Micheál Martin
Question:5. Deputy Micheál Martin asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing last met. [28622/16]
View answerWednesday, 5 October 2016
Questions (5, 6)
Gerry Adams
Question:6. Deputy Gerry Adams asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing last met; and when the next meeting is scheduled. [28718/16]
View answerOral answers (24 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.
The last meeting of the Cabinet committee on housing was held on Wednesday, 28 September 2016. The committee will meet again later this month. The committee meets regularly to oversee the implementation of the Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, which is a priority for Government.
I thank the Taoiseach for his reply and welcome the fact that he has given a clear commitment that the Cabinet committee will meet regularly regarding this very important issue. I represent two very rural counties and the largest number of representations received by me, and I am sure by my fellow public representatives, day in and day out relate to housing. Unfortunately, there are individuals and families in rural and urban Ireland living in bed and breakfast accommodation and hotel rooms, which is far from satisfactory.
There has been quite an amount of public commentary about possible incentives relating to housing in the forthcoming budget. Have impact assessments been carried out on the various incentives that might be introduced? If they have been undertaken, do such assessments give a clear answer that such incentives will considerably increase supply? The programme for a partnership Government also contained a commitment to planning reforms that would be undertaken immediately and implemented incrementally. Has there been any progress on that?
In the previous Dáil, we often heard the Taoiseach talk about the provision of additional much-needed housing stock using modular builds. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The previous Government identified modular building as a key way of increasing housing stock quickly and at affordable rates. As it turns out, the houses have not been provided and they will not be nearly as cost-effective as was originally thought.
The Taoiseach is well aware of housing assistance payment, HAP, provisions and the fact a person is removed from the social housing list when they go on the HAP scheme.
That they will no longer be on the social housing list discourages people who are in urgent need of housing from availing of the HAP scheme. While there has been some commentary on the transfer, in reality people are removed from the traditional social housing list when they avail of the HAP scheme.
The action plan which the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, recently published does not give clear targets for how many social houses will be new, that is, how many new builds will arise from the action plan. There is a great need to increase social housing considerably. Only 9% of Ireland's housing stock is social housing compared with the EU average of 17%. We have a considerable way to go to reach the EU average. Could progress be make quickly on restoring to habitable condition houses that have been left vacant by local authorities? This should be the quickest way of bringing homes back into use for the many families which are desperate for accommodation.
The committee met nine times, on 12, 20 and 26 May, 2, 9, 15 and 30 June, 7 July and 28 September. The committee will meet as appropriate. If it is necessary for it to meet every week, it will do so. The State must deal with the issue. Due to the total collapse of the construction sector, the senior Minister with responsibility for housing and construction, Deputy Coveney, has produced the most comprehensive construction plan for housing ever produced by the State and backed by resources. We want to deal with the homeless and rough sleepers as a matter of urgency. They are symbols of the failure to deal with people on the streets who, in the vast majority of cases, should not be there. The Minister wants, by the middle of next year, to end the situation of having families in emergency hotel accommodation. It is an ambitious plan, but we intend to meet it.
Good progress has been made in implementing the plan. The HAP homeless pilot in Dublin has been extended. A Housing Agency rolling fund of €70 million has been established to purchase vacant properties from banks. The Minister will give all the details of this in a few minutes. There are plans to provide further family and child welfare support for homeless families. A housing delivery office has been established within the Department and a dedicated housing procurement unit has been established within the Housing Agency to assess vacant houses as they arise and make offers to buy them. New planning application process legislation has been published to expedite several priority reforms in planning and tenant protection. A call for proposals has been issued to access the €200 million local infrastructure housing activation fund, which should lead to approximately 11,000 to 15,000 extra houses being produced.
The latest data show that 4,248 adult individuals used State-funded emergency accommodation nationally during a week in August 2016. The August 2016 survey identified 1,151 families in emergency accommodation nationally, a 63% increase over the year. This included 2,363 dependents. I am setting out the scale of the challenge the Minister faces.
I will detail the key social housing actions. We will provide 47,000 social housing units delivered by 2021, supported by an investment of €5.35 billion. Some 26,000 of these units will be new builds. There is the accelerated housing assistance payment and the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, private sector housing fund to deliver increased housing supply, which is where the big focus is. There will be mixed tenure development on State lands and other lands, the housing delivery office has been established and there is extensive support for local authorities and approved housing bodies. I referred to this in reply to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae earlier. There are to be streamlined approval processes. The Minister is moving through the right of local authorities to expedite planning applications, and major planning applications for more than 100 units can go straight to An Bord Pleanála.
While 26,000 of the 47,000 social housing units will be new builds, 11,000 will be acquired by local authorities and approved housing bodies directly from the market or the Housing Agency, with a portion of these being newly built units. Some 10,000 will be leased by local authorities and approved housing bodies, which will include an estimated 5,000 units to be sourced from the NTMA special purpose vehicle, SPV. A further 5,000 units are to be secured from a combination of the repair and leasing initiative under long-term lease arrangements by local authorities and approved housing bodies from a range of different sources not including Part 5.
