Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 May 2016
117. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to set down by county and by month in tabular form the number of persons who have presented as homeless for each of the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11048/16]
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 and related services for homeless persons rests with individual housing authorities.
The official homelessness data provided by housing authorities are produced through the Pathway Accommodation and Support System (PASS). These data capture details of individuals utilising State-funded emergency accommodation arrangements that are overseen by housing authorities. Quarterly reports from lead housing authorities are published on my Department's website as soon as these are available. In addition, lead housing authorities provide monthly reports on homelessness which identify the number of people utilising State-funded emergency accommodation on a regional and county basis and also broken down by the number of families and dependants; my Department collates this information into monthly homeless reports. The specific data sought in the Question is not available in my Department. However, both the quarterly and monthly reports are available on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.environ.ie/housing/homelessness/other/homelessness-data.
