Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 336: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the criteria used to define whether a person is homeless; the number of nights a person must spend on the street or in a hostel to be defined as homeless; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5982/06]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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Decisions as to the homeless status of individuals are matters for the local authority concerned. The definition of homelessness in the Housing Act 1988 provides for a wide range of circumstances on the basis of which, in the opinion of the authority, a person may be deemed homeless.

The independent review of the implementation of homeless strategies, which I published last week and which is being made available to the Oireachtas Library, recommended that the definition of "homelessness" should be revisited to produce a clearer, unambiguous understanding of what homelessness means for measurement and funding purposes, and that this should be used as the basis for a common information gathering system establishing the causes, extent and nature of homelessness and rolled out to all areas of the country. This issue will be taken forward in the context of a revised Government strategy on homelessness, to be prepared by my Department having regard to the independent review.