Urgent talks with the HSE are being sought by trade unions who suspect that a new strategy for homeless welfare in Dublin will result in the services being out-sourced to the voluntary sector.

Community welfare officers fear their clients' best interests and their confidentiality will suffer if they are obliged to hand over their case files in a planned transfer of the service to the auspices of Dublin City Council. Siptu and Impact have asked the HSE to engage in round-table discussions of the implications of the strategy, 'Pathway to Home', which aims to eradicate homelessness.

The HSE's homeless persons unit currently provides support services including a free phone, the night bus and soup run, a payments facility and liaison with landlords, funded by DCC. The transfer is scheduled to happen next January and housing minister Michael Finneran has already been receiving submissions on a proposed tender for the provision of support services.

There are growing tensions within the voluntary homeless sector too. Five of the country's biggest organisations have written to environment minister John Gormley criticising his decision to open a 'cold weather' emergency shelter in the capital last winter. Directors of Crosscare, Focus Ireland, Dublin Simon, the DePaul Trust and Merchants Quay called it "a backward move" that "will be a retrograde step in our efforts to end homelessness in Dublin". The letter railed against the opening of the shelter "on the basis of one unsubstantiated call". That call had been made on Morning Ireland in January by Alice Leahy, director of Trust. Gormley said he made the decision after hearing her speak about people sleeping in bushes in one of the coldest spells in nearly 20 years. A spokesman for the minister said no decision had been made on whether to provide the shelter again next winter. Asked for her reaction to the letter written by her counterparts in the sector, Leahy said she had no comment to make.

"We are aware of the 'Pathway to Home' document," said Kevin Figgis, chairman of Siptu's health professionals' branch. "We feel there hasn't been sufficient debate in regard to what's in the best interests of the client and maybe other parties are too eager to take over services they don't fully understand."