Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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699. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his attention has been drawn to the practice of some local authorities of providing families that are homeless but have not met the requirements of housing circular 41/2012 with emergency accommodation on a night-by-night basis only; if his attention has been further drawn to a legal reason a local authority cannot provide emergency homeless accommodation to a family that does not meet the provision of housing circular 41/2012 for four consecutive nights or more; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50126/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Under the Housing Act 1988 it is a matter for the housing authority concerned to determine whether a person is regarded as homeless; Section 2 of the Act sets out the requirements in this regard. Any person regarded as homeless may be placed into temporary emergency accommodation without the requirement to undergo a social housing assessment and be approved for social housing support; these arrangements give housing authorities the flexibility that is essential to respond quickly and effectively to the various needs of cases that may present to them.

In order to qualify for social housing support, a household’s long-term housing need and eligibility must be determined by a housing authority through a social housing assessment under section 20 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and associated Regulations. As social housing support is intended to address a household’s long-term housing need it is expected that any household applying for such support should have a long-term right to reside in the State.  Departmental Housing Circular 41/2012 sets out the appropriate criteria that housing authorities can use to accept someone as having a long-term right to reside, and therefore be eligible to apply to be assessed for social housing support.

Given that statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of homeless accommodation rests with individual housing authorities, my Department has no role in relation to operational issues such as placements of particular individuals or families into emergency accommodation.  It is a matter for individual authorities to obtain legal advice as required in the execution of their statutory functions.