I welcome the Minister and the Minister of State and their officials. I thank them for the briefing material provided, which has been circulated. This meeting is to consider the Revised Estimates for Vote 16 - Valuation Office, Vote 23, Property Registration Authority and Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which were referred by the Dáil to the committee. While the committee has no role in approving the Estimates, there is an opportunity to make the process more transparent and to engage meaningfully on the relevant performance issues. I propose to proceed by asking the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, to give a high-level overview of the Department's performance and related expenditure regarding each programme area in 2022. We will then go to members for questions. I call the Minister.
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Revised)
I thank the Chair and members. I submitted a longer and more detailed written statement, which the members have already, so I will keep my remarks relatively short and present an overview. I also appreciate the Chair's kind remarks regarding the briefing provided by departmental officials to members. I welcome the opportunity to discuss my Department’s Estimate for 2022, as well as the Votes for the Valuation Office and the Property Registration Authority, which are also under the aegis of my Department. As the Chair mentioned, I am joined by my colleague, the Minister of State with special responsibility for local government and planning, Deputy Peter Burke. I am also joined by my officials, Mary Hurley, assistant secretary, local government division; David Kelly, principal officer, social housing delivery division; David Flynn, principal adviser, water division; Lorraine O'Donoghue, principal officer, local government finance unit; and Janet Jacobs, assistant principal officer, departmental finance unit.
Starting with Vote 34, this totals over €5.9 billion for the year and comprises €2.5 billion in current funding and €3.4 billion on the capital side. In addition, there is a €276 million capital carry-over from 2021. Another €91.5 million is coming from the proceeds of the local property tax, LPT. This means that €6.3 billion in funds will be managed across Vote 34 this year. As we continued to grapple with the ever-changing reality of the impact of Covid-19 last year, our ability to push forward at the pace of delivery anticipated was simply not possible.
Construction closures, social distancing measures, workforce impacts and supply chain issues outside of any of our control or visibility had a significant impact on delivery and, consequentially, had an impact on expenditure.
My Department continued to work at a relentless pace to deliver emergency legislation, to ensure that vulnerable households were protected and to push on to provide a new pathway for housing delivery at a scale and investment level never seen before in the history of this State. The past few weeks have been very positive in terms of the cautious reopening and I am very hopeful that will translate now into an unimpeded and very productive year.
More than €3.6 billion is being allocated to housing programmes in 2022, representing an increase of more than €527 million or 17% on the Estimate for 2021. In addition, there will be €92 million from local property tax receipts and a carry-over of €246 million from 2021. The total funding being made available for the delivery of housing programmes is just under €4 billion, including €2.6 billion in capital funding. This will be further supplemented again through Housing for All, HFA, lending and Land Development Agency funding for the most substantial capital budget for housing ever seen.
Bearing in mind that there are many types of social housing needs with this budget, we must take a multipronged approach and maintain the support for the 82,000 households in receipt of the housing assistance payment, HAP, or in the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. We cannot simply turn off the tap in that space. We must ensure immediate supports being made available for families who seek urgent assistance in providing funding for an additional 15,000 immediate supports for 2022. Focus will be on long-term housing delivery, with the delivery of 11,820 new social homes, 9,000 of which will be new-build social homes. As part of our Housing for All programme, we intend to get that average of new-build homes up to 10,000 over the period of the plan.
The Affordable Housing Act 2021, the first ever stand-alone affordable housing legislation, established the basis for our delivery of new affordable purchase and cost-rental schemes. We have targeted 4,100 affordable homes this year to be delivered by local authorities, approved housing bodies, the Land Development Agency, LDA, and through a strategic partnership between the State and banks. The first cost-rental homes in the country were tenanted in 2021 in Taylor Hill, Balbriggan, at an average of 40% below market value. The first affordable purchase homes will be made available in Boherboy in Cork city at purchase prices ranging from €217,000 for a two-bedroom home to €243,000 for a three-bedroom home. We will now see a really significant year-on-year increase in the number of affordable homes which will lead to an average of 6,000 homes per year over the lifetime of Housing for All.
While it is clear and strategic to have our focus on the long term and on building our housing stock, we must also invest energy and funding into tackling homelessness, which is a real, immediate and acute issue. Those in homelessness are living at the sharpest end of this housing crisis. The €194 million allocated in 2022 reflects the priority the Government is giving to this area and will advance 18 distinct commitments under Housing for All. I will also provide funding for other important areas, including €85 million to retrofit 2,400 social housing homes; enhancing measures to tackle vacancy and providing support to the rental sector.
Recognising that funding alone will not yield results, a central element of Housing for All is to build institutional capacity. I am committed to strengthening the capacity of local authorities to initiate, design, plan, develop and manage housing projects and to engage in the range of activities to promote living cities and towns, by tackling vacancy and dereliction and supporting regeneration.
My Department has made substantial progress on how we manage our water quality and water services. Central to this is the transformation and separation of Irish Water from the Ervia group and the creation of a national, publicly-owned, regulated, single public water utility. There is a major programme of work ahead of us to complete this transformational journey and engagement on a framework for the future is currently taking place at the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC. I believe it will be possible to reach a collective agreement that addresses the interests and concerns of all parties.
In 2022, the Department will provide more than €1.4 billion to Irish Water. This includes €830 million in capital to allow it to continue its capital investment programme to modernise and expand the capacity of Ireland’s water infrastructure through projects such as Ringsend, Arklow and Kilkenny wastewater treatment plants, which will raise network capacity, increase water quality and bring us closer to compliance with European directives. It is important to say it is the first time Irish Water has a view of its funding on a multi-annual basis and can plan appropriately to deliver projects such as Ringsend, which is now commissioned and Arklow, where we have broken ground and contractors are in place and throughout the country.
The record level of investment will ensure that Irish Water can support the delivery of the Government’s housing objectives in Housing for All. In addition, Irish Water is taking additional actions to support housing connections to public water services through publishing capacity registers, which are available now, engaging with the LDA on identifying land suitable for development and facilitating self-lay accreditation, which is an important step forward. We initiated a pilot scheme in July 2020 to allow for self-lay accreditation and it is now expanding throughout the country.
My Department also continues to invest directly in rural water services through the rural water programme by allocating more than €62 million in 2022. It will launch a new multi-annual rural water programme later this year. This will also include a new element to support the provision of wastewater treatment in non-sewered villages. This will be a very important announcement shortly. We will manage this programme with the co-operation of local authorities and Irish Water. I will have additional announcements on that in the coming weeks and months.
The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, will shortly speak on matters related to local government but I would like to specifically mention the significant capital investment in fire and emergency services in 2022. The allocation will amount to €19.3 million, including investment in the national directorate for fire and emergency management, NDFEM, and €18 million in capital. Some €6 million is allocated for the progression of fire station construction and upgrade projects. The projects announced under the 2021 to 2025 fire services capital programme are progressing. Further drawdown is expected in 2022, as more projects progress through the design and planning stages, with construction beginning on others.
Some €5 million will contribute to appliances, procured under the new fire appliance procurement programme, which runs from 2021 to 2023. Some €2 million will progress the final element of the upgrade of the communications and mobilisation system under the Ctrí project. Some €5 million will fund other necessary emergency and rescue vehicles and equipment, including jeeps, vans, road-traffic accident equipment, breathing apparatus, telecommunications and other fire equipment, where grant aid has been approved to fire authorities.
On the heritage side, in 2022, a total of €180 million is allocated for heritage projects, of which €176 million is Revised Estimates Volume, REV, funding, with a further €3.5 million carbon tax carry-over for peatlands restoration. Operational and capital budgets will increase almost 45% year on year in 2022. This will fund activity under the National Monuments Service, the built heritage programmes and the National Parks and Wildlife Service's extraordinary teams that deliver for the citizen directly through the agencies and bodies under our aegis, which are the Heritage Council, Waterways Ireland and the Irish Heritage Trust.
This substantial funding will allow the Department to progress an expanded programme of peatlands restoration; biodiversity investment and nature conservation works. We will expand participation in the National Parks and Wildlife Service farm plan scheme and the LIFE nature programmes. We will protect our archaeological and built heritage with a further 1,100 built heritage projects targeted for support in 2022.
