COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, October 14, 2024

QUESTION NO. 10

QUESTION: Councillor C. Brady 

To ask the Chief Executive to report on oversight of homeless services, are services inspected, how are they inspected, and to provide any reports available on inspections of service providers in our county and to indicate whether on independent oversight is in place.

REPLY:

All emergency accommodation across the Dublin region fall under a quality standards framework. The National Quality Standards Framework (NQSF) was rolled out for NGO properties in 2019 and an adapted version of standards for private emergency accommodation commenced in 2022. There are methods of oversight in place which include: 

• NQSF inspections which are performed by the DRHE’s monitoring and standards team who review the service provision and practices within the service. Both staff and service users are interviewed during this process.
• The DRHE tendered for an independent inspectorate in 2022. EOBA were successful and commenced in October 2022. Inspections cover fire safety standards, environmental health standards and food safety standards across all emergency accommodation. These reports are published quarterly on the DRHE website.
• The DRHE’s standards and property teams carry out unannounced site visits across all emergency accommodation. The following are checked during these site visits; fire logs, staffing levels, assessing complaints and occupancy checks