Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 3 Feb 1998

Vol. 486 No. 3

Written Answers. - Accommodation for the Homeless.

Richard Bruton

Question:

164 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of young people sleeping rough in Dublin city; the way in which this has changed over the past five years; the number of places currently available to accommodate homeless youngsters; and if he will give an assessment of the adequacy of the accommodation to meet the need in view of the continuing situation where youngsters are spending all night on the street. [2540/98]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Fahey)

The Eastern Health Board has statutory responsibility for the provision of service for out of home young people. In this regard the board operates an out-of-hours service for homeless youngsters who require a service outside working hours.

On average 12 young people per night present to the out-of-hours service. The number of referrals to the out-of-hours service for each of the years 1993 to 1997 was as follows: 1993, 679; 1994, 1,367; 1995, 1,441; 1996, 2,756; 1997, 2,569.

The board estimate that approximately 400 young people presented to the service as being out of home in 1997. Approximately 50 per cent of these young people are known to the Eastern Health Board services.

Currently the Eastern Health Board has a total of 160 emergency places available for out of home young people. A difficulty experienced by the out-of-hours service is that many young people who cannot be placed by community care teams during the day, because of a shortage of placements, present to the out-of-hours service at night. Where a youngster cannot be accommodated to regular emergency places efforts are made to place them in bed and breakfast accommodation accompanied by a nurse.

To respond to this problem the Eastern Health Board intends to create more foster care and residential care places in the region. Late last year I approved a special allocation of £2 million to fund a number of initiatives for homeless children in Dublin under the auspices of the Eastern Health Board. Included in measures to proceed immediately is a ten bed emergency residential centre for children under the age of 12. This centre will be operational on a 24 hour basis and will provide a workable alternative to social admissions to hospitals.

The board has immediate plans to open an additional ten bed emergency residential centre for children over 12 years of age who are out of home. A further ten emergency carer families are also being made available to provide emergency care for children during the out-of-hours period. The measures amount to 30 additional places for homeless young people.

The board also operates a day project which offers care, welfare and recreation support to approximately ten young people who are considered to be at risk during day time. Plans are advancing for a day-and-night reception centre in Dublin city centre to facilitate homeless young people in accessing Eastern Health Board services. This will replace the current unsatisfactory arrangements whereby young people make contact with the Eastern Health Board out-of-hours service via Garda stations. The reception centre will provide a base for the day project where meals can be provided, as well as recreation, laundry and bathroom facilities. This centre will have a small number of emergency beds available for young people where no other placement is available.

While there is no easy solution to the problem I am confident that these new measures will make a major contribution to helping this very vulnerable group of young people.