Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 200: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of homeless persons identified in the homeless counts of 2008 and 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35566/10]

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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The Counted In survey, which is a special purpose count of people using homeless services carried out in Dublin every three years since 1999 through the Homeless Agency, supported by my Department, is generally considered to provide the most robust indicator. The results of the most recent survey, in March 2008, reported a total of 1,436 homeless households in Dublin, compared with 1,361 in 2005. While this was a numerical increase of around 5%, the position relative to overall population was unchanged. A further 708 households were recorded as residing in long-term or transitional accommodation; however, it would not be correct to regard all of these as homeless, particularly where, for example, households were resident in suitable accommodation that would be likely to provide their most appropriate home in the long-term, or where they had begun to make a transition out of homelessness.

The Counted In survey method was also used for the first time in Cork, Galway and Limerick in 2008. The results indicated a total of 767 households homeless in these centres. However, that figure includes households in long-term and transitional accommodation some of whom, as indicated in relation to Dublin, should not properly be regarded as homeless. The next Counted In survey is due to take place in 2011.