The Deputy asked how many vacant properties the €70 million Housing Agency fund has bought. Under the new acquisitions programme, it will use a rotating fund of €70 million. It is estimated that the mechanism will deliver 1,600 units over the period to 2020. Some 700 properties have been referred to the Housing Agency for potential acquisition and, as of 22 September, the agency has made a bid in respect of 96 of these, of which 49 have been accepted. These are in addition to the 171 properties the Housing Agency has acquired on behalf of local authorities from the two pillar banks under its existing acquisition programme.
It is a very extensive challenge. It is a massive programme and, in so far as the direction can be given through the Cabinet sub-committee, it will meet as necessary. The third quarter report will be published in the coming weeks and the Minister will supply the Deputy with all the details necessary.
The Simon Community survey found that 87% of rental properties are beyond the reach of people who depend on State housing benefits. This was raised earlier. It also found that less than half the number of rental properties are available than were available in May 2015. The Simon Community is deeply and rightly concerned about the ongoing reduction in the availability of homes to rent, which is down by 19% from August 2015 and by 55% since May 2015. The report is the first since the Minister introduced changes to the rent supplement payment in July, and it strongly suggests that the Minister's changes have had little or no impact.
One of the marks of Fine Gael in government has been its utter failure to tackle properly the issue of social housing and homelessness. The Taoiseach once promised to end homelessness by 2016. That was five years ago, and the situation has deteriorated. Recently, the number of rough sleepers on the streets of Dublin increased to 168, the highest number ever recorded. In the Taoiseach's previous remarks, he referred to homeless people or rough sleepers and said the vast majority should not be there. I do not know what he means by that.
I meant some rough sleepers do not want to go into accommodation.
I am glad the Taoiseach has clarified that. It was an alarming thing to say. No family or individual should be homeless or raising their children in a hotel room or bed and breakfast accommodation. I am sure we agree on this.
It is a priority of the Minister to deal with it.
There has been a 32% increase in those recorded as sleeping rough during the past year. This happened on the Taoiseach's watch. Two weeks ago, we saw the re-launch of most of the same proposals that were announced in July, in the Government's action plan for housing. There were many promises but there was very little sign of real progress. While the announcement of 200 additional emergency beds for rough sleepers is welcome, these are emergency beds, not a permanent solution for the trauma of those who are rough sleepers or homeless.
The Government decision to create an additional 300 Housing First tenancies is, at best, a modest expansion and is nowhere near sufficient when set against the fact that there are more than 2,000 homeless single people. The Government's decision to provide €70 million in funding over three years for the Housing Agency to purchase 1,600 vacant units is not good enough. According to census figures, there are more than 189,000 vacant units in the State, more than 40,000 of which are in Dublin. To allocate €70 million over three years to purchase only 1,600 of them is miserly and not nearly enough.
The most recent figures from the Residential Tenancies Board reveal that rents are increasing faster than inflation. It found that, across the State, rents increased by just under 10% in the second quarter of this year. The index also showed that significant increases were not confined to the Dublin region. In Dublin, rents are now 3.9% higher than they were at the previous high point in 2007.
The absence of rent certainty is causing major distress for households. The Taoiseach will recall that, last June, Sinn Féin tabled the Rent Certainty Bill, which would have saved working families up to €2,000 per year. To its shame, if it has any, Fianna Fáil backed its partners in government, namely, Fine Gael, to vote the Bill down. The Government is due to publish its housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill in October. Will the Government reconsider its position and introduce into that legislation the rent certainty measures outlined by Sinn Féin and, sadly, voted down last June?
The most fantastic document that I have read in recent years emerged from Sinn Féin yesterday on how to sort out all of the problems of Ireland - no interest in water conservation - and provide money for every single problem that has ever existed. Absolutely brilliant. I am not sure who Deputy McDonald expects to believe that. In any event, as the deputy leader of her party, she is fully entitled to produce any policy document she wishes, but I wish that it was based on-----
Really? How kind of the Taoiseach.
The Taoiseach, without interruption.
-----some measure of reality. The Ministers, Deputies Coveney and Varadkar, increased the rent supplement and the HAP in July. The challenge here is to deal with supply. There is a series of schemes to bring vacant properties back into good use for families. We had a situation where any vacant property in Dublin was being completely gutted and refurbished as a brand new build at excessive cost. That was changed to be a practical component whereby one provided a decent house - well insulated, warm and comfortable - for families. That is an issue that is part of the provision of many more houses that were vacant for a long time and are now being brought back into use.
There are 220 extra beds being provided for rough sleepers on an emergency basis, bringing the total to 1,800. I do not want to see anybody on the streets this Christmas, and there was no one on the streets last Christmas except those few people who wanted to be there and who, as Deputy McDonald knows very well, have a variety of complications, difficulties and challenges and never wanted to be in accommodation - hostel, rental or whatever - in the first instance.
They were not going to hostels. That is an entirely different issue.
We have exceeded the time.
Last year, there were 74 social houses built in this country. "7" and "4".
Who was in government last year?
I ask the Taoiseach to conclude his response.
A plan of Deputy Kelly's.
By the end of this year, there will be 1,500 and the Minister will bring forward-----
Who was in government last year?
That was the Government's plan for €3.8 billion.
-----his full rental proposals, which will be vastly more realistic and comprehensive than what Sinn Féin has proposed.
We will see. The jury is out on that.
An endorsement of the former Minister, Deputy Kelly.