Written answers
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government
Homeless Accommodation
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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534. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown on age, nationality, employment status of those in emergency homeless accommodation in Ireland; if his Department stores data on the number of whom suffer from substance abuse or drug addiction; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37782/25]
James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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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 May 2025. The reports are collated on a regional basis and are available on my Department's website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/homelessness-data/ and are also published to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform's open data portal, data.gov.ie/.
Since April 2022 my Department has gathered information from local authorities on citizenship of adults accessing emergency accommodation. The citizenship information is broken down by Irish, EEA/UK and Non-EEA and is available on a regional basis at the link above.
My Department also publishes quarterly progress reports which are based on quarterly performance reports submitted by the nine regional lead authorities responsible for the administration of homeless services at local level. These quarterly performance reports include details of the numbers of individuals prevented from entering emergency accommodation, and those exiting emergency accommodation into tenancies and the duration of stay in emergency accommodation. The quarterly progress report summarises the data submitted to the Department.
Since Q2 2023, local authorities have been reporting the reasons for presentations by single adult and family households who newly enter emergency accommodation. A category for ‘Substance Misuse’ as a household reason for presenting and entering emergency accommodation was added in Q3 2024.
The most recent published data is in respect of Q1 2025 and the report is available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/department-of-housing-local-government-and-heritage/collections/homelessness-data/.
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