asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of and approves of the withdrawal of the services of the community welfare officer for the homeless at Lord Edward Street, Dublin 2; if he approves of the fact that the change of service was made at very short notice and without consulting either the homeless people who use the service or the voluntary agencies working in this field; if he is further aware that unattached wandering homeless people are continuing to call to Lord Edward Street; if any effort is to be made to assist such a vulnerable group to obtain their entitlements; and, if so, the nature of the measures to be taken.

I am aware that the Eastern Health Board have relocated the community welfare service for homeless people from their premises in Lord Edward Street, which has been condemned as unfit for use for some years, to the recently refurbished health centre at Benburb Street. The board have also assigned an additional community welfare officer to the service. There are now two community welfare officers at Benburb Street working full time with homeless people. This means that the office can remain open all day as one or other of the officers will always be on the premises.

The health board made arrangements for organisations dealing with homeless people to be notified of the new arrangement through the community welfare service. Many of the organisations have indicated that they are satisfied with the arrangement.

The initial complaint was about the sudden manner in which the switch was made from Lord Edward Street to Benburb Street and the lack of notification to the people involved. While there are two community welfare officers available, if a person from the south side comes at a time when the officer for that area is not available, the north side officer is not in a position to deal with inquiries and a number of people have been turned away. Can the Minister indicate if any arrangement can be made whereby either officer can deal with any query, whether from the north or south side?

For the first week after the change of location the board assigned a community welfare officer to Lord Edward Street to redirect people who were seeking information about services and, although there are now no services operating from the old office, a porter was retained to redirect callers there. With regard to residents of the Iveagh Hostel, including the Trust organisation, special arrangements have always existed whereby a community welfare officer visited these hostels to make payments. As a consequence of the relocation of services, the community welfare officer is now in a position to visit these hostels two or three times a week instead of once a week as heretofore. The Salvation Army hostel at York Street is also included. I am satisfied that the new arrangements represent a decided improvement in the services available to homeless people in Dublin city. However, I should be glad to discuss the matter with the Deputy at another time.