Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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291. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the total funding provided to each local authority by his Department for homeless services expressed in monetary terms and as a percentage of the local authorities' overall housing budgets, in tabular form; the reason his Department's contribution to homeless services has been declining as a percentage of the overall homeless budget from approximately 90% to in some cases only 70%; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34976/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation, and related services, for homeless persons rests with housing authorities. Under Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988, my Department provides current funding to housing authorities towards the cost of providing homeless services, including accommodation. The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 1993 provide that such recoupment to housing authorities by my Department shall not exceed 90% of payments made; therefore this is a recoupment upper limit. Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless services outside of the ‘Section 10’ funding arrangements. The overall amounts incurred by housing authorities on housing and homelessness related expenditure are a matter for the individual housing authorities. The funding needs of the various regions are kept under review on an on-going basis.

Under Section 10 funding arrangements, funding in respect of homeless services is made available on a regional basis and a regional allocation is delegated to a lead-authority in each region. Given the statutory position, the exact amounts spent by housing authorities on housing and homelessness are a matter for those authorities and the amount of funding provided by my Department as a percentage of the local authorities’ own housing budgets is not available in my Department. However, for information purposes, details of Exchequer funding drawn down to date in 2016 are set out in the following table on a regional basis.