Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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868.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if people in Ireland on work permits are included in the homeless figures supplied by his office; and if only those entitled to social housing are included in the homeless figures.[35522/24]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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869.To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the system in place for keeping track of persons seeking emergency accommodation but are not entitled to it, such as families over the threshold for social housing and persons on work permits, in tabular form.[35523/24]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 868 and 869 together.

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 local authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of emergency accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual local authorities.

Under the Housing Act 1988 it is a matter for each local authority to determine whether a person is regarded as homeless; section 2 of the Act sets out the requirements in this regard. When a household has been assessed as homeless, section 10 of the Housing Act 1988 provides that a local authority may provide accommodation and related services to that household.

Any household assessed as homeless may be placed into temporary emergency accommodation without the requirement to undergo a social housing assessment, allowing local authorities the flexibility that is essential to respond quickly and effectively to the various needs of cases that may arise.

My Department currently gathers and publishes data on a monthly basis on the number of homeless persons accommodated in emergency accommodation funded and overseen by local authorities. These reports are based on data provided by local authorities, produced through the Pathway Accommodation & Support System (PASS).

The monthly homelessness report includes details of individuals, families and the dependants of these families who accessed emergency accommodation during the relevant count week of the month in question. The most recently published data is in respect of July 2024. The reports are collated on a regional basis and are available on my Department's website at the following link, www.gov.ie/en/collection/80ea8-homelessness-data/, and are also published to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform's open data portal, data.gov.ie/.