Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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24. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his short term plans to deal with the rapid increase in homelessness; the full costs of using hotels as emergency accommodation; the numbers of persons in this accommodation per local authority; his plans to acquire new emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19566/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation for homeless persons rests with the housing authorities. The purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. My Department does not fund any service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services under Section 10 of the Act. Housing authorities provide additional funding from their own resources.

The specific information sought in relation to expenditure on, and numbers residing in, hotel accommodation nationally is not available in my Department.

In February 2013, I published the Government’s Homelessness Policy Statementin which the Government's aim to end long-term homelessness by the end of 2016 was outlined. The statement emphasises a housing-led approach which is about accessing permanent housing as the primary response to all forms of homelessness. The availability and supply of secure, affordable and adequate housing is essential in ensuring sustainable tenancies and ending long-term homelessness.

The Homelessness Oversight Group, which I established in 2013 for the purposes of reviewing the progress of the approach being advocated in the Homelessness Policy Statement, identifying obstacles and proposing solutions, has submitted its first report to me. The report, which considered information on emergency and other accommodation, is available on my Department's website, at .

A Homelessness Policy Implementation Team is tasked with implementing the Homelessness Oversight Group's First Report and it presented a draft implementation plan to the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy earlier this week. This plan outlines how the State responds to homelessness to achieve the national objective of ending involuntary long-term homelessness by 2016. It is a practically focused delivery plan so as to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation to house homeless households within the next three years and mobilising the necessary supports. The final will be published following formal consideration by Government in the coming weeks.