Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 25 Oct 2001

Vol. 168 No. 9

Homeless Persons: Statements.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Molloy)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to address this House on the issue of homelessness. Homelessness is one of the most important social issues facing us today and tackling it effectively poses an enormous challenge. Despite the healthy state of our economy in recent years, there are still a large number of people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The assessment of housing needs undertaken in March 1999 indicated that there were more than 5,000 homeless persons. In 1996 the national total of homeless persons was assessed at 2,500. The increase between 1996 and 1999 is not, however, directly comparable because of a broadening of the definition of homelessness. I was anxious to ensure that all sectors were agreed on what we termed "homeless". The definition, accepted by everybody broadened the scope and therefore led to a marked increase in the number of those defined as homeless.

The next assessment of housing needs will take place in March 2002 and we should then have a better picture of the extent of homelessness. It is not the case that all those who were assessed as being homeless are living rough on the streets or staying in emergency hostel accommodation. Some people assessed as being homeless might be residing with friends or relations, but without their own accommodation.

There is no escaping the fact that there are too many homeless people. The Government is totally committed to dealing with the problem of homelessness and has made considerable improvements in the way the problem is addressed. We now have a more comprehensive approach. In May 2000, I launched the Government's integrated strategy on homelessness, which for the first time provided for a co-ordinated response to homelessness. The strategy recognised that homelessness is not just about a lack of living accommodation, but that the health, care, welfare, education and training needs of homeless persons needed to be addressed in a co-ordinated manner if the problem of homelessness is to be tackled effectively. Unfortunately the lack of living accommodation is not the only problem in the lives of those who are homeless. Health and welfare problems are also widespread and it is essential that these issues are properly addressed as part of the solution to enable homeless people achieve independent living in their own communities.

A key element of the Government's strategy is that homeless action plans are to be drawn up at local level. This is to be done jointly by the local authority, health board and voluntary bodies and will clearly chart the services that exist for homeless persons and outline the services that are needed. Under the action plans these needs will be identified over a three year period and there will be responsibility for providing each service and the funding needed. The plans for Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, Clare, Cavan, Carlow, Meath, Offaly, Tipperary, Wexford and Wicklow are completed and work is well under way on the plans for other areas. I expect they will be completed shortly.

While the scope and detail of the action plans will vary, they will make appropriate responses to the level of homelessness in each of their areas. I am satisfied that there is a strong commitment among all the agencies involved to addressing the needs of the homeless. In the past, the position was more a case of leaving homelessness to be dealt with by the voluntary bodies. In fairness to those voluntary bodies, they did a lot with limited resources at their disposal. I take this opportunity to thank the many voluntary organisations which have been involved in this work for their diligence and compassion and for the tremendous results they achieved in difficult circumstances. They now work in co-operation with local authorities and health boards and together they have put in a tremendous amount of time and effort in drawing up these strategies.

Current funding has already been increased by £6 million per annum to increase bed-night contribution rates to voluntary bodies and to fund other support services such as settlement and outreach services. Additional funding of £6 million has been made available by the Department of Health and Children to fund the provision of in-house care in hostels providing accommodation for homeless people.

Both the statutory and voluntary sectors have welcomed the Government's strategy for providing, for the first time, an integrated response to homelessness at national and local level. It has been particularly welcomed by the voluntary sector as it recognises the valuable role the sector plays in meeting the needs of homeless persons. The preparation of local action plans directly involves the voluntary sector in the planning, co-ordination and delivery of services to the homeless.

In addition, the strategy, for the first time, clarified the roles of the local authorities and health boards in the provision of services for homeless persons. Local authorities are responsible for the accommodation needs of homeless persons and for accommodation related services such as settlement and outreach support programmes. Health boards are responsible for the health, care and welfare needs of homeless persons, including the provision of in-house care in hostel accommodation. This is an important clarification of the responsibilities of local authorities and health boards and means it is now clear to both the statutory and voluntary sectors who is responsible for what and who will fund which services. The voluntary bodies have welcomed this clarification. While it may take some time to ensure all the measures in the strategy are firmly established and working effectively, I am anxious to ensure services for homeless persons are improved in the meantime.

At the same time as local authorities, together with health boards and voluntary bodies, have been working on their action plans, some considerable improvements in services to homeless persons have been implemented. An important example of an immediate improvement is the significant increase, in line with recommendations in the homeless strategy, in funding to many voluntary bodies which provide accommodation and related services for homeless persons. In some areas, settlement and outreach services have been developed to work with homeless persons and assist them into suitable long-term accommodation.

My Department recoups 90% of the expenditure incurred by local authorities on payments for homeless accommodation. It is expected that expenditure by my Department, through the local authorities, on accommodation and related services for homeless persons will be about £20 million this year, compared to about £12.5 million last year. This represents a sevenfold increase on the £3 million spent in 1997. The current average bed-night payment by local authorities to voluntary bodies is around £10, which represents a significant increase on the previous payment levels to voluntary bodies. The increases have been widely welcomed to assist in operational costs and improve quality standards. The bed-night rate to a voluntary body in the Dublin area, for example, which was £3.30 in 1997, is now £13.

Another example of an improvement taking place involves Dublin Corporation which has been working with bed and breakfast accommodation providers to improve the quality of accommodation. Anyone who now uses bed and breakfast accommodation in Dublin has 24 hour a day access to it. Security has also been improved at these premises and the residents have access to laundry services. While everyone acknowledges that bed and breakfast accommodation, the use of which will be phased out as part of the homeless strategy, is not the most appropriate type of accommodation for homeless persons, it will continue, of necessity, to be availed of in the absence of other suitable accommodation.

An important element of the Government's strategy is the provision of additional accommodation and a greater variety of accommodation types to cater for the varying needs of homeless persons, including homeless families. In particular, additional transitional and move on accommodation will be provided to enable people to move out of emergency accommodation, whether bed and breakfast accommodation or hostels, into accommodation more suitable to their needs. Bed and breakfast accommodation to accommodate homeless persons on an emergency basis will be used less and less as alternative accommodation becomes available.

A key underlying philosophy of the Government's strategy on homelessness is that it is essential homeless people are helped as much as possible back into independent living in the community. This is accepted by all the agencies involved in working with the homeless. It will be possible to achieve this objective with some of those currently homeless. There are, however, quite a number of homeless persons who have been homeless and living in hostel accommodation for long periods and, unfortunately, have become institutionalised to the extent that they are now unable to cope with the demands of independent living in the community. In these cases, the appropriate response is to provide them with sheltered living accommodation. There are some fine examples of excellent sheltered accommodation where the residents are supported in group living arrangements. This type of accommodation is now needed to a significant extent to move homeless people out of emergency hostel accommodation.

