Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 September 2014
556. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to extend the extra funding granted to the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive to immediately adjacent high-pressure areas like north eastern Kildare, south eastern Meath and north Wicklow; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36628/14]
View answerMy Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of accommodation for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities and the purposes for which housing authorities may incur expenditure in addressing homelessness are prescribed in Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. My Department does not fund any service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services under Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. Housing authorities provide additional funding from their own resources.
The total Section 10 funding being provided by my Department to housing authorities on a regional basis for 2014 is €45 million and this amount has been fully allocated to the 9 regions. Details of these allocations are set out in the protocols for the delegation of Section 10 homeless funding between my Department and the lead housing authority in each of these regions and a copy of these protocols is available on my Department's website at http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/SpecialNeeds/HomelessPeople/.
The regional approach is considered more appropriate as it helps to bring a more strategic perspective to bear on action to address homelessness, including avoidance of over-concentration of homelessness services in certain centres and promoting appropriate regional availability of services, consistent with need.
Under the funding arrangements, responsibility for rigorous assessment, appraisal and decision making in relation to proposals for funding of particular services within the current budgetary allocation rests with the statutory homelessness Management Group of the respective region.
The level of funding available to housing authorities in 2015 for housing programmes including homelessness is currently being considered in the context of the Estimates process. In light of budgetary demands, I am working with my colleagues in Government to ensure that appropriate funding priority continues to be attached to homelessness.
