A new homeless charity has called for the establishment of an ombudsman for homeless people, or a junior ministry with responsibility for homelessness.
The Depaul Trust works with former prisoners and homeless people with alcohol or drug dependency or mental health issues.
Cardinal Basil Hume founded the Depaul Trust in London in 1989, and it was set up in Ireland at the request of the St Vincent de Paul, the Daughters of Charity and the Vincentian Fathers. The charity was launched by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, yesterday.
Mr Pat Doherty, director of the Depaul Trust in Ireland, said it was too easy to say that homeless people needed to get their act together. "Virtually all the people we serve have been victims of family, institutions or society from an early age. One of our residents - now in his early 20s - was injected with heroin when he was 12 by a family member," Mr Doherty said.
"Another man, who is one of our hostels and now aged 70, has been in some form of institutional care since he was 10 years old. Did these people ever have a choice?"
The Depaul Trust runs the Aungier Street"wet" hostel (so-named because it houses street drinkers). It also runs the Clancy shelter for intravenous drug-users, the Back Lane hostel for single men and the Tús Nua hostel for female ex-offenders.
It now provides 119 bed spaces every night, and will have spent €3 million on services this year. Mr Doherty said people needed to be moved on from homeless shelters and offered more specialist services to encourage them to live independently.
"To do that, we need adequate funding," he said. The charity receives funding from a range of agencies including the Homeless Agency, the Probation and Welfare Service, and the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
At the launch, Mr Ahern said the Government was committed to tackling homelessness, and the level of funding had increased from €9 million in 1999 to €50 million this year. Asked about the recent decision to refuse rent allowance to people not already renting for six months, he said this was an issue for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan. "I think that will not cause a problem," he said.