The homeless action plan for the Dublin area was published last May. It represents a comprehensive response to homelessness in Dublin. It must be comprehensive because the greatest concentration of homelessness is located in Dublin, principally between the canals, and the anonymity of the city inevitably attracts homeless persons from other parts of the country. Plans for implementing the measures in the Dublin strategy are well under way and a specially dedicated homeless agency has been established and is now fully functional. The agency's brief is to oversee the delivery of the action plan and co-ordinate the delivery of services to homeless persons by both statutory and voluntary bodies.

The overall aim of the Dublin plan is to eliminate long-term homelessness and the need for people to sleep rough by 2010. This is a challenging goal, but the agency has the capacity and determination to achieve considerable success in meeting this challenge. It will take time. Effective preventive policies and services will be developed in order that the risk of a person or family becoming homeless will be minimal. Where homelessness does occur, the objective is to ensure it is short-term and all people who are homeless will be assisted into housing appropriate to their needs.

The plan charts ten key measures. These include measures to prevent homelessness; improved access to advice, information and referral services; measures to reduce street homelessness by two thirds; improvements in emergency accommodation through the provision of additional hostel and refuge places; improved settlement and outreach services to enable people to move out of homelessness; additional transitional and long-term housing accommodation; improved access to mental health, counselling and support services; improvements in social welfare and community welfare services for homeless people; the development of access to education, training and job opportunities, and research into the causes of and solutions to homelessness in order to continually improve services. These measures chart a comprehensive way forward.

The plight of people sleeping rough on our streets is one of the most visible signs of homelessness today. While many claim the number of people sleeping rough is increasing, particularly in Dublin, there are indications that not all the people who appear to be homeless and living rough on the streets are in fact homeless. This has been borne out by the experience gained from a new service introduced in Dublin last Christmas. Dublin Corporation now operates a night time bus service which brings homeless people sleeping on the streets to hostels and other emergency accommodation. While the service has been successful and become an essential part of services to homeless people in the Dublin area, Dublin Corporation has become aware that some people, who have the appearance of being homeless on the streets, are not homeless and mainly on the streets for the purposes of begging. Its operators also come across a number of people who refuse the service being offered. This can happen for a variety of seasons such as a dislike or fear of hostels or the fact that alcohol or drugs are not allowed on the premises.

These problems need to be addressed and will be addressed as part of the Dublin action plan, particularly through a street outreach service which will work with people sleeping rough. Gaining the confidence of someone sleeping rough and perhaps abusing alcohol or drugs takes time. This is an essential prerequisite to establishing stabilisation measures because there is no quick fix to eliminating street homelessness.

Long before the Dublin action plan was devised, I recognised the urgent need to address the plight of those people who were sleeping rough. Many of them have chronic health problems resulting in many instances from abuse of alcohol and drugs. The Government had no hesitation in agreeing to my proposal to have two high support hostels provided for homeless drug and alcohol users. The Minister for Finance provided £5 million in his 2000 budget for this purpose. It is a matter of considerable regret to me that these services have not yet been established in the Dublin area. Dublin Corporation and the homeless agency have, for some time, been trying to source suitable premises for these hostels without success. However, a site has now been secured where it is proposed to provide medium to long-term high support accommodation for street drinkers where they will be able to drink in a controlled environment. These hostels are called wet hostels. Care and support services will also be available in the hostel to help them get back into a more stable lifestyle. Dublin Corporation and the homeless agency are still trying to source a suitable site for the second hostel but are finding it extremely difficult to secure a suitable premises without the prospect of meeting significant local objections.

Everyone has a role to play in ensuring that the most vulnerable in our society are provided with the accommodation and support they require and in this regard I hope I can count on the support of Senators at local level to ensure that accommodation for homeless persons is provided and supported. A range of accommodation for homeless persons is currently being developed or has been provided recently. Extensions are being built onto existing transitional and long-term accommodation at Maple House in the city centre and the Dublin Simon sheltered accommodation facility on the North Circular Road. Respond, a voluntary housing association, is developing a major facility on the north side of Dublin, while the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is developing another sheltered facility on the south side. A youth Foyer project is being built in Marrowbone Lane. All these facilities will provide much needed long-term sheltered accommodation for homeless persons. These developments will enable homeless persons to move to accommodation that is more suitable to their needs and will also free up spaces in emergency accommodation.

I have focused to a considerable extent on homelessness in Dublin because this is where the greatest extent of homelessness occurs. It is the case, however, that there is homelessness in almost every part of the country to varying extents and measures are being taken to address it more comprehensively.

In Cork, there is a wide range of emergency accommodation and referral services for homeless persons in place. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Cork Simon Community operate emergency accommodation. These services will be expanded and enhanced through the Cork action plan. As a first step, Cork Corporation is in the process of providing transitional accommodation to assist homeless persons move out of emergency accommodation.

In Galway, my home city, a range of accommodation and services for homeless persons is provided by the COPE umbrella organisation, Galway Simon and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. These services have improved dramatically since 1997 and now include resettlement services and a range of transitional and supported housing. In addition, Galway Corporation last year purchased a building for use as emergency accommodation for homeless women and children. When renovated, it will provide much needed facilities for women and children in Galway as existing facilities are very limited. The building is already in use. Approval has also been given for a liaison worker to undertake a pilot project to assist homeless women back into independent living and back into the workforce. This is a good example of an integrated approach to homelessness, where all the needs of the person, not just accommodation, are catered for.

In Limerick, a new Foyer accommodation facility is to be built shortly. This facility will provide supported housing for young adults while at the same time providing training courses for them. Limerick Corporation has acquired two buildings which it intends to develop to provide additional accommodation for homeless persons. In Waterford and Drogheda, settlement services have been established to assist homeless persons back into independent living. This is just a snapshot of some of the additional services for homeless persons which have been developed in recent years or are now coming on stream.

In our efforts to break the cycle of homelessness we must also invest in prevention strategies because if we do not do so, we will always be dealing with the symptoms rather than the causes. As part of the overall homeless strategy, the Government gave a commitment to prepare a preventative strategy to tackle key groups at risk of homelessness. In particular, those leaving institutional care, whether custodial or health related, are very much at risk of being homeless. This equally applies to young people leaving care for the first time. The Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children, and Education and Science, have prepared individual strategies and they have been co-ordinated into one overall strategy under the auspices of the cross-departmental team on homelessness. I intend to publish this strategy very shortly.

The strategy will contain measures to prevent homelessness among adult offenders, young offenders, those leaving mental health facilities and acute hospitals, and young people leaving care. The main theme throughout the strategy will be the need to ensure that no one is released from any type of State care without appropriate measures being in place to ensure that they have a suitable place to live with the necessary supports, if needed. A comprehensive strategy on youth homelessness will be published next week by the Minister of State, Deputy Hanafin, who has responsibility for children.

There have been some real improvements in accommodation and services for homeless persons and we will continue to see these improvements as the local action plans are finalised and implemented. The Government has set out a clear framework and there is a genuine willingness all round to tackle homelessness. I hope the fundamental groundwork that has been laid will secure an effective and lasting response to homelessness. I believe I can count on the support of this House for the measures which have been taken and I very much welcome the interest of the House in this very important national issue.

Mr. Coogan

I ask permission of the House to share time with my colleague, Senator Ridge, on the basis of one of the statements made by the Minister of State which states that this problem is greatest in Dublin – Senator Ridge is an expert in that area.

An Cathaoirleach

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Mr. Coogan

The Minister of State has used semantics in his speech in an effort to diminish the problem. He said that the numbers have not really doubled, but by changing the wording there are now more people defined as homeless. I say that it is the reverse, the numbers have doubled since 1996 and as a result of that, the definitions encompass them. This is the reality of the situation, the numbers have simply doubled.

Since last October there has been a 60% increase in the numbers of those sleeping rough in the Dublin Corporation area. That cannot be changed by semantics. That is a fact. The measure of the humanity of any nation is how it treats the people at the lowest level. Those people do not vote because without a permanent address they are disenfranchised. Without a vote they have no voice. We must be their voice. It seems to be a case of taking them away and hiding them. The reality is much wider than the position the Minister of State described.

The Minister of State has not taken responsibility. He spoke about Galway and he is very familiar with that city. The local authorities there have done great work lately. To update the Minister of State, last Monday the corporation agreed an extension of 13 rooms to the hostel for homeless women. That is not true of every local authority. An action plan was demanded from 30 local authorities and to date only ten have been submitted. It is the responsibility of the Minister of State to ensure that those action plans are introduced, and again he has failed in that regard.

Last November the figure for people sleeping rough in Dublin was 202. Those sleeping in bed and breakfast accommodation numbered 1,200. There are at present 700 beds and the next official census will not be held until 2002. The figures have increased dramatically over the past few years and by 2002 they will be frightening.

We ask ourselves what is the best way to solve the problem. This is a complex problem because the reasons people are homeless are diverse. Young people who are homeless generally come from homes where there is incest, violence, drug taking or criminal activity. To solve the problem of homeless is not that easy. Everybody agrees that the solution must go back to the community because if it does not, the young people concerned will driven from their communities into city centres. As the Minister of State is aware and any Member who has sense knows, city centres are where most of the drug taking happens and where there is ready access to drugs. The young people concerned are driven from their communities to an area in which it is much easier to partake in prostitution, criminal activity and drug taking. We must go back to the community to help to solve the problem of homeless. The approach to solving this problem must be case managed and multidisciplinary. Anyone involved in the care of the homeless in voluntary or statutory bodies will tell one that the problem is solvable. It will not be solved, however, by throwing money at it, but by a common sense approach and the allocation of money.

We are not living in Calcutta. This is not Rio de Janeiro. In this age of the so-called Celtic tiger, to use that awful term, it is a sad reflection on all of us that people are sleeping rough in our country. I read an article recently by the Jesuit priest, Fr. Peter McVerry, in which he brings home the reality of the situation. When we pass someone sleeping on the street we feel we must step around them, ignore them or feel abhorrence, pity and regret about their situation. All are natural reactions. Fr. McVerry wrote that he stopped to listen to what a homeless man had to say. He said to the man that he was from County Tipperary to which the man replied he was and how did he know. Fr. McVerry said he had recognised the accent and talked to him for a while. When leaving the man reached down and picked up money that had been thrown to him and said, "Thank you, Father. This is from the people who don't care." That was a telling remark. People who do not care throw money at the homeless and it is a case of out of sight, out of mind.

Fr. McVerry wrote that we must restore dignity to the people concerned, that we must believe that they have a role to play and assist them in playing it. We must intervene at the earliest possible moment to try to prevent them from leaving their communities. Local gardaí will know the families involved and their circumstances, as will social workers who will be on a first name basis with them and, perhaps, able to prevent them from leaving home and assist them in turning towards a way of life that would give them some dignity. The Government has failed to do this.

It well worth our while to thank voluntary groups such as St. Vincent de Paul and the Simon Community which have done such work on a voluntary basis during the years, often without any or very little assistance, and often highlighted facts to politicians and forced them to take action. We often forget the work of these voluntary groups. There are people in statutory bodies who see their work as a nine to five job and there are those in employment in social welfare who have sincere sympathy for the people with whom they deal. We must always remember those who, on a voluntary basis, have looked after someone whom we forgot to look after.

There are a number of recommendations, some of which the Government is implementing, but there are others that the Minister of State must make. He will have to focus on those and say that the Government will end homelessness within a particular period. He needs to set a target date and say that we can do so within that period. We know how to do it. There have been enough reports on homelessness. We have all the material we need. We know the causes of the problem and the answers to solving it. The answers are there if the Minister of State was to really concentrates on the problem. If the Government is concerned about those at the lowest level in our society, this problem could be solved within ten years.

Mrs. Ridge

I am glad to have an opportunity to speak on the subject of homelessness. I am pleased a Senator asked that this session be set aside to discuss it. My colleague, Senator Coogan, referred to the fact that I would deal mainly with Dublin issues.

With respect to the Minister of State, his speech is an aspirational work of fiction, a fairytale of Dublin rather than a fairytale of New York. I attend an advice centre every Monday morning and I am beginning to call it a "lack of advice centre". The only people I have seen for the past year and a half are generally young homeless women. I had the experience during the summer months of trying to get a young mother who was sleeping in a hedge in a field – not in rural Ireland, but in Dublin – into accommodation. I am very disappointed at the lack of movement from the homeless agency. I paid great attention to what the Minister of State said and all I heard him speak of were measures, strategies and proposals, but nothing concrete. If anything, the situation in Dublin is critical.

An amazing thing happened to a young couple who came to see me. They are the parents of two children and decided to marry. When they got married the wife lost her single mother's book. As her husband was on a CE scheme, they lost a large portion of their rent allowance. They are homeless because they got married. It is a strange country, is it not? The reason I speak about them is that the husband is not allowed into the same hostel as his wife and their two children. The thinking that prevails in situations such as this must be examined. Somebody should be shot for making decisions such as that.

This is probably one of the most complex issues. Years ago families appeared to be stable. If they were not, they kept it well hidden. There was no such thing as a 12 year old opting out and going to live on the streets.

I do not understand the ignoring or closing of eyes, hearts and minds to what is out there and plain to see. How can I know all about this? How can I know that in my council area there are 91 homeless people on the housing list? They are all priority cases, but none of them has a hope of being housed for about a year and a half because we have 4,800 on the ordinary housing waiting list. Somebody is telling porky pies, to put it nicely, or what has happened is that social change has come so rapidly that social problems have emerged under our noses.

The Minister of State is the man who has the job of dealing with the issue. As a tenth, 11th or 12th generation Dubliner, I am ashamed of my city. I am ashamed to pass homeless people on our streets. I do not agree with what Fr. McVerry wrote in his article. People give money because they feel so helpless to do anything else.

The idea that we will all provide homeless accommodation in our areas is an excellent one. If necessary, public consultation should be done away with in order to put people into shelter. We are talking about a basic human right, shelter. I cannot understand the reason everyone is waking up to this now. Why will there be a three yearly review of the problem when the numbers of homeless are growing daily?

I cannot understand the reason the cold weather hostel in Dublin is closed every year in April when the tropical weather arrives, and in case Members did not notice, it lasts until October. That ridiculous situation prevails regardless of the weather. This affects the very men about whom the Minister of State spoke, those who appear to have alcohol and other lifestyle problems.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak to the Minister of State. I wish he would return to the House to give Members an update on the current situation with regard to the provision of accommodation by the homeless agency. All I see is a plethora of advisers, agencies and reports. I will still turn people away next Monday morning and tell them I cannot help them in any way.

I do not know when the Minister of State last received a report on bed and breakfast accommodation, but nobody is being sent to such accommodation at present. People are being sent to hostels and separated from their husbands and partners. Hostels are not nice places to live. The bed and breakfast option would be wonderful if it was true.

The current situation is, to put it mildly, Dickensian. It is a scandal and a national shame that people are living like this in a burgeoning economy. The issue should be tackled. I agree with the Minister of State that the local authority is the place to start. There is no point sending somebody from the back end of Clondalkin to the North Circular Road, which involves getting two buses, to bring their children to school. I often wonder if anybody has bothered to talk to the people concerned.

I feel strongly about this issue and I am trying to do something about it. The Minister of State is aware he will receive the support of the House for practical measures that will become operational, but not for fantasy forecasts of what might or could happen at some stage, before we all die.

Labhrás Ó Murchú

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. It is evident from the Minister of State's statement that there is a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem of homelessness. It is also evident that this is underpinned by a personal sense of compassion on the part of the Minister of State.

There is no doubt that homelessness is a great scourge. It removes the individual's dignity and hope. The nature and definition of homelessness have changed. It is an organic problem; one does not reach the end of it. Nobody can define the categories who will fall into homelessness or claim to be able to solve that aspect of the problem. Members will remember from their schooldays the nostalgic and sentimental poem, An Old Woman of the Roads, by Padraic Colum. We can recall its heartfelt sentiments. The woman would like to have the security of a home and describes what that means to her. The poem is imagery from other days, but the basic problem is still the same for the individual.

Changes in society have exacerbated, to a large extent, the problem of homelessness. During the years I have watched many television documentaries on the subject, documentaries which were made in both this country and abroad, particularly Britain. These documentaries gave an incisive understanding of what homelessness meant. The image was not always that of the old bag lady who gathered all her worldly possessions in plastic bags and pushed them from place to place in a cart or pram. We realised that many of the homeless were young people who came from affluent families, but, due to pressures in society, peer pressure or pressure in the home, decided to leave home and no longer had any contact with it.

I have spoken on the issue of missing persons no longer in contact with their families on several occasions in the Seanad. One need only look in bus and railway stations and on the poles outside this House to see posters appealing for information on such people. Some of the names are easy to remember because I have been looking at them for the last 12 months to two years. We do not know whether the people concerned are alive or dead, whether they are homeless or whether anybody is looking after them. There are exceptionally large numbers of these people and it is evident that many of them come from well off homes. It is not, therefore, a matter of them being deprived in a social or economic sense. There are other social issues involved.

I have visited the United States virtually every year for the last 30 years. On my first visit in the late 1960s and early 1970s I could never understand when I saw people lying on the side of the road the reason nobody would stop to help them or find out what their problems were. I began to realise that this was the lack of compassion which sometimes accompanies affluence. There is also the element of people not wanting to "get involved". I could never imagine the same thing happening in Ireland, but it has. People will look at deprived people on the street, but not stop to help. Those who were prepared to help, the religious orders, have been denigrated and demonised. They were always available to help. They would identify the problem cases and find locations for them. They were prepared to help through their personal service, commitment and dedication, but that is no longer available.

The Minister of State correctly pointed out that he was successful in sourcing the necessary finances, not just finance for the usual cases of homelessness. Many of the difficulties arise from drug and alcohol abuse and often the people concerned do not want help for various reasons. Perhaps they are claustrophobic about hospital conditions or could not imagine themselves going into a drug free zone. Even in those cases, the Minister of State came up with answers. It is a pity that where the finance was provided in Dublin it was not used urgently and that the type of hostel which the Minister of State had envisaged was not put in place to help those cases. After all, they are the cases who will continue to sit on the bridges of Dublin.

An effort was made to carry out a fire brigade action by providing a night transport service for people sitting on the street, the recipients of our sympathy at a distance as another Member described it. Again, it was discovered that many of the people at whom this service was directed did not avail of it. In some cases, the people concerned were not homeless, but simply begging on the streets. However, even the most immediate problem of people requiring help and assistance on a given night has been attended to.

We need to look into our hearts. Dublin is considered to be a difficult area because of the size of the population and the number of homeless people and the fact that the city will attract homeless people because of the promise of anonymity. We should appeal to Senators to provide leadership in their communities on this issue. It is easy to point fingers, but let us look into our hearts and examine if we have responded in a meaningful way to the difficulties which exist. Dublin Corporation has been to the fore in many ways, but in other parts of Dublin, in the greater county area, the first signal we get when we attempt to do something is that somebody is going to object. What is the reason for objecting? The people are not going to be discommoded and there is no immediate threat to the community. However, for some strange reason, the shutters are drawn down, compassion goes out the door and there is no effort to consolidate goodwill within the community.

It behoves every public representative who will talk about the needs of the homeless and the need for compassion to have the courage to put their head above the parapet and provide leadership. Often that is all a community requires. If there is no leadership, it is left to the scaremongerers to claim the community will change and that people of disreputable character will be put in its midst. That is not a Christian attitude, or community minded. Above all, in the long term it will exacerbate the difficulty. Anybody who thinks one can simply turn a blind eye to this problem and expect it to go away or to be pushed into somebody else's area is wrong.

An effort has been made in most smaller towns and communities to adopt a partnership approach to solving this problem. Local representatives do not seek headlines in local newspapers by reacting to minority representations that have been made. They are prepared to provide leadership in their own right. Similarly, communities generally indicate a willingness, within reason, to respond and to help.

In 90% of cases, homelessness has nothing to do with people of a disreputable orientation. Homeless people are those who are unfortunate enough, for social, economic or other reasons, not to have a roof over their heads. Addressing this problem is not as simple as coming up with a plan and providing the finance to implement it. We may have to look beyond the issue of homelessness, at the social problems we discuss in this Chamber every day on the Order of Business and when we discuss legislation.

Every Senator admits that the serious problems of society are increasing. The levels of discipline and control that once applied to young people no longer apply, by and large. Using our affluence to provide money for young people often pushes them away as we saw recently in the terrible cases of those who died after losing contact with their families. Young people may become involved in crime or other misdemeanours.

Homelessness is a serious problem about which Senators should unite, irrespective of politics, location or ideology. Instead of pointing fingers, we should try to help in any way we can. This can only be done if more voluntary agencies are brought on board. Compliments have rightly been paid to groups like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Simon Community of Ireland and I wish to add the religious orders to that list. All voluntary groups, including community based organisations whose main brief is not in the area of homelessness, can help fight this problem. I come from Cashel, a town with a population of 3,000. There are 37 community organisations in Cashel, including meals on wheels, the Legion of Mary and the GAA. There is a great deal of goodwill among those who work for such organisations. They often have a finger on the pulse and can spot problems before they are publicly manifested. We need to bring such groups on board.

Resources are important but we must also ensure that adequate accommodation is provided. When I was a member of Cashel Urban District Council I was involved with the housing priority list. The biggest danger for those on the list was that they might lose their priority place, but that is no longer the case in most towns as there has been a huge improvement in the provision of public housing. Interim accommodation arrangements can also pose a problem. We should not view accommodation in hostels or in bed and breakfasts as the end of the road. Advisory and counselling services should be provided to see if people can be brought back to their homes, where their parents want them to be. This debate should focus on helping homeless people to regain their lives and reinstate their hopes, not in temporary accommodation but in places where they can be established permanently.

Having listened to the Minister's statement, fair minded people cannot say that all aspects of homelessness, including recent difficulties, have not been addressed, that homeless people have not been helped and that resources have not been provided. It is a big issue and there is no point in saying that a line can be drawn under certain measures to represent a solution. Homelessness is an organic difficulty which must be seen in the greater context of social changes.

Mr. Norris

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I listened to his speech in my office. He has suffered a barrage of criticism on this side of the House, but that is politics. The criticism reflects, however, the feeling that there is an urgent need to address the problem directly and specifically. I take comfort from certain aspects of the Minister of State's speech, but I am sure he will agree that a great deal remains to be done.

It is pleasing that the problem of homelessness will benefit from substantial budgetary increases in the next few years. The effect of an enlargement of funding over five years, for example, from £10 million to £20 million, may be reduced by inflation and increases in the cost of providing services, especially in the fifth year. The Minister of State mentioned a plan that charts ten key measures, one of which deals with the goal of a 66% reduction in street homelessness. Is that a pious aspiration or a clearly defined target for which mechanisms have been put in place? The Simon Community of Ireland, which supplied me with an excellent briefing, has refused to co-operate with the Government in some areas because it failed to receive a clear targeted commitment to reduce homelessness by 50%. There seems to be some conflict or confusion between the statements. I am also pleased to see that Dublin Corporation operates a night bus service, bringing people sleeping on the streets to hostels, which is a good and decent initiative.

Homelessness is a huge problem. I plan to rely heavily in my speech on the briefing I received from the Simon Community as the figures it contains make stark reading. A survey carried out in Dublin in October 2000 showed a 60% increase in rough sleepers since 1997, despite Government claims during the last four years. A national local authority tri-annual count showed that the numbers of homeless people doubled between 1996, when there were 2,501 such people, and 1999, when there were 5,234. The next tri-annual count, due in 2002, will undoubtedly show a further spectacular increase. Experience in the United Kingdom suggests that the figures may underestimate the problem as the nature of such counts leads to inaccuracies. According to the local authority count, two thirds of homelessness occurs in Dublin, which is a pretty shocking indictment of the capital. There is a strong possibility, however, that the figure underestimates the incidence of homelessness outside Dublin.

When one breaks down the numbers, a second problem emerges, that of causal factors. It is disturbing to note the increasing incidence of people on the streets because of mental illness. The Simon Community in Cork found last year that 40% of people using its emergency services suffer from some form of mental illness. It is disturbing that the majority of mentally ill people on the streets of Cork were found to be taking medi cation without medical supervision. The Simon Community in Dublin found this year that 50% of homeless people in the capital are mentally unwell. In 2000, a report of the Royal College of Surgeons independently showed that 64% of people using shelters in Dublin could be mentally ill.

The high incidence of mental illness and homelessness, especially compared to European experience – there is a substantial difference between the experience in Ireland and other European countries – is related to the lack of community care services to support mentally unwell people in their own homes, the inappropriate discharge of people from hospitals and the shortage of supported housing or housing with in-house support located in the community.

An extremely high proportion of homeless people were in care and under the protection of the State when they were children. This is another reproach to society in that we were given responsibility for looking after these people until a certain age but they were then turned into the street in a condition that meant they were ill-equipped to deal with the problems of living rough and no proper shelter was provided for them. This is worrying, particularly in the context of incidents in industrial schools about which we know already where children were mistreated, abused and sent out without resources into a world with which they had great difficulty coping.

Senator Ó Murchú mentioned the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the religious system. I pay tribute to the work of Focus Ireland and Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy whose work has been remarkable. They carried out a survey in 2000 which found that two years after leaving care, 68% of people who stayed with the health board had experienced homelessness and that 65% of the special school population had been in a place of detention or prison. This suggests that something is wrong with the system.

People have great difficulty accessing private rented sector and local authority housing. Supplementary welfare allowance claimants find that accommodation is extremely difficult to find. Landlords obviously do not want to get involved in that market. They prefer people who pay market rents and health board nominees. Homeless people are predominantly single. This means they do not even have the support and cherishing nurture of companionship. Some 70% of homeless people in Dublin are single and when one puts all these figures together, one gets a picture of catastrophe. It is representative of a person who was in the care of the State as a child and then moved onto the streets. He or she is mentally ill and without the support of a loving relationship. This is a devastating picture of isolation.

