The Eastern Health Board is to set up a 10-bed emergency residential centre for children under the age of 12, the Minister of State for Health, Mr Frank Fahey, told the Dail.

The Board also intends to open another 10-bed emergency residential service for children over 12 who are 'out of home'. A further 10 emergency carer families were being brought on stream at present and £2 million had been approved for the EHB for these.

The Minister, who has responsibility for children, said he had identified homelessness and 'out-of-home' young people as a priority requiring a concerted and immediate response.

He was responding to accusations by Fine Gael that the Government showed an 'appalling lack of competence' in dealing with the crisis in homelessness. Mr Brian Hayes (FG, Dublin South-West) said the Government and the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Mr Robert Molloy, had done 'precious little work' in drawing up a national strategy despite a commitment in the Government programme.

Introducing a motion during private members' business the Fine Gael TD quoted figures from Focus Ireland which estimated that up to 5,000 people were homeless. This contrasted sharply with the official figure of 2,501. Statistics from the Dublin Simon Community showed it dealt with 151 homeless on one night. Of that figure 46 per cent were under 25 years of age and 10 per cent were under 16.

Mr Molloy said he understood the figures produced by the Simon Community did not reflect the Dublin Corporation numbers of under 20 in any one night.

He was satisfied 'there is a good and flexible framework in place to provide a service to homeless people both directly through local authorities and indirectly through the voluntary bodies'.

There was significant pressure on emergency bed and breakfast accommodation by the large number of asylum seekers in the Dublin area . This had 'seriously eroded the otherwise adequate supply of emergency accommodation available for homeless people'.

Mr Emmet Stagg (Lab, Kildare North) said that in the very short term 'we have to deal with the need for emergency accommodation. There is such a demand on short-term and emergency accommodation that more and more people are being forced to sleep on the streets each night.'