312 people self-reported that they had slept rough for four nights or more in the previous week. The number of persons self-reporting as having slept rough for four nights or more in the most recent assessment undertaken by the Homeless Agency in 2005 was 185, a decrease of almost 40%. This decrease is due to the continued and focused attention by all agencies involved in the provision of services to ensure that everyone in need of accommodation can access the services relevant to their needs.

The continued provision of adequate funding is of major importance. While the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons is the responsibility of local authorities, my Department recoups to them 90% of their expenditure in this area. In 2004, a total of €45.7 million was recouped to local authorities while the allocation for 2005 is €51 million. This brings to €240 million the total funding made available for this purpose since 2000. The Department of Health and Children has provided an additional €106 million in the same period to meet the care needs of homeless persons.

The outcome of the review of the implementation of the homeless strategies and their associated local homeless action plans, which I hope to publish early in the New Year, will inform future policy developments in this area.