Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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170. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his Department's winter plan in relation to funding and resources allocated by the Department to county councils to deal with growing homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46866/22]

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.

Exchequer funding for homeless services is provided through my Department to housing authorities on a regional basis. 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. My Department is in active and ongoing discussions with lead authorities of the nine homeless regions concerning the extent of the funding requirements.

Specifically in relation to Cold Weather Initiatives, these arrangements operate across all local authorities to provide additional emergency beds for rough sleepers where needed. These arrangements ensure that additional temporary beds can be brought into use across a range of existing services and facilities, for singles and couples who need them during periods of cold weather. These beds are temporary in nature and it is a matter for individual local authorities to determine the period of their operation. The cold weather arrangements are typically introduced in November and funding will continue to be provided by my Department to meet additional costs associated with these measures.