Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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735. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the cost of the use of hotels and guest houses for emergency accommodation in each of the years 2009 to 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53901/17]

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. Therefore, my Department does not fund any service directly, but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless services.

The purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. Under Section 10 funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of such services from their own resources. Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of the Section 10 funding arrangements. Therefore, the exact amounts spent by housing authorities for specific homeless related purposes, including accommodation in commercial hotels and B&Bs, are a matter for those authorities.

Details of the total Section 10 Exchequer funding provided to housing authorities by my Department for the years 2009 to 2016 and to date in 2017 are set out in the following table: