Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 4 May 2005
498 Mr. Curran asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government his plans to implement the strategy on homelessness; the cost of implementation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14323/05]
Amharc ar fhreagra
The Government's integrated strategy on homelessness was launched in 2000 and its homeless preventative strategy in 2002. Under the terms of the integrated strategy, homeless fora, representative of the statutory and voluntary homeless sectors, were established at local authority level and, under their aegis, homelessness action plans were adopted and are in the process of being implemented. These developments have resulted in the provision of a wide range of additional accommodation and services for homeless persons. People who sleep rough have been enabled to access emergency accommodation and homeless persons have been facilitated to move out of emergency accommodation into accommodation more suitable to their needs. Increased levels of day care facilities, together with specific provisions to meet the needs of people with addiction problems or who are sleeping rough as well as homeless ex-offenders, have been put in place.
While the provision of accommodation and related services for homeless persons is the responsibility of local authorities, my Department recoups to them 90% of their expenditure in this area. Details of amounts recouped since the implementation of the integrated strategy are set out in the following table.
|
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
|
€ 15.8 million |
€31.7 million |
€42.9 million |
€49.2 million |
€45.7million |
Local authorities meet the balance of 10% of the costs from their own revenue while the care costs associated with these services are provided by the health boards.
An independent review of the implementation of the integrated and preventative homelessness strategies and their associated action plans is under way and the outcome of the review will help to inform future developments in this area.