Such people are difficult to deal with and I temper any criticism of the Department – I am trying to be constructive – with a realisation that each case is unique. When we were located in Kildare House, a homeless woman slept on the steps of the lobby in a cardboard box. Senator Ryan and I tried to do something for her but she did not want to go to any other place. She wanted to be outside so all we could do for her at Christmas was to get her a couple of decent blankets. I do not know where she is now but she did not want to go anywhere else at that time.

The Government has produced a cross-departmental report called Homelessness – An Integrated Strategy. Every local authority is also bound to produce a report. Some authorities have produced their reports but, according to Simon, they are a mixed bag. To date, only ten local authorities have finished their plans. Some of them, including those by Dublin, Limerick and Clare, are very good but others, including Wicklow and Kilkenny, are very bad. They avoid making specific recommendations and there is a strong feeling that they were done only so the authority could be seen to be going through the motions – preparing the report would get them off the hook.

A homeless agency has been set up in Dublin but it has made a slow start. The closure of the Charles Street centre has also caused difficulties. It has left a hole in the services in Dublin that has not been filled. In terms of what needs to be done, the Government report, Homelessness – An Integrated Strategy, should be implemented in full. A national target should be set in the national anti-poverty strategy to reduce homelessness by 50%. Perhaps the Minister of State will indicate if that is covered by the statement that the Government intends to reduce street homelessness by two thirds. This may or may not be a pious aspiration, which is why I referred to it early in my contribution. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to set a target in the national anti-poverty strategy to reduce homelessness by 50%? There is also a need to review the Housing Act, 1980. This empowers rather than requires local authorities to look after homeless people. The Act should be strengthened along European norms and health boards should be required to produce a strategy to meet the health needs of the homeless.

In the Dublin Simon street count 2000, the total number of rough sleepers in central Dublin for the week 15 to 21 October 2000 was 202 people. This represents an increase of 60% on the street count of 8 to 14 December 1997 and a 36% increase on the street count of June 1998. There are more rough sleepers in Dublin than the combined figures for Oxford, which had 52, Manchester, which had 44, Birmingham, which had 43, Nottingham, which had 31 and Liverpool, which had 30. The number of people sleeping rough in Dublin is greater than the combined total for Oxford, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and Liverpool. This is not something about which we as a society can be happy.

According to the latest UK homeless network street monitor count in January 1999, the number of rough sleepers in central Dublin was more than two thirds of the number of rough sleepers in central London – 302. There is another tragic reality underneath that figure because a huge proportion of the homeless people in London are Irish. The total number of males sleeping rough was 163, or 81% of the total, while 8% of rough sleepers were aged under 18 years. Some 22% were aged between 19 and 25 years while 62% were aged between 26 and 50 years. Some 8% were aged over 50 years. The declining percentage is due to the fact that many of them die. I am sure that again this Christmas there will be stories in the newspapers about people dying in central Dublin. Some 94% of rough sleepers said they would take accommodation if it was available to them. There is a lack of movement on the issue of accommodation. There is a lack of emergency accommodation and adequate community care provisions.

People who are mentally ill and homeless should be regarded first as mentally ill. Putting a homeless label on them does not trigger additional services or provision. That should be adopted as a principle – I am glad the Minister of State's adviser is nodding his head. That may be something on which we agree or it may just be something he has heard before because Simon has made that submission.

Services for the mentally ill should be free from catchment constraints. This would avoid the problem of people being caught in margins and borders, which is not good. A report by the Eastern Health Board stated that the in-patient treatment needs of the homeless mentally ill ideally should be provided by a centralised service rather than devolved to catchment area services to ensure there is no fragmentation of service delivery. This recommendation was made five years ago but nothing has happened. Action should be taken on it.

There is a further recommendation that the homeless service user should be assessed in terms of individual needs. This is obvious in view of the high rate of mental illness. It means that each person is unique. Another recommendation relates to the provision of sufficient residential treatment places for drug addicts and alcoholics. They are specifically difficult people and I agree with the Minister of State that the NIMBY syndrome often arises in this regard because people do not want them. This could be addressed by the Government ensuring there is a proper spread. I welcome these developments but I have more than a sufficiency of them around the north inner city. There would be less resistance if there was a fair spread of these institutions.

The health boards should enter into dialogue with prisons and hospitals about the premature discharge of people who have difficulty coping with life on the streets.

Mr. Walsh

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire agus molaim é as ucht an iarracht atá á dhéanamh aige chun an ábhar tábhachtach seo a réiteach.

In discussing this topic I am reminded of a visit I made to New York about ten years ago. I was invited by some relatives to take the Circle Line, a boat trip around the island of Manhattan that leaves from Pier 49 in New York. While we were waiting on the boat for the trip to commence, I noticed a large number of temporary buildings some distance away. I saw people moving around and taking showers in cardboard structures. When I inquired about it, my relatives told me it was a large congregation of homeless people who did not get any support from the state. They were embarrassed and said they had hoped I would not notice it. As Senator Norris said, any of us who travel to London from time to time often see people sleeping in cardboard boxes in doorways. It is important to remember that homelessness is a global phenomenon. It is not only a matter for the Third World, but for the western world. We judge society by the initiatives we take to try to resolve it. While it will always probably be with us, it is the responsibility of the State and any caring society to take steps to ensure it is minimised and that every effort is made to try to eradicate it. That will require a continuous effort.

The contribution the Minister of State has made since he came to office in 1997 has been remarkable. People spoke eloquently about homelessness, but they failed to implement a coherent strategy to address it. The establishment of an interdepartmental team to investigate and report on the issue, which subsequently gave rise to the integrated strategy in May last year to co-ordinate the efforts of all statutory and voluntary organisations, was a significant step in adopting a comprehensive and positive approach to the issue. It is appropriate to use the local authorities to implement that strategy and investigate gaps in the service. It is also appropriate to conduct a periodic review of the strategy and its success every three years. The establishment of the homeless agency is another important step. I also welcome the provision of social and care workers and the intention to move away from bed and breakfast accommodation.

The contribution of the voluntary organisations was mentioned by many speakers and I share the laudatory remarks about them. I am a firm believer in a republican society. It is not just the responsibility of the State to provide social services. Everyone, whether it is private individuals or voluntary organisations, has a responsibility to harness their energies. The best results are often achieved by a combination of both public and voluntary effort. We have seen exceptionally good examples of this in practice.

Youth homelessness is more of a problem in cities than in rural areas. Our changing lifestyles and greater affluence mean that drink and drugs are widely available. This leads to all types of social problems, including homelessness. People may find themselves in circumstances beyond their control and may not be able to provide accommodation for themselves. It is significant that some of the reports which have been published show that most of those at risk are people who have been institutionalised. I am talking about people who have been in the care of the State and in long-term health care, particularly in mental institutions, children in care, and those who have been in prison, which seems to be the category most at risk. If we subscribe fully to the republican ethos which underpins our democratic system, it behoves us all to play our part to reduce or eradicate the problem.