We will invest in and support Ireland's national parks and reserves. Approved staffing levels for the NPWS now exceed those in place prior to the financial crisis. We will maintain and invest in our inland waterways for some 15,000 registered boat users through Waterways Ireland, including the acceleration of the Ulster Canal and other cross-Border projects.
The 87,000 ha national parks and nature reserve network and the heritage estate of national monuments and historical properties saw unprecedented levels of visitors over the last two years, offering a lifeline by providing physical and mental health space where people could safely access the outdoors for fresh air, exercise, mindfulness and well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic.
To summarise, the 2022 funding continues the supports for heritage and associated grant schemes providing conservation, amenity, health and well-being benefits to our citizens along with jobs, as well as supporting Ireland's climate actions, tourism and economic development in communities and regions. All this work on heritage is being ably led and managed by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, who is doing a fantastic job. He cannot attend this meeting due to other commitments this evening.
This year, some €43 million will be provided to Met Éireann and will be used to fund the essential maintenance, development and support of Met Éireann's specialised meteorological and ICT infrastructure. In the context of climate change and the impact of weather in Ireland, Met Éireann serves society through the production and communication of reliable weather and climate information that will protect life and property. This funding will further enhance Met Éireann's role as the authoritative voice of meteorology and climatology in Ireland.
As the committee is aware, my Department also has responsibility for Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Valuation Office and the Property Registration Authority. A provision of nearly €19.6 million is made in Vote 34 for Ordnance Survey Ireland in 2022, while the other two organisations have separate Votes, amounting to €22 million for the Valuation Office and €35 million for the Property Registration Authority. These bodies are to merge to form Tailte Éireann and work is proceeding in my Department on this important project.
I have kept my remarks as brief as possible given we are covering a Department as broad as the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with such a significant investment programme for 2022. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, will now speak about the important work being funded in local government and planning.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Estimate for 2022 in planning and local government. I also have responsibility for Traveller accommodation and support and housing for people with disabilities and older people. As the Minister noted, significant capital and current funding has been provided to the Department in 2022 and we are all firmly focused on ensuring the maximum output from this State investment.
Regarding Traveller accommodation and supports, it is important to note that some €15.5 million in capital funding was fully drawn down by local authorities in 2021. A total of €1.33 million was also provided to local authorities for Covid-related measures such as the provision of additional accommodation, halting site cleaning, additional sanitation and isolation units. There will be some Covid-related expenditure in 2022. Our objective is to ensure that services provided to halting sites will be maintained. To that end, funding will be provided for any additional services deemed necessary by local authorities. Overall, some €18 million is being provided in capital funding for 2022 representing a 16% increase over 2021. In addition, some €6.5 million in current funding will be provided in 2022 bringing the total funding to €24.5 million.
The committee will be aware of the recommendations of the expert group on Traveller accommodation. The programme board overseeing the implementation of these recommendations met on six occasions last year and the board has agreed to report progress on the recommendations on the Department website. This will be available shortly.
Turning to housing for people with a disability and older people, over €2.7 million will be provided under subhead A14 in 2022. The review of the national housing strategy for people with a disability was completed in 2021. The implementation group for housing options for our ageing population joint policy statement also completed its work in 2021. Work on a number of key actions will continue into 2022. The Housing Agency is working with local authorities to ensure their strategic plans for housing for people with disabilities are updated and implemented. The mental health tenancy sustainment project, which is jointly funded by the Department and the Department of Health, is continuing and will be expanded in 2022.
Funding for the Age-Friendly Ireland shared services supporting the implementation of the actions set out in the Housing Options for Our Ageing Population policy statement will also continue in 2022. Complementing this strategic work is subhead A18, which makes funding provision for the payment to local authorities of expenditure incurred on the suite of housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability. Three separate schemes are available. The housing adaptation grant for people disability scheme provides grants of up to €30,000 to assist people with a disability to have necessary adaptations, repairs or improvement works carried. The housing aid for older people scheme provides grants of up to €8,000 to assist older people living in poor housing conditions to have necessary repairs or improvements carried out. The mobility aids grant scheme is available to fast-track grants of up to €6,000 to cover a basic suite of works to address the mobility problems of a member of a household. Some €65 million is being made available in 2022 to deliver on these schemes.
The Local Government Fund's primary purpose is to channel local property tax to local authorities following collection by the Revenue Commissioners as well as certain local authority initiatives. This programme includes a contribution to the Local Government Fund of €225 million in 2022 to support the local government sector in providing a range of essential services at local level, including assistance towards increased pay and pensions, costs arising under national pay agreements, local property tax equalisation payments and important local government initiatives across the country, including supporting shared services. In 2022, income sources to the Local Government Fund are estimated to be local property tax of €520 million as well as a payment from the Vote of some €225 million. The payment from the Vote includes the Exchequer contribution of local property tax equalisation of €34.3 million. The total local property tax allocation for 2022 is just under €524 million, which includes the impact of all local variation decisions.
Over the past two years, the Department has worked closely with local authorities to provide an essential lifeline to local businesses in the form of a rates waiver. By the end of 2021, more than €1.1 billion had been routed through the Local Government Fund for this purpose, with an additional €62.3 million that will issue in respect of quarter 4 of last year. It was recently announced that the targeted rates waiver for quarter 4 would be extended to quarter 1 of 2022. However, this does not form part of today's Estimate and Covid-19 supports for 2022 will be kept under review. Further supports are not currently anticipated.
A significant number of activities are under way or in planning. A few key programmes merit mention. The largest area of planned expenditure is the urban regeneration and development fund, for which a total of €159 million is being provided this year, including a €25 million capital carryover from 2021. The immediate focus is on ensuring early progress on the programme of 132 transformative regeneration and development projects and the Department is in regular contact with local authorities to assist their advancement. The next call for proposals under the urban regeneration and development fund will be arranged later. The focus of the call will reflect the experience of the funding calls to date, the objectives of Housing for All and tackling vacancy in towns, which is reflected in our town centre first approach.
A total of €7.1 million in current and capital funding is being provided towards the cost of activities of the Land Development Agency in 2022 ahead of the imminent capitalisation through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF.
There has been more than €45 million funding for the operational budgets of An Bord Pleanála, the Office of the Planning Regulator and Ordnance Survey Ireland.
I thank members for their time.
I thank the Minister and the Minister of State. It is when we see the brief on the Estimates that we realise the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage's wide remit and the large number of matters under it.
I move now to members' questions. If members say to which part of the Estimates they are directed, it might assist the Minister, the Minister of State and their officials.
It is great to have the Minister and Minister of State with us to discuss the realities of Housing for All. When we first saw it, we saw a plan. We also saw a multi-annual budget, which is crucial to the delivery of many of these housing solutions. When Housing for All is broken down programme by programme, with a funding stream assigned to each, phrases like "Croí Cónaithe", "First Homes", "Project Tosaigh" and so on start coming to life. That is welcome.
Many members of the committee, especially those on the Government side, feel that a significant body of work has been done over the past two years in trying to deliver legislation that gave approved housing bodies, AHBs, local authorities, the Land Development Agency, LDA, and others the ability to deliver a wide range of solutions for housing. Having all of the various programmes is key. Sometimes, the housing crisis is painted as one problem with one solution, but we know that there is much more to it than that. That said, we can see from these Estimates a significant commitment to the idea of public housing and different types of solution that allow communities like mine to deliver mixed-income housing. That is crucial. I come from a community in Ballymun and Finglas that was built as a solution to a housing crisis in previous decades. We know that we did not get everything right in such communities. Perhaps we put in too many houses and not enough supports and there was not the right mix in some areas. This is why I welcome each of the tools. AHBs and local authorities must now use them together to deliver on the ground.
I wish to ask about delivery. A figure of €4 billion is referenced. It comes from €2.6 billion in capital funding as well as funding from the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, and the LDA. I will give the Minister an opportunity to expand on that a little and explain the sources of that funding. Am I correct in saying that they are all State sources?
We have underpinned the programme on a multi-annual basis to ensure that the LDA, now that it has been established on a statutory footing with the help of the committee and most Members, can be capitalised. The Minister of State mentioned that it would be capitalised imminently. It received its first capitalisation through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF. The HFA is a source of low-cost lending, particularly to AHBs. We have been able to secure that as well. In each year, we are looking at in or around €4 billion - that will grow - in investment in new social, affordable and cost-rental homes.
