The assistant chief executive of Dublin City Council has said that they are currently short €18m in funding which they haven’t received from the government in order to house the city’s homeless.
The Assistant Chief Executive Richard Brady told Dublin city Council councillors last night that the current deficit is “serious” and could severely affect services. The news comes after the council had submitted a request for much needed funding of just over €55m in April of this year, however they have recently been informed by the Department of the Environment that they will only receive €37m for the coming year. The controversial move by the department has led to the City Council putting a halt to plans to build 150 residential units, to house the capitals homeless. Councillor Brady told his fellow councillors: “The current homelessness numbers are increasing at such a rate that these actions will not see a downturn in relation to the number of homeless families.”
He went onto say that the council is continuing to have “serious negotiations” with the Department of the Environment.
Meanwhile Dublin’s Lord Mayor Críona Ní Dhálaigh has said that the move is highly unacceptable and she is calling for a round table meeting with the Government and other interested parties as a matter of urgency. Ms Ní Dhálaigh claims that the Environment Minister Kelly has agreed to meet the city council’s corporate policy group to discuss the shortfall in funding.
Meanwhile the Department of the Environment issued a statement about the funding issue saying “The Department is aware of Dublin City Council’s projection of expenditure in respect of homelessness and we are in discussions with them in this regard”.