Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 November 2015
8. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will report to Dáil Éireann on the implementation plan for the State's response to homelessness and the Government's action plan on homelessness; if he will outline the Government's achievements under both plans; if he will say how much remains to be achieved before the end of this Dáil; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31708/15]
View answerWe on the north side of Dublin have seen very few of the new units to which the Minister of State referred. Reference was made earlier to the 3,600 individuals on the Wexford housing list. We have almost double that number in Dublin Bay North. Among the 750 families in emergency accommodation are 1,600 children. The Minister has published the draft planning and development (urgent social housing supply) policy directive 2015, which deal with section 179 of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2015 and Part 8 of the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 to 2015. Why was that not done 18 months ago?
I am fully committed to dealing with homelessness. It is my top priority. I do not say that in any kind of glib way; I genuinely mean it. There is a necessity to focus on providing suitable emergency accommodation for families. The greatest concern is in respect of rough sleepers, which is particularly an issue in Dublin and other cities. Yesterday, I launched the Be Winter Ready programme, assisted by the excellent work of Cathal Morgan and his team in the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.
We have brought forward a number of comprehensive action plans to tackle homelessness. If the Deputy looks into it, he will see that virtually all of those plans have been executed and substantial progress has been made on their objectives. Progress updates on all the action plans are brought on a monthly basis to the Cabinet sub-committee on social policy and public service reform. Given the huge amount of work that is ongoing on a weekly and daily basis, I will not go through the 50 different actions.
Many of them have been successful. The ministerial direction, which I presume the Deputy supported, in respect of the 50% increase in the allocations policy for people who are homeless or vulnerable has also been successful. I refer to the public awareness campaigns, the work being done by Threshold and the possibility of increasing rent supplement payments. Intercepting people who vulnerable is also working well. The changes to the housing assistance payment, HAP, in respect of homeless families in Dublin were necessary measures. Many different measures are required to meet the needs of people who are becoming homeless. Everybody who is homeless has complex needs, either at a personal level or from an economic point of view.
Housing is their first need.
Deputy Broughan, on your feet, please.
We are putting together measures across a whole range of areas.
I thank the Minister for his reply. The first need of people is housing. When will the Minister make an announcement in the House about rent certainty? When I called four years ago for rent controls that request was met with howls of protest from Fianna Fáil and, later on, from Fine Gael. The work of those two parties down through the years in relation to development and rent has been representative of landlord interests. That is the problem.
Rubbish.
That is the problem about the-----
That is rubbish and Deputy Broughan knows it.
That is the reality of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael - the iron alliance.
Sorry, Deputy, this is Question Time. Would you put your question?
When can we expect an announcement on rent certainty? The Minister will be aware that Senator Aideen Hayden has done a lot of work with Threshold on this matter. When will he make an announcement on it?
The Minister did not respond to my question about the draft planning and development (urgent social housing supply) directive, which I read very carefully. Is that a direction to the county and city councils to get their act together and start delivering? Is that what that document is saying in relation to Part 8 and section 179 of the relevant planning legislation? The Minister should have issued that directive 18 months ago. On modular homes-----
Sorry, Deputy, please allow the Minister to respond. I will let you back in.
I have firm conversations with all local authorities on a regular basis. I met with them only a couple of weeks ago and a couple of weeks prior to that. I met with all of the CEOs and, where necessary, their directors of housing. The Minister of State, Deputy Coffey, and, where necessary, the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, and I have met with the local authorities, to whom we emphasised that this is our number one priority. Provision of social housing and facilitating private housing where necessary, particularly in areas where there are real issues, is the number one priority. I cannot make it any clearer than that. I accept that we need to build houses. I am doing everything I can to have houses built. There is a planning process in place for a reason and it has to be adhered to.
In relation to the directive which the Minister issued, which I am sure the Ceann Comhairle has also read, what are the implications of it? Approximately 18 months ago, on the final sitting day prior to the Dáil going into recess, we had a debate on housing policy, at which time the Minister could have taken the line of equipping the local authorities with the capital funding needed to launch a social housing programme. That is what the Minister's predecessor, the late Jimmy Tully, did when in office. As stated by Fintan O'Toole, during the poorest decades tens of thousands of local authorities homes were built. Like the Minister and, I am sure, other Members, I lived in a local authority home. They sustained our families. This is not being done now because of the influence of Fine Gael in government and the previous influence of Fianna Fáil in ending the social housing programme.
I attended the modular housing exhibition in the North Strand. The impression is being given that use of this housing is a stop-gap measure to address the needs of people in emergency housing accommodation. I was informed at that exhibition that these units have a life span of 60 years. Are we, in terms of the proposed use of this housing, creating another problem? We need tens of thousands of bricks and mortar homes. These homes were needed up to 18 months ago but, unfortunately, the Government has not delivered them.
We needed them 15 years ago.
There were needed 20 or 25 years ago.
Where was the Deputy then?
I was calling for them then too.
We are over time on this question. We must move on.