The start of that will be programmes like the affordable housing fund, to which almost €60 million has been allocated. When can local authorities start drawing down that funding? There are already some plans in place for various sites. Is the architecture in place for local authorities and AHBs to start benefiting from the fund?
We have received housing delivery plans from every local authority in the country. In the Custom House, our housing delivery team, which deals with affordable and social housing, is working through those plans with each local authority. Next week and the week after, I will have housing summits with all 31 chief executives and their directors of services for housing and planning. The affordable housing fund is open for calls now. We have expanded further our cost rental offering through the cost rental equity loan, CREL, 2. Under that call, I have signed off on a series of additional projects and it will deliver hundreds more cost rental projects this year. We are going through proposals that we have already received from some local authorities for advanced purchase arrangements for affordable purchase. I expect the LDA, through Project Tosaigh, to work through a number of proposals that it has received on activating dormant planning permissions while focusing that development on affordable and social housing.
We have different funding streams working together to deliver social homes at a level that we have never seen before. This is the 9,000 new builds out of the 11,820 that we want to deliver this year, made up by acquisition and leasing. On the affordable housing side, we are targeting 4,100 homes this year while building up the capacity to reach an average of 6,000 over the course of the plan. I believe that we can do more than that. There is immense potential in cost rental in particular.
I am conscious of those two programmes because my community in Ballymun is halfway through a master plan that started nearly 20 years ago. We want to ensure that we have affordable purchase and affordable rental in the area. Local authorities did not have those tools before the legislation was passed in the past two years. We could not deliver mixed-income housing with that legislation. The programmes are important.
There are 28 ha of land in public ownership across 19 sites. Dublin City Council has been looking at them. Without being critical, I expect Dublin City Council to be ambitious about all of those sites, particularly the ones with a commercial element. I hope that the Department will be in a position to support the council across the city, but specifically in respect of the sites in Ballymun. While this is about providing housing, it is also about delivering on the promise of the regeneration plan. This is a major opportunity. It is 30 minutes from Dublin city centre and on a proposed metro line. It is all in our ownership and under our control. We can build thousands of houses in Ballymun. That would be a significant benefit, so I would appreciate the Minister's support.
I expect all local authorities to be ambitious, and they are. We are asking them to take a lead role in the delivery of affordable homes. I visited many of the sites in Ballymun with the Deputy. There is a real opportunity there. I am asking our local authorities - and we are working with them - to bring forward sites and deliver affordable, cost-rental and social homes, but we also need a tenure mix. We have opportunities thanks to the land that we own. The affordable housing fund is open right now and our local authorities know what they will have for investing in social homes on a multi-annual basis. They have a view right up to 2026. That is important.
Once we have agreed our housing delivery plans with our local authorities, I intend for there to be full transparency in each local authority area across the country about what we are asking them to deliver. All members of this committee and, as importantly, public representatives at local authority level know what they need to deliver in each of their areas.
I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for their information. I compliment the officials on this report. It is probably the best Estimates report that we have got in my time on the committee. We have been given a table on page 8 that sets out expenditure line by line. The report then goes on to explain it all in detail. That is helpful from the committee's point of view. I am seeking clarification on some aspects of the Estimates, though. I will run through them as quickly as I can so that I can get as much information as possible.
Regarding the CREL, page 10 sets out a target of 700 units for this year. So that we are clear, 325 of those are from last year's target of 390 that were not delivered.
The 375 are additional to the 390 committed to last year. Is that correct?
There will be a carryover from last year which, because of the construction shutdown, was not completed. On top of the 700, other cost rental will be delivered by the Land Development Agency.
I will come to that later.
The Deputy is correct.
To be clear, the new figure is 375. The 1,000 to be delivered by the Land Development Agency will be turnkey in the sense that they are not part of the Land Development Agency's current pipeline. The LDA has told us that its current pipeline will not produce any new units until 2023 or 2024. Given that it was very difficult to deliver 390 turnkey cost rental properties last year and the Minister is now looking to do 1,000 with the LDA and an additional 375 with the AHBs, how confident is he that that target will be met? That is a big jump from the 65 delivered last year to the accumulated total this year?
That is a good question. We are all hoping that we are going to have an unimpeded year this year. Last year, construction was closed up to Easter and the supply chains and capacity constrained. Thankfully, our capacity as a sector is now back to pre-pandemic levels and we need to build on that. Through project Tosaigh the Land Development Agency has opportunities to delivered cost rental in that space. I am not talking about acquisition of existing homes but new homes being built.
On that, the challenge last year in terms of the cost rental equity loan scheme was that many of the homes provided only commenced construction last year. That is understandable. For the LDA to deliver 1,000 cost rental homes this year for purchase and tenancy in real terms those homes would already have to be at an advanced stage of construction. That is a fair point.
I take the point the Deputy makes but he is not entirely correct. There are some projects that can be started quite quickly and on a joint venture basis through project Tosaigh. We will be able to deliver cost rental in that space. I have no doubt that will be challenging, but we have set ourselves a challenging target of 4,100 affordable units. There are capacity issues, particularly around the cost rental side, but there are opportunities into 2022 and beyond to deliver more than our target.
Sure, but I am dealing with this year's Estimates.
On the shared equity loan for which €44 million is allocated in the Estimates, is it correct to say that the Minister's hope is that with the banks' participation that will double to €88 million? Will the Minister also confirm if the regional caps are as they were previously announced in the media or if he is reviewing those. In regard to the staff that will be managing this facility, where will they come from and when will this be open for application?
We have detailed in the Vote the €44 million of Exchequer funding that is going into helping individuals to buy their own homes, to bridge the gap between the finance they have and the-----
I am not being adversarial but as I have only a few minutes I would just like some factual information.
That is okay, I will answer. The Deputy knows what shared equity is. I am for it and Deputy Ó Broin is against it. That is fine. On the question, I expect the €44 million to be matched by the financial institutions.
Is it expected to be doubled?
Yes. The DAC is established.
What is the DAC?
It is the designated activity company, DAC, or special purpose vehicle, SPV, that will deliver the equity piece.
Will the Minister respond to my question on the regional caps?
I am trying to answer the Deputy's questions. I know what questions he asked. I can remember them so he does not need to remind me.
I thank the Minister.
The regional caps are as they are right now. We will keep them under review. I am not reviewing them right now. I expect the first home shared equity to be effected from the end of quarter 2 this year. We have appointed the interim CEO and, as of now, the company has a staff of one. The affordable unit team within my Department is working very hard on this and other areas. There is a lot of work going on in this space. The company will be staffed in quarter 1 and quarter 2 of this year.
Does the Minister expect those staff to be secondees from the banking sector or new employees of the new company?
I cannot say right now. It could be a combination of both. I am happy to keep the committee informed of progress.
I genuinely appreciate the answers. With respect to Croí Cónaithe, can the Minister provide some detail about how he expects the €50 million to be spent? Also, has the Department decided whether Croí Cónaithe will take the form of a grant to the developer or subsidy to the buyer? Will it be shared equity or will there be a clawback?
Is the Deputy asking about the Croí Cónaithe town and villages, the Croí Cónaithe cities or both? They are two different initiatives.
I appreciate that. In the first instance, Croí Cónaithe in the cities.
We are still working through those mechanisms. It will be for owner occupiers. It is about bringing back to viability units that up to now were not viable and thus, getting people and families living in our cities on an owner-occupier basis. It could potentially be on an equity basis but there would be a reduction in cost. It would be done by way of a transparent, open call.
What is the €50 million allocation for this year expected to be spent on?
We have not yet concluded the work on Croí Cónaithe cities. On the €50 million Croí Cónaithe towns and villages, I expect that to be in the form of a grant in the main to first-time buyers or fresh start buyers, who are people who may have owned a home but have been through a divorce, personal insolvency and so on. Again, we are working that through as well.
It is a grant to assist the purchase of a property to renovate.
It is to assist a purchase such that someone would be the owner-occupied within that space.
That means Croí Cónaithe cities is next year rather than this year.
No. I heard the Deputy say that last week. That is not necessarily the case.
But there is no budget provided for it in the Estimate.
The Deputy will see the line item is Croí Cónaithe €50 million. Effectively, that is the amount that we have this year. I hope we are in a position to be able to spend that this year. We need to get those schemes up and running, which we will do this year.
I thank the Minister.
