We have had much debate in the House about housing over the past couple of hours which will continue tomorrow. I am concerned that many homeless people, including hundreds of families, are in hotels throughout the country. In Dublin city and every provincial town, there are families in hotel rooms. Many of these hotels will close for Christmas in the next week. Has the Government or Department done any assessment on what will happen, how many people are in this situation or how they can be dealt with? In effect, the State is providing this housing for them and it will be taken away. Is there any plan in place to ensure these people will be housed over Christmas?

It will be the responsibility of the various local authorities to work for those people where accommodation becomes a problem and if it is a problem over the Christmas period. As the Deputy knows, every effort is made by local authorities to ensure housing, whether it is in hotels or elsewhere, is permanent. Where there is a change in that, every effort is made to work with a person to find alternative accommodation. The overall goal of this Government is clearly that people would not be in hotels in the first instance. The strategy that has been outlined by the Minister is to ensure we will cease to use hotels for people who become homeless. It is worth pointing out the number of families this year alone that have exited homelessness, left hotels and got permanent accommodation.