Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

39. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if, in view of recent confusion as to when the monthly homeless figures will be released, he will consider publishing the monthly homeless figures within two weeks of the end of the month in question; and if, in future, he will include adults and children in emergency domestic violence refuges funded by Tusla, non-residents in emergency accommodation funded by the new communities unit of the Department of Social Protection or those persons sofa surfing in his Department’s monthly homeless figures. [2144/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The official monthly homelessness data reports provided by housing authorities are produced using the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS), the single integrated national data information system on State-funded emergency accommodation arrangements overseen by housing authorities. They therefore do not capture details of individuals utilising State-funded emergency accommodation arrangements which are not overseen by housing authorities, such as clients of domestic violence refuges or the New Communities Unit. Any relevant data compilation and management in relation to those clients is a matter for Tusla and the Department of Social Protection respectively. Likewise, persons who may be ‘sofa surfing’ are not in State-funded emergency accommodation overseen by housing authorities and would not be eligible for inclusion in the official monthly reports or officially regarded as homeless, unless such persons are deemed to be homeless by housing authorities having regard to the criteria set out in section 2 of the Housing Act 1988.

The official monthly reports are published on my Department's website as soon as the data from housing authority reports has been compiled, assessed and verified. While I am not in a position to commit to a target date for the publication of each month’s data, I will continue to ensure that the data are published in as timely a manner as possible, taking account of the need to collect the housing authority reports, liaise with the housing authorities on any data quality issues and compile the data into a formal publication, without impacting negatively on the overall quality of the data.