Time permitted, I will allow a second round of questions.
I will take a second round, if available.
I will give the Minister an opportunity to answer as many first round questions as possible. The next speak is Deputy Higgins.
I thank the Minister and Ministers of State for their comprehensive outline of what is a plan to revolutionise and transform the housing market. I am a big supporter of home ownership. We need to deliver homes by all mechanisms possible. I am not hung up on ideology. I do not care who builds the homes, be that councils, approved housing bodies, the LDA, public-private partnership or private builders, so long as homes are built. For that to happen, we need a plan, political will and investment. We have a plan, Housing for All, which is a multiannual plan. We have the political will and we can see very clearly that we have multi-billion euro investment behind that plan to deliver much-needed homes
I particularly welcome the affordable housing fund of €60 million and the allocation of €44 million towards the shared equity loan scheme, which will help bridge the affordability gap for young couples, young families and other people who are now looking to purchase. It is great to see 1,500 voids provided for in terms of council homes that will be refurbished, retrofitted or turned around quicker so that 1,500 families can avail of them. I welcome the investment in terms of vacancy. I particularly welcome the €12 million allocation for repair and lease. An issue that arises again and again in committee is the lack of local authority targets for schemes like this. Was funding for last year fully drawn down and how do we make sure this year's allocation is fully drawn down?
From an LDA perspective, it is fantastic to see the commitment in terms of affordable and cost rental homes with 1,000 such homes to be delivered this year. I welcome the level of investment in the AHBs, first homes, cost rental and retrofitting. All of these are really practical measures that will make a huge difference on the ground. LIHAF enables the delivery of homes and local infrastructure. My own area has benefited from the URDF. The Minister visited Tandy's Lane Park in Lucan and Adamstown where he saw first-hand how well that funding is being so well spent in growing communities. Funding has been allocated for the establishment of the housing commission. I am particularly interested in hearing if there is any update on when the planned referendum will take place.
Turning to the Ministers of State, Deputy Peter Burke and Deputy Noonan, it is great to hear so much from a heritage perspective in terms of the Heritage Council, our built heritage and our natural heritage, which are all big amenities for us as a society. It was to great hear from the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, that Traveller accommodation funding provided last year was fully drawn down. That was an issue in previous years.
It is great to see local authorities fully utilising these funds.
The Department has allocated quite a large amount of money in support of disability in older people accommodation. It will be key to see how local authorities use this.
The rates waiver which the Minister has spoken about has been a very significant lifeline to businesses up and down this country and it is great to see it provided for and further rolled out this year.
The 132 regeneration projects that the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, has spoken about are all a significant part of the plan and it is very encouraging to see the funding allocation spelled out on the diagrams on pages four and five and exactly how much of this is going directly into the delivery and support of housing. That is a top priority of this Government and it is great to see that there in black and white in that report.
On the affordable housing fund, it would be great to receive some information around the regulations that will be published as part of that.
Does the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, wish to go ahead or-----
A number of issues have been raised by Deputy Higgins which the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, can deal with and I will return to speak on the housing issues then if that is okay.
I thank Deputy Higgins very much. On the vacancy issue, we have done a very significant amount of work through our Town Centre First policy which is a very exciting new enabling policy to unlock the potential in our towns and villages right across the country and to draw these funding investment structures together to enable a ground-up approach from community groups that can work with a town regeneration officer in the local authority.
We have also increased the budget for the vacant homes offices and hopefully by the second quarter of this year we will have a full-time vacant homes officer in each local authority. We see that as a very significant priority because it is an area that needs considerable focus into the future. Everyone is aware of the challenges in rural areas of trying to bring derelict or vacant properties back into use and in allowing these to realise their potential in the local community.
Something which the Deputy also referred to which is very important is the Traveller accommodation budget. I acknowledge that we still have very substantial challenges in that area but we are working very hard with families to support them.
The Ombudsman for Children’s Office, OCO, report last year was very chilling and I have met with staff of the office. I also met with the rights commissioner last year to try to advance our proposals. We have a number of schemes now, backed up by finance, which are trying to support families, as well as our expert group which meets to drive the implementation of the expert report. It has set out its programme of work, working currently on 18 of the 32 recommendations. That is a very challenging area. As a father of two young children I am fully aware of the pressures that arise in that field and I am working also very hard to deliver in that area.
I thank Deputy Higgins, in the first instance, for all of her work on this committee in support of the Housing for All strategy. The year 2022 is going to be a very significant one. The Deputy has outlined a number of different funding streams for the delivery of affordable housing. I have been out in Tandy's Lane with the Deputy also. I see our local authorities, like South Dublin County Council and others, are very progressive in driving things forward. We need more of that and we are providing the funding to do that.
I mentioned something else to Deputy Ó Broin earlier on in a response, which is that I want our local authorities and its our members to have transparency over what the targets are in their own areas which is important. We all know that we have to deliver new homes for people across our social, affordable, private and cost rental sectors. I believe it will be very significant if we can deliver and build more than 4,000 affordable homes this year basically from nothing, which I intend that we do.
The Deputy asked about the housing commission and the referendum. The commission has been established and had its first meeting under the chairpersonship of John O’Connor. This will be a superb commission comprising a good group of people with a breadth of knowledge and experience. Part of its terms of reference is to proceed with work on the provision of details for a referendum on housing. It is something that we have committed to in the programme for Government and which I would like to see. The commission, independently of me, will be working on that. It is up and running and is doing that work already.
On social housing which the Deputy has also asked about, we set a new-build target of 9,000 houses in one year. That will be very significant and will require all of our local authorities, including my Department, to be working together to deliver something that they have never come close to in recent years. This is a significant jump up but the pipeline is good, not just for this year but for next year and into the future. We need to be able to support that through resources. That is why the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and I made the announcement in respect of additional housing staff, engineers, quantity surveyors and architects. Those skills at local authority level right across the country are so important. I hope I have responded to the points raised by the Deputy and I thank the Chairman.
I thank Deputy Higgins. I will take the next slot now. Deputy McAuliffe covered the Housing for All strategy and all of the work that went into that very well. I will not go through that again.
I wanted to concentrate on water and water services, especially in programme B. I note that if we do not look after our water supplies and wastewater treatment, one cannot have any houses or development. Water is critical to that and I am glad to see the funding in place for that.
The Minister visited us in Wicklow at the official opening of the Vartry Water Treatment Plant there. I note that the Environment Protection Agency has announced that 130,000 people have been taken off the remedial action list because of the investment in that facility. That is critical.
I also pay tribute here, while I have the opportunity, to Ned Fleming who is the caretaker of that facility and is an absolute legend in water treatment throughout Wicklow and no doubt across Ireland and I wish him well. I do not know if he is retired but I believe he is headed in that direction.
I know that the river basin management plan is into phase 3 now. I remember when that started way back in order that we could meet the requirements of the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. That is also a positive.
The Arklow wastewater treatment plant is also a very significant investment in Arklow for which we have waited a very long time. I see the latest photographs and we receive regular updates from Irish Water on that. That site has been cleared now since the date we were down there for its official launch. That will be critical to improving the quality of the water and the marine environment around Arklow and Arklow Harbour. I remember many years ago when the investment was made in Shanganagh wastewater treatment plant, when I believe the former Minister, John Gormley, was in office. That actually allowed Bray to win its blue flag back a number of years later.
There are a whole range of benefits that accrue to society, including in health, tourism and quality of life, when one has good wastewater treatment and drinking water. It is not something that gets attention much of the time because pipes in the ground are not things that really excite people too much but they are very important.
I wish to raise one issue on B.7, the legacy water environmental issues and possibly B.4, the rural water programme. I have a situation in north Wicklow in an area that was once probably rural but because of urbanisation is now an urban area around which much housing has been built. This relates to a number of houses which are on individual septic tanks and the mains foul water network is now running past. What is in place for those areas, which would not be classed as rural as they are urban now but would have been rural at one stage, to try have these taken on board? What funding does that come under? Is it the rural water programme or does it come under legacy water environmental issues?
With respect to the Chairman, I wish to return, first, to a couple of points.
