Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the €17 million allocated to homeless services and emergency accommodation as outlined in budget 2018; the amount has been spent; the way in which the money has been spent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27238/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Budget 2018 provides for a national Exchequer allocation of €116 million for homeless services, which is an additional €18 million on the Budget 2017 provision.  The purpose of the additional funding is to address the increased demand for emergency homeless services as well as assisting in supporting homeless households with long-term and sustainable housing solutions.

My Department does not fund any homeless service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services. Under the funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of any funded services from their own resources.  Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of the Exchequer funding arrangements that apply.  Therefore, the exact amounts to be spent by housing authorities on homeless services are a matter for those authorities. 

Exchequer funding is provided through my Department to housing authorities on a regional basis. The following table sets out the funding recouped to housing authorities on a regional basis to date in 2018.