Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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168. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount his Department spent on the provision of emergency homeless accommodation in 2015. [12029/16]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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169. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the funding he has allocated for the provision of emergency homeless accommodation in 2016. [12030/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 168 and 169 together.

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 and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities.

My Department does not fund any homeless service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services under Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. Under Section 10 funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of such services from their own resources. Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of the Section 10 funding arrangements. Therefore, the exact amounts spent by housing authorities on homeless services are a matter for those authorities.

In 2015 some €64.8 million of Exchequer ‘Section 10’ funding was provided by my Department to housing authorities in respect of all homeless related expenditure. Budget 2016 confirmed funding of €70 million nationally for such purposes this year. While the 2016 allocations are currently being finalised, the funding needs of the various regions will be kept under review on an on-going basis, taking account of known and emerging costs of services, and my Department has provided reassurance to all housing authorities in this regard.