Arklow and Vartry are two very good examples mentioned there by the Chairman, one which relates to fresh and state-of-the-art drinking water supplies and plant in Vartry and then Arklow, where we have had untreated wastewater since virtually forever going into the Arklow River and polluting that area. We now have a €134 million investment into our wastewater treatment there. There are many other such examples. That is why it is important that we have the Irish Water programme of direct Exchequer funding of approximately €4.9 billion over the next number of years, but where it has sight of its capital plan of €6 billion between now and 2026.
To address the Chairman's question on a smaller settlement that has become urbanised, I expect those settlements to be dealt with where Irish Water has published its capacity plan and that these would be in its capital framework. It is not necessarily a legacy issue. It is an issue but I would not see it as falling under that programme and we will confirm the position there.
Very shortly, I am talking about a matter of weeks here, I intend to bring a programme forward that will partner with our local authorities in towns and villages, but mainly in villages and rural settlements that do not have any Irish Water wastewater infrastructure at all.
As part of the plan, the local authority would bring forward an acquired piece of land that has planning permission. We would assess that piece, provide a grant to the local authority to tender and procure those works and, when the works are completed, then hand them over.
For argument's sake, I visited communities such as Broadford, County Clare. It is quite a substantial settlement with no wastewater treatment at all. Unfortunately, there are approximately 665 settlements such as that all over the country. We will not fix them all overnight. However, I want to see a programme where Irish Water is advancing on one side and our local authorities can advance on the other.
We will open a fund, which I referenced it in my opening statement, and the local authorities will bring forward shovel-ready projects. I want stuff moving. I do not want to be coming forward with a plan that will take a long time. There are things we can do right now.
The level of investment in Irish Water by this Government is unprecedented. The Chair is right, as well, in that without the freshwater and wastewater infrastructure, we will not be able to deliver the houses that we need.
I have two minutes left and I want to talk about the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, and An Bord Pleanála for a second. I compliment the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, on his engagement with this committee during long committee sessions on the Maritime Area Planning Act that we passed last year.
In meeting our emissions targets, it is critical to have that planning framework in place, which we have now for the maritime area. Offshore energy will be critical to us in meeting our energy demands. Energy is so costly now, that when we achieve that energy resilience of having 5 GW of offshore wind in the east and a target of 30 GW over the next decade after that, it puts us on the path of not being dependent on fossil fuels.
It is critical that MARA has the budget to get up and running quickly to do what it is set up to do, and An Bord Pleanála as well. An Bord Pleanála will be judging these planning applications that come in from maritime area planning and it is not something it has dealt with to a huge extent before. Therefore, we need to ensure that An Bord Pleanála is sufficiently staffed and has a specialised maritime planning area office to deal with that. Can the Minister briefly assure me that we are on top of that, as I only have about one minute left?
I will answer very quickly and the Minister of State, Deputy Burke may wish to add on it. It was very significant that the legislation passed and is now an Act. MARA, in skeletal form, will be established this year. I expect it to be fully operational by 1 January 2023. It is very important that we have a streamlined planning process to harness the resource of offshore wind for energy security and offshore renewables, in particular.
I approved the workforce plan in An Bord Pleanála for additional staff, who are now being recruited. We will need more experts on the water side, in particular, and in relation to marine planning and development. Those posts will be advertised very shortly. We are already advertising for additional staff within An Bord Pleanála and there will be a very significant increase in its numbers.
I am very confident we will have in MARA a single regulatory authority, for the first time ever, that will manage and regulate all of the things that happen within our maritime area, which is seven times the size of our land mass, and will help to reverse the decline in our marine biodiversity and be able to provide clean energy for our country on a secure basis. We are well on track to doing that and having the planning framework in place that will underpin that.
I apologise to the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, as I am out of time. However, I will follow up on that in the second round.
I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for the information that has been given. First, I will ask about some of the headings in housing where there are reductions in expenditure for 2022 compared to 2021. First, on subhead A25, in terms of the important area of rented accommodation inspection, not enough is being done in terms of rental inspections and enforcement. What is the rationale in cutting it from €12.5 million down to €10 million, which is a 20% reduction? That is very significant.
We will go one question at a time, thank you.
Which heading is that?
It is heading A25 - rented accommodation inspection.
I am just looking at it here. The total expenditure was €2.763 million in 2021. What is the Deputy's question on?
I am asking about the Estimate, which was €12.5 million.
That is an overall figure, which was a significant increase on the previous year.
Yes, and the Estimate for 2022 is €10 million. Why is that?
I do not have that figure to hand here. I apologise, I am just trying to find it here. Please bear with me for one second.
I will say a general point while I am getting that information for the Deputy. We have substantially increased the investment in the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, year on year. There was a very significant increase between 2020 and 2021. If there is a small decrease into 2022, I will have to get that detail for the Deputy. We approved, last year, the workforce plan for the RTB and we are putting in place a chief executive at assistant secretary level, which was a very significant step forward. It is enhancing and improving the inspection regime that is there. We are asking the RTB to do more now than we have ever done before, underpinned by way of legislation.
I will just have to double-check with regard to an overall small reduction. Last year, €10 million was made available to local authorities on that. However, total expenditure on rent and inspections was €2.763 million. There was a reduction of physical inspections last year because of Covid. Therefore, there were unspent funds in that space. I will have to look at the overall figure.
What I am referring to is on page 179 of the Estimates. It is the comparison of the 2021 Estimate with the 2022 Estimate.
On subhead A13 on page 179 of the Estimates, €218 million is the Estimate on accommodation for homeless in 2021 and there is a reduction to €194 million-----
I apologise to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan but I just want to get an answer for him on his previous question. If he looks at the out-turn in 2021 under rental inspections, the out-turn was approximately €5.6 million. It was significantly below what we targeted for. Therefore, the estimate for this year is €10.13 million, which would effectively be a near doubling of what was spent in 2021.
However, there was a -----
A capacity point. Literally, we had a fall off in the expenditure in 2021.
Yes, because of Covid.
Yes but any additional resources the RTB has looked for from me, it has received.
However, for 2022 we should be at full capacity, in terms of inspection. There should not be a Covid issue.
Yes, we should be. We will also expand the virtual inspections. I expect more inspections. We want to get to a stage where 25% of private rental properties are inspected on an annual basis. Therefore, we have approved additional staff for the RTB, we approved the workforce plan and we have a new chief executive in place. It is in good shape to do that. If I were to allocate €15 million this year, for argument's sake, I would want to make sure that those resources are going to be able to be used and we have the capacity to do it. When the Deputy considers an out-turn last year of €5.2 million, with the increase in staff that we have this year-----
I have some other questions to ask, but I -----
I was just answering the Deputy's question. That is fine.
We understand why there was a decrease in the out-turn in 2021 due to Covid. That should not be applicable in 2022. However, it -----
No, it should not be, but it -----
It is a 20% reduction in what was estimated would be needed in 2021, so that is significant.
It will be a substantial increase as well, if we are being honest with people. There has been substantial increase in the level of rental inspections that have happened heretofore in the past two years. In addition, we are using a hybrid method of doing that, where some virtual inspections will be useful but we want most of them to be physical. Therefore, we will actually increase what we will be doing in that space.
I apologise, as I know the Deputy has other questions.
The carry-over in capital spend from 2020 into 2021 was €214 million. The Minister is seeking the full capital carry-over of 10% liable of €275.8 million into 2022. In terms of capital expenditure on housing, how much has been lost between 2020 and 2021?
Does the Deputy mean between 2021 and 2022?
Both years. Did we-----
Is the Deputy asking if we surrendered any money?
Cumulatively, have we lost any money in terms of capital expenditure?
We have taken the full capital carryover that is available and that has been agreed. The Deputy will have seen from the briefing he got that we were able to reallocate funds from capital to current to help with what the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, raised earlier about funding our local authorities through Covid. In the context of the budget, there was a minute surrender of in the region of €19 million. That is on the total Vote. It is very small. We expended what we said we would, though not in all the places we wanted because we had the construction shutdown and were impacted on delivery. We reallocated in that space, particularly in voids. We looked at activating existing properties and getting them back in. It was a minute surrender, if that is the question the Deputy is asking, in the context of the overall Vote.
Was it €19 million?
Something in that region. We have the full capital carryover of €276 million. We were not unique in that. Every Department on the capital side, because of Covid, had to carry over.
