Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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689. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if there is a record of the number of families that have been moved into private rented accommodation or other homeless services from new communities unit emergency accommodation units. [24631/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware from the response to an earlier parliamentary question, the New Communities Unit (NCU) of my Department offers assistance to families who are primarily non-Irish, homeless and generally without recourse to any weekly income. The main focus of this unit is to ensure that families who have an entitlement receive an income maintenance payment, under the terms of the relevant legislation. In addition, non-Irish homeless families have been referred to this unit directly by the Central Placement Service, operated on behalf of the four local authorities by Dublin City Council, and the staff in the NCU have facilitated booking these people into emergency accommodation. This accommodation is sourced and funded by Dublin City Council under Section 10 of the Housing Act (1988). The practice, whereby staff in the NCU act as booking agents in such circumstances, is a residual one from when the NCU was based in the HSE. Officials from my Department are considering the appropriateness and nature of the NCU’s involvement in the delivery of this service at present.

Information in relation to the number of families that have moved out of emergency accommodation, booked by the NCU, to private rented accommodation or alternative emergency accommodation is not collated nor retained by my Department.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.