Mr. Tom McHugh:

It has been mentioned that the Irish Council for Social Housing, the four Dublin local authorities and the voluntary housing bodies are trying to work together to alleviate the current severe homelessness situation. It is not acceptable for anybody - the housing applicants or the housing authorities - that a number of people are living in hotel accommodation. We are working closely with the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to try to alleviate that situation. The Deputy mentioned the prioritisation of homeless cases by local authorities. This is one way of alleviating the problem. If we can try to get some more units made available to us through the voluntary housing bodies, that might get us over the current situation with regard to those in hotels.

As we said in our submission, the basic problem at the moment is housing supply. It has been made much worse by the current situation - the increased number of people on the waiting list and the increased number of people presenting themselves as homeless. The prioritisation of homeless cases by the local authorities, together with the provision of additional units from voluntary housing bodies that we are hoping for, will at least get those families out of hotels and into more suitable accommodation.