County council criticised over homeless spend

Cork County Council has been criticised for not doing enough for homeless people and spending less per head on them compared to other local authorities.

A report issued by council officials shows while it helped 67 people in the last two months, during that time it had no reports of anybody sleeping rough in the county who needed assistance.

The council estimates it will spend nearly €300,000 this year on homeless services, but Cllr Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (SF) says that according to Public Policy.ie, it only spends on average 91 cent per head of population.

“That compares to €6.91 per head of population in Kerry, €6.39 in Longford, €5.28 in Kilkenny, €2.70 in Tipperary and €1.73 in Donegal.

Cork City Council in comparison spends an average of €45.15, although it is acknowledged that it has far more serious homelessness issues and has the vast bulk of homeless shelters/ services in the county.

Mr Ó Laoghaire maintains the levels of funding invested by Cork County Council are totally inadequate.

“In recent days we have read of a number of significant tragedies on our streets, both nationally, and locally. Grotesquely, we saw a homeless man found dead almost directly outside the Dáil. Since then, we have heard of further tragedies here in Cork. The homelessness crisis is fast getting out of control, and not only in Dublin,” he said

He said according to Cork Simon’s annual report, they helped 1,187 people this year, a 13% increase on last year.

“In the whole of 2013, there was 174 instances of people sleeping rough, but this had increased to 230 even by September, with an average of 17 people a night, and is now far in excess of that.”

Mr Ó Laoghaire said his party had proposed an extra €100,000 be added to the county council’s budget for homeless services.

“While much of the incidence of persons sleeping rough in Cork may take place within the city bounds, you can be certain many people there have come from the county council area.

“The council’s report indicates that there were no people sleeping rough in the county, which I would be very surprised at,” he said.