Department says homeless figures not being published due to industrial action

Monthly Government-issued figures showing the number of homeless people will not be published on time because of continuing “industrial relations” action, the Department of Housing has said. The department publishes its official monthly figures of those accessing the State’s homeless emergency accommodation on the last Friday of every month. It had been due to issue the numbers for September but in a statement issued on Friday morning, the department said it was “not in a position” to do so because it had not received data from all the regions overseeing the homeless services.

Public sector workers are engaged in a work-to-rule action and also participated in a nationwide strike earlier this month. Unions are in talks with officials from the Department of Public Expenditure at the Workplace Relations Commission this week. Figures published last month for August revealed there were 17,885 people in emergency accommodation compared with 17,527 in July . Of those people, 12,055 were adults, up 187 on the previous month, and the first time the figure has surpassed 12,000.

A total of 5,830 children were recorded as homeless, up 171 on July’s figures. In a statement on Friday, the Department of Housing said: “The administration of homeless services is organised across nine administrative regions, with one regional lead authority in each of the regions having overall responsibility for submitting data to the department. “Due to the current industrial relations action, the department has not received returns from all regional lead authorities.

“With incomplete data, the department is not in a position to publish the report as usual today.” Labour housing spokesman Conor Sheehan said: “As we head into winter with homelessness soaring, it is absolutely unacceptable that we will not even have a complete, up-to-date picture of how many people are living in emergency accommodation. “Responsibility for this lies squarely with Minister [for Public Expenditure] Jack Chambers and Government.

“Their failure to agree a fair public sector pay deal has allowed this dispute to drag on.” Social Democrat TD and party spokesman for housing Rory Hearne accused the Government of hiding behind the industrial action. “Work-to-rule industrial action has been ongoing for some weeks now, so it is extraordinary there was no contingency plan to allow for the figures to be collated,” he said. “The delayed publication of September’s homelessness figures will simply defer further bad news on the homelessness front.

“Today’s delayed publication of the latest homelessness figures is further proof that the housing crisis is not a priority for this Government. “The Minister for Housing [Jack Browne] must now give a precise timeline for when this data will be available as any further deferrals will not be tolerated.” – PA