Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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1651. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if the national quality standards framework for homeless services has been published by his Department; and if not, when it is due for publication. [35746/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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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, including operational issues in the day-to-day delivery of services, such as ensuring that contracted services are delivered in a professional manner.  Also, it should be noted that all service providers must meet the applicable requirements of statutory codes, in particular the requirements of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Fire Services Acts.

Given that ensuring services are delivered to an appropriate standard is a matter for the relevant housing authorities, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE) is currently overseeing the development of a comprehensive quality standards framework which will be applicable to all homeless services for which the Executive has a service level agreement in place.  The DRHE has been coordinating the development of these standards in consultation with an advisory group, including representation from various housing authorities, service providers, Tusla, clients and other stakeholders, with a view to having the finalised standards adopted on a national basis by individual housing authorities.

The draft standards have been piloted in over 20 selected services across the country since 2016, with positive feedback to date from relevant services, with a view to their finalisation later this year.