While homelessness is predominantly an urban problem, it also occurs in rural areas. I have noticed in my local authority area that there is a quick response to family homelessness, which often occurs as a result of domestic violence that is, unfortunately, a feature of our society. However, local authorities are often not as quick to address the problem of individuals who are homeless. It is important not to become judgmental. People who have problems or feel alienated from society are often prisoners of their own environment and if we become judgmental, it will not help to address the issue.

Many initiatives have been taken under the current strategy. Focus Ireland, to which Senator Norris referred, the Simon Community and St. Vincent de Paul do exceptionally good work. It is important that we move away from temporary bed and breakfast accommodation because that only addresses the person's night time accommodation needs. They do not have the succour or support of a family or community environment during the day. The establishment of coffee shops where people can get food and advice is important. I also welcome the establishment of a crisis desk, which is run by Focus Ireland and provides information on accommodation.

The provision by the health boards of day care centres for the elderly is a positive step in terms of geriatric care. I also welcome their introduction in this area. We should extend such services, particularly for the young. It may be more difficult in the future to remedy the problems of people who are alienated from society at a young age. The establishment of day care centres for young people in major urban areas where they can interact with their peers and get assistance from social or care workers who will make adjustments to their way of life will make a significant contribution to their quality of life and their reintegration into society.

Dublin Corporation deserves recognition for its initiatives and efforts in this regard. Senator Ridge mentioned the lack of activity in this area. It is important to extend the activities of Dublin Corporation into the neighbouring South Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Fingal County Council in order that the beneficial effects of the initiatives and efforts are felt across the city.

However, the outreach service which involves people travelling around the city at night giving advice to homeless persons and liaising with the Garda, health boards and hostels is to be welcomed. If these services are resourced inroads will be made in reducing the number of homeless people which is, as the Minister of State has rightly acknowledged, at an unacceptable level. The initiatives that have been taken are a step in the right direction.

All of us have a responsibility in society. Ireland has a great tradition of family support but, unfortunately, as society has become more affluent some of the values which sustained us in the past have been eroded. The provision of sheltered accommodation and family support is fundamental to resolving and reducing homelessness. I compliment the Minister of State on the various initiatives he has taken. He has worked extremely hard on this issue since taking office and I support him in his continuing efforts to reduce the effects of this blight on society.

Mr. O'Dowd

Fáiltím roimh an Aire Stáit go dtí an Teach seo freisin. I welcome the thrust of the debate thus far and I concur with a number of points made by Senator Walsh. Having a place to go is a basic issue for people but that is not always the case in Drogheda. I am not happy with the regulations that apply in regard to homelessness and I am not convinced local authority officials are the best people to deal with this issue. Community welfare offices have a long history and tradition of contact with homeless people and their families. They acquire a fabulous amount of knowledge and information to which local authorities are not privy and, in the absence of such knowledge, local authority officials face a quandary and sometimes make decisions with which I do not agree.

Unfortunately, people have a habit of approaching public representatives at 4.30 p.m. on a Friday rather than on a Monday morning when we would have the entire week to work with them. I have called the Department of the Environment and Local Government regarding the provision of money and accommodation to individuals and whether they can be helped.

For example, last week a recovering alcoholic who used to live with his mother approached me. He had lived rough for a while but then entered Cluain Mhuire and was well looked after. He returned to Drogheda and sought accommodation. He could not get a place to stay because many landlords would not accept rent allowance payments from the health board. This is major issue. Advertisements are placed in newspapers which explicitly state rent allowance payments will not be accepted. I do not know whether that is legal. Such an advertisement is discriminatory and it should be unlawful for a landlord to refuse to accept rent allowance as payment. Perhaps one of the Minister of State's officials will examine this issue. However, the man could not get a flat because the promise of cash from the health board was not good enough. He then approached the local authority saying he was homeless and had nowhere to stay but the officials told him he should go back to his mother and friends. That is not good enough.

Judgments cannot be made about homeless people in cases such as this, as Senator Walsh said. If their relationships with family and friends have been broken they cannot go home, even if three or four family members are living in the area. More help is needed to address such cases. The man in the case to which I referred will present himself to me again later this week. Hopefully, he will have been accommodated in the meantime but the local authority should have recognised he was homeless and put him up in bed and breakfast accommodation for a number of days.

Money is another significant issue. Couples who have children and are forced to move out of their parents' homes do not have money. Local authorities should provide them with a lump sum, say £300, to give them a start but instead the money is used to provide bed and breakfast accommodation. Last week it cost the local authority £700 to keep one family in such accommodation in Drogheda. This money would have been better utilised if the family had been set up in semi-permanent accommodation with proper support services.

Local authorities and health boards do not engage in integrated planning and they do not interact enough. When I deal with homeless cases, I first call the housing officer, then the community welfare officer and, if necessary, the Department in Dublin. A one stop shop should be provided where the local authority and health board officials would come together. Both sets of officials are often not fully aware of what is going on in various cases, although another problem is created by people not telling them the truth. I fought hard on behalf of one person but subsequently discovered he was not using the money he was being given for accommodation and that he kept moving around. Specially trained social workers are needed to deal with families, single people and people suffering from alcohol and drug abuse who seek short-term accommodation. Putting people up for a night or a week is not enough and an integrated approach is needed.

There has been an increase in the number of families breaking up and in the majority of cases the mother and children remain in the family home while the father stays in a flat or on the street. Many of these men are in their thirties, forties or fifties when this happens and they become cut off from society very quickly. They have no contact with their families, sometimes as a result of court orders, and they have no place to go to regain contact with their families. Designated areas are necessary where separated families can meet. It is important that men in this position can maintain contact with their children. Many children are unhappy because when they meet their fathers they have to walk the streets or go into pubs because their fathers have nowhere to bring them. A designated area where families can come together is a good concept.

Homelessness is being addressed and significant funding is being provided but, at the end of the day, much more needs to be done. An integrated approach between local authorities and health boards must be fine tuned. I am not satisfied enough is being done in this regard. We have no right to make judgments on homeless people. We have an obligation to deal with their needs as they are presented to us in so far as they are honest about them. Health boards have a great deal of information that is not used. I am in contact with community welfare officers and they know the families involved in homeless cases much better than anybody else. They are in daily or weekly contact with them and they are the best judges of the cases. Dividing responsibilities is a waste of time because if the local authority will not help, one must approach the health board. The health board can help in some circumstances but not in others. Let us clear up this problem.

