Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 November 2016
107. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government the extent to which he and his Department expect to be in a position to offer continued scope for recovery towards resolution of the housing crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36719/16]
View answerProviding affordable, quality and accessible housing for people is a top priority for the Government, as outlined in the Programme for a Partnership Government.
As the Deputy will be aware, the root cause of the very challenging housing crisis lies in a chronic under-supply of housing across all tenures. At an overall level, while 25,000 new homes a year are needed to meet demand, annual output fell to as low as 8,300 in recent years.
The key objective of the Government's Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness, published on 19 July 2016 is to increase and accelerate housing delivery, across all tenures, to help individuals and families find homes. In relation to social housing provision, the Action Plan aims to deliver 47,000 units of social housing over the period to 2021 through construction, refurbishment, acquisitions and leasing, supported by Exchequer investment of some €5.35 billion.
The Plan also provides for early solutions to address homelessness and the unacceptable level of families in emergency accommodation, including the objective that by mid-2017, hotels will only be used for emergency accommodation in very limited circumstances.
Implementation of the Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness is being advanced across a number of Departments, under the oversight of the Cabinet Committee on Housing, chaired by An Taoiseach. Within my own Department, an Implementation Board of senior officials, chaired by the Secretary General, monitors progress on a fortnightly basis. In addition, project working group structures for each of the Action Plan’s five Pillars are being put in place to ensure that any operational considerations relating to the delivery of actions are identified early and resolved quickly and effectively.
Rebuilding Ireland contains a clear commitment to reporting regular progress, particularly through quarterly progress reports. The First Quarterly Progress Report on the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness - Rebuilding Ireland (in respect of Quarter 3 commitments and actions), which was published on 1 November and can be accessed at http://rebuildingireland.ie/First-Progress-Report.pdf, sets out the progress on the implementation of the relevant actions.
Further progress reports will follow on a quarterly basis, with the next due to be published in January 2017. Each Quarterly Report will focus on the actions due to be progressed or completed in the preceding quarter.
