Departmental Reports

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Ceisteanna (560)

Albert Dolan

Ceist:

560. Deputy Albert Dolan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage whether his Department will provide the local authority regional homelessness financial reports (details supplied) for each of the years 2014 to 2024 in machine-readable formats such as CSV or Excel, in addition to their current publication in PDF format; if he will ensure that these reports are published in machine-readable formats on an annual basis for all regions and years in order to align with open data standards; and, if not, the legal, technical or operational constraints that prevent compliance with the requirements under S.I. No. 376/2021, which transposed Directive (EU) 2019/1024 on open data and the re-use of public sector information into Irish law; and the steps his Department has taken or plans to take to improve accessibility, transparency and re-use of this data. [27902/26]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage

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 housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level. Statutory responsibility in relation to the provision of homeless services rests with individual housing authorities.

My Department does not fund any homeless service directly but provides funding to housing authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services under Section 10 of the Housing Act, 1988. Under Exchequer funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services from their own resources. Furthermore, housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homeless related services outside of the Exchequer funding arrangements provided by my Department. Therefore, the exact amounts spent by housing authorities on homeless services are a matter for individual housing authorities in consultation with the Management Group of the relevant regional joint Homelessness Consultative Forum.

Expenditure by housing authorities which has been certified at appropriate housing authority level by the Director of Housing and the relevant Director of Finance are published in PDF format on my Department's website. The publication of this certification of the expenditure ensures accountability and transparency in the management of public funds. The publication of financial reports in an alternative format is not available at this time. However, in compliance with S.I. No. 376/2021, the Department can provide excel versions of the published financial reports directly to the Deputy upon request: www.housing.gov.ie/housing/homelessness/other/homelessness-data.