Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 March 2026
336. Deputy George Lawlor asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for an update on the position regarding a recommendation made by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on issues affecting the Travelling community (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21144/26]
View answerMy Department's role in relation to homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at a local level. Under the Housing Act 1988, statutory responsibility for determining whether or not a person is to be regarded as homeless falls to each individual local authority. Section 2 of that Act provides the legal parameters to be used by local authorities in forming an opinion as to whether or not an individual or family shall be regarded as homeless.
My Department publishes data on a monthly basis on the number of homeless persons accommodated in emergency accommodation funded and overseen by housing authorities. This data is based on a methodology that was agreed with stakeholders across the homeless sector. ETHOS is not a common European standard for national data collection strategies, which vary significantly within the European Union.
Included in the work programme of the European Platform on Combatting Homelessness (EPOCH) is the development of a proposal for a common monitoring framework on homelessness, agreeing on what should be monitored and how it should be defined and measured, and building on ETHOS and the various monitoring systems which already exist at national and local levels. My Department consider the work currently underway at EPOCH in considering any changes to how information on homelessness is gathered and presented.
