Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to establish a housing needs monitoring programme to annually assess the extent of homelessness and housing needs, including the flow of people in and out of homelessness, which would utilise several methods and combine prevalence studies to provide figures of hidden homelessness; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that there is currently no one method in use that will provide an accurate account of homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27591/08]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The triennial statutory assessment of housing needs provides information on homelessness, including details of the number of homeless households by local authority area. The Government's housing policy statement, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities, published in February 2007 announced a new means of assessing housing need. My Department is currently considering the implementation of this new model with local authorities and relevant groups. It is not proposed to undertake a separate annual assessment in relation to homelessness.

In addition, a focused count of homelessness in the Dublin area, Counted In, has been undertaken by the Homeless Agency every three years since 1999. This year, this count has also taken place in Galway, Cork and Limerick city areas.

It is proposed, in the context of the new homeless strategy now being finalised, to develop an integrated national information system to support the effective operation and budgeting of homeless services and to inform policy development. This will, for example, be used to develop profiles, review trends in homelessness, improve understanding and knowledge and to maximise and monitor the effectiveness of interventions to achieve the best possible outcomes for each homeless person. The proposed information system will be complemented by continuing periodic assessments or counts of homelessness.