Finally, on A13, concerning accommodation for homeless, the 2021 Estimate was €218 million and 2022 is €194 million. Will the Minister talk us through that reduction? I have often raised quality in homeless emergency accommodation, especially in some of the privately run establishments. Is there funding to have HIQA, for example, do inspections? What is the Minister's view on that?
The second question is important and I would like to deal with it in detail. Maybe in the next round I can come back on that. I will explain the expenditure piece. Before Covid, we were spending about €168 million on homeless services. The additional funding we gave to bring it to over €200 million were the Covid supports we needed to shield people and provide services. The €194 million is a significant increase on the pre-Covid years. We are not seeing a like-for-like reduction. We put in additional measures and expenditure will not be an issue. My big focus is on helping many people who are homeless back into permanent accommodation and expanding Housing First for those with complex needs, including addiction, mental health and others. A total of 1,300 new tenancies in that space will be underpinned by what we are doing. It is a significant increase on the pre-Covid year of 2019. I will come back on standards, which I would like to talk about.
It is fantastic to see the energy and enthusiasm the Minister has brought to the Department, as have his junior Ministers, over the past 19 months. They have hit the ground running. In particular, over the last quarter and the start of 2022 we have seen real success in the battle against the housing crisis.
The Minister is the bainisteoir and is here with his bainisteoir cúnta and my constituency colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke. It is unfortunate that the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is not here because I wanted to pay tribute to the work he is doing in heritage. I have seen first hand small community groups heartened by the enthusiasm he has shown. I hope the message can be passed on to him. Though the Minister is the figurehead, it is important to acknowledge the team in the Custom House. We can see the amount of work and effort gone into the Housing for All plan. It is clear to see there is a fantastic team behind the Minister and we look forward to the results over the next three years or so.
I was heartened in the last week to see our first Fresh Start success in Longford in a matter of five weeks. We can be cynical about these things sometimes but to see that coming through so quickly was a ringing endorsement of the work being done in the Department. Everybody involved has to be commended. It was great to hear that woman who thought she would never get her life back on track after a difficult separation get equity in a Dublin property and started her life again in rural Ireland.
It will come as no surprise that I will ask about affordable housing and Housing for All. Affordable housing cannot be just centred on Dublin and the big metropolitan centres. The Minister already has his housing delivery plans across the 31 council areas. Is there a dedicated component and target for affordable housing in each of those delivery plans? On engagement with local authorities at this stage on affordable housing, will the Minister indicate how many local authorities are actively engaging? He will appreciate I am obsessed with one local authority, namely, Longford, but I still get a sense it will be difficult for those counties to get it over the line. I cannot tell the Minister enough how real an issue affordable housing is across the country. If we do not tackle it in rural areas and provincial towns, we will not tackle it nationwide.
Where are we in relation to the launch of the affordable purchase shared equity scheme? When will it be ready? It is not clearly set out but I assume that is just for new builds. If we are struggling to get affordable housing up and running in rural Ireland, there is an opportunity for some counties to tweak that to include second-hand house purchases and enable people hanging on for affordable housing to get onto the property ladder. I am not looking for it nationwide but a specific and targeted approach across a number of counties might be worthwhile.
The Chair spoke about Irish Water, which is an area of expertise for him. There are concerns across the country about Irish Water. Irish Water today revealed a figure of €13 million for the cost of repairs and leaks in Longford over the past two years. That is, on average, just under €18,000 a day being spent on leaks and repairs. At the same time, we are struggling to see that body put in place a decent infrastructure to allow the local authority move ahead with its plans.
I welcome the non-seweraged villages initiative and the Minister's plans to work with local authorities. For example, for a town like Ballymahon that is maxed out in terms of its capacity, will there by an opportunity for the local county council to come up with a proposal on the basis that Irish Water's capital plan is unlikely to deliver a solution for that town for the next three to five years? Is there an opportunity for the council to come to the Minister with its own bespoke plan and seek funding?
The non-seweraged villages initiative will relate to that purely. Towns and villages that have existing treatment plants will not apply for that fund. I want to get this up and running. I think it can have an impact. The regular capital plan can apply there. I can talk to the Deputy separately about that.
He is 100% right and the affordability measures being brought forward do not just relate to Dublin, Cork or the main cities. I signed off on the first number of affordable purchase homes by way of advance purchase arrangements today. I cannot tell the Deputy where they are but they are outside Dublin and Leinster. I want to see the spread across the country.
The first home shared equity scheme will apply to all first-time buyers or buyers under the Fresh Start principle. I welcome what the Deputy said on Fresh Start. It is a principle that the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, and I, as well as our Government, absolutely believe in. Someone who has had a change in life circumstances, gone through personal insolvency or is starting again should be supported and will be through the measures we are bringing forward as a Government, like we have done with the changes to the local authority affordable housing loan. We have made significant changes there for singles.
The first home shared equity scheme will apply to new builds, first and foremost. I do not envisage a change. That will start at the end of quarter 2 and be operational at the beginning of quarter 3. The Croí Cónaithe towns and villages fund will be a opportunity for vacant properties in our regions. Young and not-so-young couples and Fresh Start and other individuals will get assistance in refurbishing a property to bring it back to use should they wish to live in it. We are targeting initially 2,500 homes. We want to see how it works and if we need to change it, we will do so. I am excited about that initiative. It will make a major difference but we will need to manage it. I expect the Croí Cónaithe towns and villages fund to be announced this quarter, that is, quarter 1.
I thank the Minister for the discussions here today. It is important that this topic is being put front and centre. Last year, the first quarterly report of the Housing for All plan showed that, last year, building commenced on 30,000 homes. That was a high since 2008. There were 39,000 planning permission grants for homes. They are really important figures because they show that the tide is starting to turn. They show that delivery is happening as a result of investment and plans. The foundations for homes are being built every year. The Minister did a fantastic politician's job of sidestepping one of my questions earlier, so I will ask it again.
The Minister ran out of time. I am only joking. The question relates to the affordable housing regulations, which I know are coming down the tracks. I stress that as we are putting together these plans, we do so in a way that allows couples to plan for their future in order that they can aspire to purchase a home that they would be purchasing on the open market at an affordable rate. I want to make sure that we are planning and providing stability for young couples who opt for the affordable housing options. I will hand over my remaining three and a half minutes to the Minister to give him the opportunity to say what these Estimates for €4 billion mean to people who are struggling in the housing market and how it will help them this year.
I thank Deputy Higgins. I did not mean to sidestep her question. To answer it, the affordable purchase regulations will be published in the coming weeks, in March. Some work is being done on it. The cost-rental regulations have been published already. We need to tell people the parameters within which they need to operate. As I said to Deputy Flaherty, the first home shared equity scheme will be initiated at the end of the second quarter and operational at the start of the third quarter.
The €4 billion means that people who have been waiting for years on the social housing list will see a ramping up of new-build delivery through our partners in approved housing bodies and local authorities, to provide over 9,000 new builds per year and to get it up to 10,000. We will also allow for elements of acquisition and a small element of leasing, because real families have been waiting for these homes. That will provide capacity of 90,000 social homes for us to start making progress on the lists.
People who are working, saving, renting and so on now have a couple of options. Cost rental did not exist 12 months ago. We focused on passing the Affordable Housing Act. Tenants are in place, with more receiving tenancies in Leixlip and there will be tenants on Enniskerry Road, which is the first local authority scheme. There is a group of nine different schemes, which I have not published yet, which will be delivered this year too. There are hundreds of new, safe and secure tenancies for real people at 40% to 50% below market rates. Policy and plans are important but there is nothing more important than delivery in order that people can see this is actually changing. On the affordable housing side, we will have directly-built, local authority-led affordable homes, with people buying them this year. The first is in Boherboy, Cork, followed shortly by Dun Emer, Lusk, and there will be more. We need to build capacity in the local authority sector to do that. It will not be able to deliver hundreds or thousands this year. We will supplement that through the LDA, which we are funding, and through the first home shared equity scheme. An individual or young couple will now be able to bridge that gap of unaffordability. The State is rightly saying that it backs homeownership and will help people to own homes. We want that for younger people. We have to keep working to ensure that happens. We may have to adjust as we progress. We have a real plan, with real money, and we will see real delivery this year. We will build on that as we go into 2023.
I thank the Minister. The message that this Government backs homeownership is critical. I began earlier by talking about the need for a plan, for political will and for investment. It has been made utterly clear this evening that we have all of those. We have a costed plan, the level of investment that we need, and the political will to tackle this and deliver real change for families who need it.
