Paul Murphy
Question:157. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach the plans that are being put in place to allow those that are homeless, including rough sleepers and those living in cars to complete the 2022 census. [16426/22]
View answerTuesday, 29 March 2022
Questions (157)
Written answers
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) began planning for the count of homeless persons in the census in the first quarter of 2020, meeting with the Homeless Methodology Liaison Group to agree the parameters of the approach to ensure homeless persons were correctly enumerated as part of Census 2022. A key part of the ongoing preparation has involved the CSO working closely with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH) and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive (DRHE). As part of this work the DRHE has supplied the CSO with the locations of accommodation designated under Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. This will ensure that persons staying in this accommodation will be correctly enumerated on Census Night.
The DRHE has committed to conducting a rough sleeper count in the Dublin region. The information gathered in this process will be provided to the CSO after the census to ensure any person sleeping rough in the Dublin region will be included in the homeless count. For areas outside Dublin, local census field staff are working with Gardaí and stakeholder groups to identify where persons may be sleeping rough to ensure they are included in the count. This will include persons who may be sleeping in cars on Census Night.