Homelessness and cold weather beds
Deputy Mary Lou McDonald raised concerns about rough sleeping and emergency accommodation during the cold snap, citing information from Inner City Helping Homeless. The Housing Minister said the figures needed care, stressed the cold weather initiative and NGO partnership, and insisted no one would be turned away.
The programme for Government states that the Taoiseach will end the need for rough sleeping by providing a high level of funding for the homeless services that support emergency beds and accommodation options. Yesterday, the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government stated that in light of the cold snap we are experiencing, there will be places in emergency accommodation for all those who need them. I want to bring to the Taoiseach's attention, therefore, some information that came my way from Inner City Helping Homeless, which reports that outreach volunteers found that there were no beds available by 11.30 p.m. last night for people who wanted them and that 86 people slept rough in Dublin as a result. Not alone that, people have contacted my office this morning to state that those who were in hostels last night were turfed out into the cold first thing this morning and are now sitting around in tents near Heuston Station. I am sure the Taoiseach will agree that this is unacceptable. Can he move immediately to ensure that there will be beds available for those who need them and that those who need that accommodation will not be turfed out at first light into freezing conditions?
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I thank the Deputy for the question. We have to be careful in addressing this situation with the cold weather initiative that is in place and we must ensure that the information we are getting is accurate. We work with a number of NGO partner organisations to make sure that in these types of events when there is severe cold weather outreach teams from all the different organisations are out working with the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive to get people into safe, secure accommodation.
In the past number of months, we put an additional 200 permanent new beds into the system. We also put in place an additional 150 emergency beds.
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The outreach teams are out to get people into accommodation. No one will be turned away. Also, when we have the cold weather initiative in place, people are not just being turfed out onto the street. We have to be mindful of the fact that it is very cold-----
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They are out at Heuston Station in tents.
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-----and we must ensure that people are protected. We do that with our NGO partners. The cold weather initiative will remain in place during the cold snap.