Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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313. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade when he will issue a response to the concerns raised by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in correspondence dated September 2015 on housing and water provision for homeless persons in County Cork; and his approach to the provision of water and sanitation services for the homeless. [17933/16]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade receives correspondence from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on a regular basis. Where such correspondence relates to domestic policies, Departments with lead responsibility for the relevant policy issues are asked to provide input for the reply to the United Nations.

The response to the correspondence from the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living and on the rights to non-discrimination in this context, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, was submitted to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights by Ireland’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva. In a statement issued on 6 June 2016 the Special Rapporteurs acknowledged receipt of the response.

The content of the response and other issues relating to the provision of water and sanitation services for the homeless are a matter for my colleague the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government.