122. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will detail the maximum length of stay in emergency accommodation; and set out the exit strategy being applied to assist the individual or family to exit homeless accommodation into housing. [43489/24]

123. Deputy Patricia Ryan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will set out the measures his Department is or will be putting in place to assist older people currently accessing emergency accommodation, particularly in County Kildare, specifically to address the shortage in the supply of suitable-size appropriate housing, and the exit strategy being applied to assist the individual. [43490/24]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 122 and 123 together.

My Department’s role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of local authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of emergency accommodation and related services for homeless persons rests with individual local authorities.

My Department publishes quarterly progress reports which are based on quarterly performance reports submitted by the nine regional lead authorities responsible for the administration of homeless services at local level. These quarterly performance reports include details of the numbers of individuals prevented from entering emergency accommodation, and those exiting emergency accommodation into tenancies and the duration of stay in emergency accommodation. The quarterly progress report summarises the data submitted to the Department.

The duration of stay data is reported as six-monthly bands ranging from less than six months to more than 24 months and is also disaggregated by household type. These bands refer to consecutive stays in emergency accommodation and are based on a point-in-time count, informed by emergency accommodation usage on the last night in the quarter. The most recent published data is in respect of Q2 2024 and the report is available on my Department’s website at the following link: www.gov.ie/en/collection/80ea8-homelessness-data/

Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a priority for Government. Critical to supporting households to exit homelessness is increasing the supply of housing. Almost 12,000 new social homes were delivered in 2023, through Build, Acquisition and Leasing, including 8,110 new build homes, the highest level of new build social homes in nearly 50 years. Including HAP and RAS, 21,733 social housing solutions were delivered throughout 2023.

Record state investment of over €5bn has been made available this year to support the largest State home building programme ever. Budget 2025 will provide €6bn in capital to help us to deliver more social, affordable and cost rental homes for our people.

A key action of Housing for All required local authorities to develop Housing Delivery Action Plans to include details of social and affordable housing delivery. The Plans set out details of both social and affordable housing delivery as appropriate over the period 2022-2026, in line with targets set under Housing for All. In developing their Plans local authorities were asked to make adequate provision for 1, 2, 3 and 4+ bedroom homes in line with local need.

An allocation of €303 million, an increase of €61m on the 2024 provision, has been made under Budget 2025 to provide homeless prevention services, emergency accommodation and other services for households experiencing homelessness. This is a 25% increase on the 2024 budget allocation. This funding will support the provision of emergency accommodation and supports that households require to exit emergency accommodation to a tenancy.

Local authorities and their service delivery partners will work closely with all households in emergency accommodation to support them to secure an exit to a tenancy. With the significant increase in social housing stock, I have asked local authorities to ensure that sufficient homes are being allocated to exit households from emergency accommodation.

I am continuing to work closely with the National Homeless Action Committee, which I chair, to ensure that there is a continued focus by the various stakeholders on additional measures that we can take to eradicate homelessness and to support all those experiencing homelessness.