Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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43. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government his views that there is now a housing accommodation and homelessness emergency affecting a vast number of our citizens, including those on housing lists, persons in homeless services, travellers, asylum seekers in direct provision and other persons threatened with homelessness because of rising rents or mortgage arrears and that a formal national emergency should be declared around these issues; that such an emergency should prompt stepping outside the European Union fiscal rules to enable the necessary mobilisation of extra funds and investment to resolve this crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38232/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes. In November 2014, I launched the Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020. This six-year strategy sets out to provide 35,000 new social housing units at a cost of €3.8 billion and restores the State to a central role in the provision of social housing through, inter alia, a resumption of direct building on a significant scale by local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies.

A significant number of other measures are being taken to address homelessness by securing a supply of accommodation to house homeless households and mobilise the necessary supports in order to deliver on the Government's target of ending involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. These measures have been identified in the Government's Implementation Plan on the State's Response to Homelessness (May 2014) and in the Action Plan to Address Homelessness(December 2014). Substantial progress has been made in implementing these plans. Progress in implementing these plans is reported through the Cabinet Committee on Social Policy and Public Service Reform. The plans and progress reports are available on my Department's website at the following link:.

These Plans represent a whole-of-Government approach to dealing with homelessness and the implementation of measures identified in these plans is being overseen by a group of senior officials drawn from key State agencies concerned including my Department, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Health and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, the Health Service Executive, Tusla the Child and Family Agency, the Irish Prison Service and housing authorities.

Data on individuals in emergency accommodation is provided through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS). Lead housing authorities provide monthly reports on homelessness which identify the number of people utilising State-funded emergency accommodation on a regional and county basis. These monthly reports also provide details of the breakdown of the individuals and the numbers of families and dependents that are in emergency accommodation. These monthly reports are available on my Department’s website at the link provided above. Housing authorities have no function with regard to asylum seekers in direct provision and accordingly such individuals are not recorded by housing authorities.

With regard to funding for homeless services, as confirmed in the Budget announcement, I have secured funding of €70 million for homeless services in 2016. This is an increase of approximately 32% on the 2015 allocation and a 55% increase on the 2014 allocation.

This, together with the significant resources being devoted to support the implementation of the Social Housing Strategy, provide clear evidence of the urgency which the Government attaches to addressing issues in relation to homelessness, and the clear prioritisation of the resources required.