I am looking for as much factual information as possible. There was an underspend on the social housing budget this year. Is the Minister in a position to give us the final new-build social housing delivery number for last year and a breakdown of the number of direct deliveries and turnkey housing by local authorities and approved bodies? Does the Minister have a sense, from looking at the pipeline in local authorities, of the breakdown between direct delivery versus turnkey housing for the new-build target for this year?
I do not yet have the final figure. We are just checking through it. Indications for social housing delivery, particularly new builds, is that it will be marginally increased from 2020. Those are initial figures but we need to check them.
It would be useful, when those figures are published, if the annual breakdown of turnkey housing versus direct delivery was included in the quarterly report. I ask the Minister to consider that.
We were both on the committee that looked at turnkey housing. Turnkey housing is ground-up delivery of public homes on public land. I know the Deputy agrees with that. I think we will give as much detail on that as we can. I have initial returns that need to be checked through. Once we have them, we will submit them to the committee.
Perfect.
I want to move on to the €40 million for the defective mica and pyrite block scheme. The Minister knows that there was a lot of anger at the last-minute construction of the sliding scale at the end of last year. Families on the western seaboard have expressed anger about two aspects of the terms of reference agreed between the Department and the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, for remediation with regard to the 2007 building standards and the exclusion of foundations. I have two related questions. It is unclear from the memorandum published this week whether the sliding scale is now off the table. Will the Minister confirm that? Can the 2007 building regulations and foundations where they might be defective be considered for inclusion?
The key thing is to pass the legislation and to open the revised scheme this year, albeit with the proper amendments. Does the Minister have a date to publish the general scheme? Is he confident that, with the support of the committee, he will pass the legislation and have a scheme with the regulations in place before the end of the year?
I will answer the Deputy's last question first. This is complex legislation. Much work is happening in the Office of the Attorney General in this regard. I hope to publish the general scheme in March. In fairness, committee members have offered to co-operate to expedite its passage through the committee, Dáil and Seanad. We need to pass the legislation by the summer recess. I believe that the current scheme exists on quite tenuous grounds because it only exists under the previous Act. We need primary legislation. It is advancing well. I will keep the committee advised of it. I am aiming for March. We need to start progressing it. If we need amendments on Committee Stage, we can do that too. I corresponded with residents again today. I am committed to bringing forward and building on the enhancements that we brought to the existing scheme of €2.2 billion.
Will the Minister address the three questions about foundations, the 2007 standards and the sliding scale?
Absolutely. The matter of the foundations and the standard is being reviewed by Engineers Ireland. If we find that there is a reason to include foundations, I am not against that at all. Regarding the terms of reference for SCSI, I sent correspondence back to residents this evening. There has been contact between residents, SCSI, my office and me. We are excluding nothing. Those are draft terms of reference, not final terms.
They are draft terms. They could change.
The SCSI will operate independently of me. I have spent a long time moving this forward. I will take what the SCSI brings forward independently of me and my Department-----
I accept that fully.
-----and we will base our decisions on that.
My concern is that the terms of reference explicitly exclude foundations. They refer to remediation costs only up to 2007 standards. In addition, the sliding scale, while not in the terms of reference, is in the appendix.
On the sliding scale, I do not want to be seen in any way to be butting in on the independence of SCSI but it is unlikely there will be a sliding scale in the final set-up.
Will the 2007 standards be revised upwards?
It is a good question. In dealing first with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, SEAI grant aid will be available. I need to let the SCSI do its work.
I appreciate that.
There has been good co-operation on this across the board. We want to get people's lives and homes back.
I have a very quick question for the Minister of State before my time runs out. On Traveller accommodation, I acknowledge that the money has been spent for two years in a row, which is very positive. Notwithstanding that, the Minister of State gave me a detailed written answer recently showing how only 70 units of accommodation had been provided between the various schemes. No new units were provided by 13 local authorities. How can we ensure this year and next year not only that the money is spent but that the bulk of it is spent on new or upgraded accommodation because that is what the bulk of that money is meant to be for?
I think 75 was the figure referred to in the reply. We must do this in a number of ways. I have been liaising strongly with the local authorities as I go around the country visiting sites. There is a very significant capital programme in Cork that I expect and hope to see commence this year. I have been down there on the ground trying to progress the programme. I have carried it forward through all local authorities as much as I can but it is a significant challenge. I must be honest about that. As we work through the expert group, we will hopefully have significant changes in how we go about delivering Traveller accommodation through the programme of work the group has set out. It will be a challenge but that will not be for the want of energy and commitment on my part as I try to drive this forward.
I thank the Chairman.
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak. I am substituting for a committee member. I have a number of questions on Vote 34 specifically. Some are for the Minister and others for the Minister of State. I note a further €275.8 million in capital has been carried over from 2021. I am assuming that is related to an underspend caused by the pandemic. It is also noted that a little over €92 million will be available from the Local Government Fund.
Turning specifically to the €2.53 billion allocated for expenditure, there is, I believe, a figure for programme B, which is water. The Chairman mentioned Arklow but I am also conscious of water quality in Dublin Bay. Irish Water has a particular programme under way for refurbishing and improving treatment plants. Is funding provided for that in programme B, under capital to Irish Water?
Programme F deals with conservation. There are various conservation funds, including the historical structures fund, the architectural structures fund and the annual funds administered by the local authorities. Are they included in programme F. Subhead F11 deals with climate adaptation. Is there an increase in funding under that subhead?
I ask the Minister to expand on the issue of electoral reform and spending on that. The citizens' assembly on Dublin is very welcome. Does the cost of that come from the Department's budget or the budget of the Department of the Taoiseach? I inquire also about the establishment of the electoral commission. There is a lot in that.
I thank both Deputies for their questions. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is driving forward the electoral commission. Art O’Leary, the former Secretary General to the President, is moving to the commission and we want to get it established. I expect and hope the Bill will come to the committee in this quarter. It will be significant legislation. We have a census this year as well. There will be a requirement for a boundary review of Dáil constituencies and we want the commission established to have input into that. I will have to check with my officials on the citizens' assembly. Citizens' assemblies are generally initiated in the Department of the Taoiseach. I welcome the announcement in that regard. Citizens' assemblies have worked very well.
Deputy Devlin asked a number of questions. On Irish Water specifically, I visited the Ringsend facility for the opening of the second plant, which is the second biggest plant in the country. It will make a major difference to water quality in the Dublin Bay region. The plant has been commissioned and is up and running. Its capacity is expanding by close to 500,000 population equivalent, PE. Further work is being done on one plant with regard to storm water run-off and so forth. There is much we can do in that regard. Investment in water and wastewater infrastructure in the coming years is unprecedented and is now allocated on a multi-annual basis in order that we do this better.
The Deputy asked a couple of questions on heritage funds. He may have missed our comments on that in the opening statements. Funding has increased significantly in 2022. The historical structures fund is in place and will fund about 100 projects. More than 150 projects across the country, many of which I have been able to visit, will be funded under the community monuments fund. What is great about that fund is that it gets local communities involved with their local history. Local authorities and their heritage officers have done a superb job bringing people on board with them. In some instances, the amounts of money involved are small but they make a massive difference to local communities and generate interest in history and the sites on our doorsteps that most of us did not know about before the pandemic. During the pandemic, people became far more in tune with their local areas.
Under subhead F11, €200,000 has been allocated to progress relevant actions under the climate change sectoral adaptation plan for built and architectural heritage. That has been incorporated into the climate action plan 2021. Those actions will be overseen by the National Monuments Service and the built heritage policy, which will look at examples of best practice in this area, while ensuring everything we do is compliant with our climate change strategy.
I return to the issue of homeless accommodation. The new standards the Dublin Regional Homelessness Executive, DRHE, has drawn up for private, for-profit providers of emergency accommodation are clearly informed by HIQA. HIQA is the body with the experience and expertise in inspecting areas and settings where people may be vulnerable and need care and support. That should certainly be the case with emergency accommodation for the homeless. People should get support but in some circumstances that is not the case. Will HIQA be appointed to do that? It is critically important. It would cut out many of the problems in that sector. I would like the Minster's view on that.
