Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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169. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the resources and funding that have been allocated to Clare County Council for the provision of emergency accommodation; if additional funding will be administered by his Department given the emergency accommodation is at full capacity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46750/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department does not fund any homeless services directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards these costs. Under the funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services from their own resources. Housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of these funding arrangements with my Department.

A homelessness consultative forum has been established in each region in accordance with Chapter 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2009. Decisions on the range of emergency accommodation services and funding required in each region are a matter for individual housing authorities in consultation with the Management Group of the relevant regional joint Homelessness Consultative Forum. It is a matter for the Management Group to bring forward proposals to my Department that meet the needs of homeless individuals in their administrative area and the funding requirements will be considered in this context.

Clare County Council is included in the Mid West Region for the purposes of homelessness administration, with Limerick City and Council as the lead authority for the region. To date in 2022, some €6.5 million in Exchequer funding has been provided to the Mid West region for the provision of homeless accommodation and related services, and I expect this will increase in the coming months.

I am aware of the pressures currently being experienced in accessing Emergency Accommodation nationwide and am working to address these. A range of measures have been introduced to tackle accommodation shortages and in terms of the provision of Emergency Accommodation. My Department will work with Local Authorities to assess requirements within the Region and will provide funding where an additional need has been identified.

Funding will continue to be provided for all required homeless services as the year progresses.