Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 June 2015
238. Deputy Dessie Ellis asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a list of all types of emergency and sheltered accommodation currently provided by the State, including local authorities; the moneys allocated to the funding of this accommodation; and the gap between funding and demand. [24174/15]
View answerI understand that the question refers to accommodation arrangements that may be put in place by housing authorities to assist in cases of homelessness. 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 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; accordingly my Department does not fund any homeless services 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. Under Section 10 funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of such services from their own resources. Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of the Section 10 funding arrangements.
Housing authorities may provide a variety of emergency accommodation arrangements from placements into private emergency accommodation to facilities operated by non-governmental service providers. Details of the homeless services funded by housing authorities are available in quarterly financial reports which are published on my Department's website and are available at the following link:
http://www.environ.ie/en/DevelopmentHousing/Housing/SpecialNeeds/HomelessPeople/.
While it is clear that a proportion of funding must be used to provide sufficient bed capacity to accommodate those in need of emergency accommodation, it is equally important that resources are channelled to deliver more permanent responses in a more focused and strategic way.
Details of the 2015 regional funding allocations are set out hereunder. The needs of the various regions will be kept under review on an ongoing basis.
|
Area |
Amount |
|
Dublin |
€37,160,470 |
|
Mid-East |
€934,267 |
|
Midlands |
€794,972 |
|
Mid-West |
€3,499,898 * |
|
North-East |
€977,737 |
|
North-West |
€387,643 |
|
South-East |
€2,394,619 * |
|
South-West |
€5,000,686 |
|
West |
€1,698,834 |
* Following the amalgamation of North and South Tipperary County Councils into Tipperary County Council in 2014, the re-alignment of Tipperary County Council into the Mid-West Region is pending.