We have discussed this matter a number of times. I am glad the Deputy continues to highlight it. I have established the national homeless action committee, as he knows. I want standards in this area, especially private emergency accommodation, dealt with. The Deputy mentioned the DRHE's new standards for emergency accommodation, which focus on private emergency accommodation. They are an adaptation of the national quality standards framework, NQSF, standards.
It is a question of their application and of the wraparound services. I was on outreach myself recently and, from talking to people who are out on the ground, I believe that we may not have the same level of wraparound services in some private emergency accommodation as we have in the State-run sector. That needs to be addressed. The situation is improving on where it was. I know that from talking to practitioners on the ground and from going out with the outreach teams.
To be honest, we can do better in that space. That is why I am very focused on the homelessness action committee, which is not just made up of officials from my Department. That is very important. It also includes representatives from the Departments of Justice and Health and I chair it. All of the main NGOs have also agreed to be part of it. That is a standing committee within Government. The new standards are welcome but it is a question of their application. If there is an easier way to do it, perhaps through the standards being applied directly by HIQA, I am not opposed to that. I want to get there. I have been told that the lead-in time to do that would be quite extensive. I have to work with partners to see how we can do that.
Obviously, we all want to see a reduction in the use of emergency accommodation. We have changes in the demographics of the individuals and families who are accessing emergency accommodation, which makes it quite difficult to plan with regard to our capacity. That is why it is important that the Departments of Health and Justice, Tusla and others are involved in this process. I chair the committee myself. We have to ensure that all of those people have security, standards and wraparound services. I met a gentleman last week who will not go into hostels in Dublin. He had been beaten up twice. When he was sleeping out in Dublin, he was beaten up for a cigarette. I have visited really good own-room hostels that have their own lockers, good services and nurses and doctors on board but not every hostel is at that standard. It is our challenge to achieve that. Our real challenge is to make sure the young lad I met last week has a safe place to live. He is working away. There are others with very complex needs. That is why the expansion of Housing First is also really important.
I thank the Minister for his response. It is important that he acknowledged that we could do a lot better in some of those areas. Exactly as the Minister said, there are people who actually feel safer on the street than in some of the very badly run private emergency accommodation out there. There are different standards between different operators. As the Minister said, the survey done by Mendicity showed that more than 90% of those in private emergency accommodation who were surveyed had either been assaulted or robbed in private emergency accommodation. It is appalling that people are in that vulnerable situation in accommodation funded by the State, albeit not run by the State. As the Minister said, it is important to have the standards but it is their application that matters. There is no one better to ensure they are applied and to carry out inspections than HIQA.
I do not want to take up the Deputy's time but may I mention one quick thing? It is important. I was with Mendicity every week and met people who are accessing its services. When somebody comes out of a hostel, they may unfortunately get beaten up on the street. That is the challenge but there is no question but that we can do better in certain areas. The application of standards, inspections and wraparound services are really important.
With regard to affordable housing, it has been mentioned to me that some local authorities do not feel they have the staff resources to deliver affordable housing. Has the Minister asked the local authorities whether they have enough staff, particularly in the area of affordable housing? Are their requests being met?
That is a good question. We are engaging with them. I have more housing summits with local authorities the week after next. We have approved another 250 posts across the 31 local authorities for the housing delivery teams. To look at the figures for whole-time equivalents, actual staff, for 2020 - I do not have the full-year figures for 2021 - we had 29,366 staff in local authorities. That was up from 26,800 in 2016, so we are going in the right direction. We need more housing staff like quantity surveyors, engineers, draughtspeople and so on. We have helped our local authorities to build up their housing delivery teams and we continue to do so. That forms part of their housing delivery plans. We have given the resources that have been looked for so far because I wanted the local authorities to be able to deliver the affordable and social homes we need.
I am conscious that the Minister needs to leave by 8 p.m. so I will be brief in my last slot. I note the references to the work the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, has done. He has really engaged with this committee. We have gone through the Bills on electoral reform and the mayor for Limerick. We are going through the Monuments and Archaeological Heritage Bill at the moment. I note subhead F8, which relates to peatlands restoration, conservation and management. I am once again talking about carbon emissions. What the restoration of our peatlands can do for us with regard to carbon sequestration is absolutely incredible. It also provides jobs in those midland areas. It is about the natural management of water, which can aid in addressing the flooding we often see in midland areas. That is key and I am glad to see that budget is there. It is worth €10.2 million, for a total of €13.8 million.
There is funding of €85 million under the energy efficiency subhead. I assume this is in addition to the funding for retrofitting announced by Government yesterday, that massive €8 billion.
That funding is for retrofitting units falling within our remit, social housing. We are targeting approximately 2,400 units.
Again, that is absolutely key for people in living those houses.
It is particularly key in addressing the issue of fuel poverty.
Yes, it is targeted at that. That is critical. The message went out loud and clear yesterday that there is a whole range of supports available. There is the 100% grant, the 80% grant for smaller works and the grant of up to 50% for large-scale jobs. There was also mention of the Land Development Agency, LDA. The chair designate, Cormac O'Rourke, came into us recently. We had a really good session with the LDA and many of us left confident of the work it will do. It is a critical agency with regard to managing the land and pulling it together. The land aspect has always been key in making housing affordable.
I will move to planning and the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF. The Minister has visited many parts of the country to see the benefits that fund has brought about. Local authorities need to have the funding in place to develop a pipeline because it costs them money to design these projects so they are ready for when the funding grants are announced. I hope that local authorities have a small amount of funding to develop their plans so that, when funding is announced, they are shovel-ready and ready to go. I hope that is in place.
On energy efficiency and retrofitting, the planning exemption for solar panels is critical. We are coming into the sunny season now. There are megawatts of potential power up there in the sun. We could have panels on every school building, community building, farm building and church building out there to generate energy predominantly for on-site use, but with the ability to feed back into the grid. That work on microgeneration is due shortly. I have covered a lot. I do not know whether the Minister can answer some of those questions. I am conscious that he needs to go at 8 p.m.
It is okay. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, may want to come in on some points. With regard to the URDF, work has been done in the Chairman's constituency of Wicklow, specifically Wicklow town. I have seen the work there. Public realm work has been completed in Tralee and Ennis. There are some fantastic projects there. We need to see ground being broken on those projects. There are some very significant projects, such as those on the north quays in Waterford and on the quays in Cork, that will really drive regeneration forward to support commercial investment and people living in our towns and villages, which is something the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, has been working very hard on. Some €1.7 billion has been allocated across hundreds of very significant projects right across the country. We expect to have another round of URDF funding this year. We support the local authorities in making their plans. The Chairman will see where they are phased. In Balbriggan in my own constituency, Fingal County Council applied for funding to do the detailed planning that allowed them to unlock an additional €25 million to rejuvenate the town centre and the harbour in the town. There is immense potential there. We want to see more and more projects commencing and then concluding so we can move forward to the next round.
The Minister of State may wish to speak on the solar panel piece. It is something that we are absolutely committed to. It is awaiting a strategic environmental assessment.
We have written to the Deputy in connection with the issue in terms of the timelines. We are working very hard to progress it. I know it has to go through the environmental thresholds, but we expect to have it shortly.
The Chairman mentioned the Land Development Agency, LDA. Obviously, under Housing for All additional tranches of land have been handed over to the agency under its responsibility to deliver a further 15,000 homes. This year is a most important year for the LDA. We will see it delivering homes this year. We will see it breaking ground on Shanganagh Castle and the LDA proving concept being capitalised by the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF. That will be matched by additional borrowings. We have increased its borrowing capacity to allow it to move forward with Project Tosaigh, which is about activating dormant planning permissions. There will be a real focus on affordable, social and cost-rental homes. The vehicle to deliver cost rental at scale into the future may very well be the LDA. The members met the new chairman, Mr. O'Rourke. There is a really good management team in place there. They are really focused. I am encouraging them every day to make sure that they deliver in 2022.
I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for their time and their engagement with the committee. They will always be welcome back. We hope to engage further with them. I know that there is a pipeline of legislation. As ever, the committee and the members are willing to put the hours and the work in to get that important legislation through. I thank also the officials of the Minister and the Minister of State for attending today.
I thank the Chairman and all the members for their input and questions today.
I thank the committee for its ongoing work and the co-operative and efficient way in which it does its business. We look forward to continuing to work in that manner right the way through 2022 for the good of our people.