Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 225: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the proposals he has in regard to the demands of the Focus Ireland right to a home campaign (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4837/06]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Government policy on housing has the overarching aim of enabling every household to have available an affordable dwelling of good quality, suited to its needs, in a good environment and, as far as possible, at the tenure of its choice. The Government's approach to achieving this policy aim is that those who can afford to do so should provide for their own housing, with the aid where available of certain fiscal incentives or subsidies, and that those unable to access housing in this way should have access to social housing or income support to rent private housing. Existing legislation and funding programmes support this strategy. It is not considered appropriate to legislate for a specific right to housing. This could in practice distort the operation of current housing programmes and priorities. These have been resourced in accordance with democratic decisions of the Dáil, the Government and the local authorities, and have been effective in delivering increased outputs.

The Government is bringing about positive changes in the provision of social and affordable housing. My Department's housing policy framework — Building Sustainable Communities, launched in December 2005, outlines a substantial investment programme in social and affordable housing over the next three years together with a package of reforms to improve equity, efficiency and effectiveness. Our objective is to deliver high quality housing for those who cannot afford to meet their own housing needs.

Specifically, in regard to homelessness, substantial additional funding has been made available to support the implementation of the homeless strategies. Funding continues to be made available to the voluntary housing sector for the provision of accommodation for homeless persons under the Department's capital assistance scheme.

Local authorities and the Health Services 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, representative 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. 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 numbers 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. While the emphasis was initially on the provision of emergency accommodation options, there is general agreement that there is sufficient emergency accommodation available for those who wish to avail of it and the emphasis must now move to long-term solutions.

A range of social and private rented long-term accommodation is already available; the amount of such accommodation now needs to be further increased. Steps have been taken to encourage local authorities to focus their future activity in this area and a number of recent developments will facilitate their efforts to make progress. The development of the local authority housing action plans 2004-2008, the introduction of the rental accommodation scheme and the information gained from the assessment of housing need carried out in March 2005 will enable local authorities to include the specific housing needs of homeless persons in their overall housing programmes and enhance the availability of housing options for those homeless persons capable of independent living. A tenancy sustainment scheme being piloted by the homeless agency with funding from my Department will facilitate previously homeless tenants to maintain their tenancies whether in public or private sector accommodation.

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 2005, a total of €44 million was recouped to local authorities. This brings to €230 million the total funding made available for this purpose since 2000. The Department of Health and Children has provided funding of more than €100 million in the same period to meet the care needs of homeless persons. The outcome of the independent review of the homeless strategies is available. The main recommendations are that the integrated and preventative strategies should be amalgamated and revised. This work is commencing under the aegis of the Department's team on homelessness. The points raised by Focus Ireland and other stakeholders will be considered in this context.