Unfortunately when crises arise on Friday or Saturday nights, people do not know where to call or what to do. We need to publish a freephone number in local papers for homeless people to call and have skilled people on the other end of the line to help and advise them. Probably most damning of all is that the choice of accommodation under this system is utterly disgraceful. I have seen flats that are stinking with sewage. The squalor and filth are indescribable. Some people have to live here because it is all that is available. If the State is providing money to accommodate families, we should insist that basic facilities such as hot water and a clean warm environment are provided, not the dreadful Dickensian conditions that people are living in. We must address this; we cannot run away from it. If we are providing money for bed and breakfast or other accommodation, it must meet basic minimum human standards. In many cases this accommodation does not meet these standards.

Mr. Costello

I welcome the Minister to the House again. This issue has arisen consistently in this House and we have invited him here regularly to outline developments in the area of homelessness. I am heartened to see what has been happening since May with the integrated plan for Dublin. This is an effort to get the voluntary and statutory agencies to combine to form a coherent approach to homelessness. However, the area is still a disaster which is worsening by the day and I am afraid that the proposals here are inadequate to stem the flow of people into a homelessness. The agencies are incapable of dealing with the problem.

The right to a home or shelter should be a constitutional right, but it is not in the Constitution. It is a disgrace that in 1996 there were 2,501 homeless people and by 1999 that figure had risen to 5,134. We know from contacts and from anecdotal information that the situation is worsening. More people are sleeping rough. The homeless unit in Dublin last week said it feared the situation was getting out of control in terms of the number of people they are dealing with and the number of people who will be sleeping rough this Christmas with nowhere to go. Despite all the efforts, the situation has disimproved. We are clearly not getting an adequate grip on it.

The hostels, bed and breakfasts and private rented accommodation that are used are, in the main, inadequate and of poor quality. Much of it is terribly expensive and unsuitable for family needs. There is a human tragedy on the streets. We see from the figures that two thirds of homeless people are located in Dublin but the situation may be even worse. I do not intend to go into a diatribe about the awfulness of the situation other than stating that it is awful and has not improved.

There are two areas that could be addressed. The word 'prison' was mentioned only once in the Minister of State's speech, yet approximately 8,000 people pass through the doors of Mountjoy Prison every year. A considerable percentage of them are people who are homeless for one reason or another. They may have been drug abusers or alcoholics, they may have committed larceny or assault or minor offences and when they are released, they have nowhere to go. There is no integrated contact between the prison service and the local authorities, the homeless unit or the Department of Health in relation to the provision of accommodation for released prisoners. There is no system in place to provide a roof over their heads.

The Simon Community's statistics show that the situation is no better in relation to institutions dealing with the mentally ill. The proportion of patients who are discharged and become homeless is huge. There is no integrated system in place between the various statutory agencies and while the Dublin plan seeks to address that, there are whole areas not covered by it and I do not know how they will be covered.

Dublin Corporation has a points system of allocating accommodation. It uses a chronological system. One must present in person at Dublin Corporation and fill out an application form to state that one is homeless. These forms cannot therefore be filled out in prison. If one is single, one will have to wait at least three years before getting a place as a homeless person. Even for a family the waiting list is a year and a half. That is not an adequate response to the problem. There should be a basic right to shelter incorporated in our Constitution.

We should have a single housing authority. This multiple agency system is simple not working between the health boards, local authorities and other voluntary agencies. There are people falling between all of the stools. There is no one who is ultimately responsible and this is part of the problem. There must be somebody driving solutions and a responsible agency dealing with homelessness. It is ridiculous that the homeless unit in Dublin was closed down this spring and summer and there was just one phone available to take calls. People were spending hours trying to get through to the homeless unit. Even though the unit is open now, it is only open from 9.30 a.m. until 12.30 p.m. If people turn up after 12.30 p.m. or at the weekend, the unit is closed. An emergency unit that is only open in the morning is a ridiculous concept. I commend the staff who work there and operate well within the constraints. People who telephone the unit are dealing with an anonymous person at the other end of the line and may be waiting a long time to get through. One never knows at the end of the process whether a bed will be available and where it will be.

The adequacy of the accommodation leaves a lot to be desired. Bed and breakfast accommodation is unsuitable for families and it costs a fortune. Drug addicts are placed with alcoholics whose family members are in the same institution. There is no distinction between categories. As far as the homeless unit is concerned, if they can get a roof over their heads they are doing well. This will not do.

We need a single agency and accommodation needs to be greatly improved. There should be a separate homeless unit for families. Alcoholics no longer come to the homeless units in Gardiner Street or Charles Street because they are scared of the drug addicts there. There are many difficulties, but throwing everybody together is an inadequate response.

There should be an annual survey, not a triennial one. We waited from 1996 to 1999 and now we must wait until next year for the latest figures. The Minister should have given us provisional figures as the next survey is only six months away. A period of three years is too long in terms of responding to emergencies, which is what we are dealing with. There is no reason figures should not be available annually. I hope there is no hidden agenda behind this.

Landlord and tenant issues must be addressed. Outrageous things are happening in this area. One must spend 20 years as a tenant before one has a single right in terms of legislation. One can be served with a month's notice to quit, followed by eviction. Judges always decide in favour of the landlord because the law is entirely on their side.

Mr. Walsh

That is reasonable notice.

Mr. Costello

Once a person receives notice, he or she is out.

Mr. Walsh

No.

Mr. Costello

I know this is the case. It happens all the time in Dublin because rents are raised constantly. The way to put rents up is to evict. I deal with the results of these evictions and so does the local authority. They take place because the landlord can get higher rent from someone else. We have no system of rent control to manage this practice.

At the beginning of the last decade 300,000 people were unemployed. The Celtic tiger has existed since then and our unemployment levels have gone from 18% to 3.5%, which is a wonderful result. The National Economic and Social Forum was given the task of devising a mechan ism to eliminate unemployment. It came up with a solution which everyone laughed at because they believed that unemployment could not be abolished, although it virtually has been now. The solution was that local employment services would put together their portfolios of people and every unemployed person who volunteered to seek employment would be approached personally to ensure that they made contact with business people, who in turn would provide the training, education and skills required. This was done on a personal basis, although not all those unemployed volunteered.

It must be possible to assess the needs of 5,000 people individually and to address them on a personal basis. We do not need a mechanism which includes integrated plans and relationships between the statutory agencies. What is needed is individual human contact, which is lacking. The short-term and long-term needs of each individual should be assessed and a combination of responses put together. This is the only possible basis on which to deal with the problem. It is manageable if we set our minds to it.

Sitting suspended at 12.55 p.m. and resumed at 2 p.m.