Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My point is regarding when a person does not declare their future intentions, for example, to purchase a house or to travel. They might decide to move from Cork to Dublin, etc. Does that then make their application null and void? What about if they decide to get into a relationship but they have not stated that in their future intentions? It just does not add up. I do not know how it could be stood over. It is asking a person to predict the future. What if they do not predict their future intentions at that time?

It just does not add up.

As regards the appeals process, Mr. Kelly said the Department will look at building in an appeals process. An appeals process must be built into the system and it has to be timely. At the moment, I am dealing with cases where there is no time structure for appeals. That needs to be built into this. It is a must. It is a weakness in what is being proposed.

I refer to the note we received. I thank the secretariat for its briefing and some of the points made. Unfortunately, I missed the first session. These proposals are directly linked to rough sleeping because local authorities, under guidelines, may decide not to offer individuals or families emergency accommodation shelter on the basis that they are not eligible for social housing. As things happen, just before I popped in here I was speaking to a lady who is being denied emergency accommodation by Cork County Council because of a particular issue. She was a victim of domestic abuse and she was in the throes of addiction because of the abuse she was subjected to. As of yesterday, she has been in recovery for 11 months, but the State will not give her access to emergency accommodation because of issues she had when she was an abuse victim and in the throes of addiction. That lady was told by Cork County Council at a meeting yesterday that it would go to a senior official and she would have an answer by the weekend. That is shocking. To make it worse, this lady is trying to get access to her two children who are currently in temporary foster care. She cannot get access to her children because she has nowhere to live.

There is currently a situation where people are being denied access to emergency accommodation because they are not on the housing list. I know that local authorities have some discretion and I will say that I have worked very well with Cork City Council, which has provided emergency accommodation to people who were not on the social housing list. However, that is discretionary. We need a proper system in place for people who are not entitled to be on the social housing list for whatever reason. No one should be denied access to emergency accommodation.

I am dealing with a case in Cork City Council at the moment-----