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Cabinet Committees

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 1 February 2022

Tuesday, 1 February 2022

Questions (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)

Richard Boyd Barrett

Question:

9. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet.. [2221/22]

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Bríd Smith

Question:

10. Deputy Bríd Smith asked the Taoiseach if his Department has commissioned any polling of the general public related to possible or existing policies within the remit of his Department for the period 1 January 2021 to date; if so, if he will provide details of the policies; and the costs incurred for each individual poll. [2223/22]

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Paul Murphy

Question:

11. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [2225/22]

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Mary Lou McDonald

Question:

12. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [3242/22]

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Alan Kelly

Question:

13. Deputy Alan Kelly asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [3313/22]

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Cian O'Callaghan

Question:

14. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [3537/22]

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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

Question:

15. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [3619/22]

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Mick Barry

Question:

16. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [4629/22]

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Paul McAuliffe

Question:

17. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [4724/22]

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John Lahart

Question:

18. Deputy John Lahart asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [4725/22]

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Oral answers (21 contributions)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 18, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on housing met nine times in 2021 and met again on Monday, 24 January. The next meeting is planned for Thursday, 3 March. This committee works to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of the programme for Government commitments regarding housing and related matters. The focus of recent meetings has been on implementation of the Housing for All plan. Housing for All is the most ambitious housing plan in the history of our State and contains a range of actions and measures to ensure more than 300,000 homes are built by 2030. This figure includes 90,000 social, 36,000 affordable purchase and 18,000 cost-rental homes. The plan is backed by the highest ever State investment in housing.

Last week, the Government published the second quarterly progress report, for quarter 4 of 2021. It shows significant progress towards the fundamental reform of the housing system, setting the course to significantly increase the supply of housing and provide a sustainable housing system into the future. Recent data from the CSO show that, despite the disruption caused by Covid in 2021, a total of 20,433 new dwellings were completed in the year, with a significant pick-up in apartment development. The pipeline data are also strong, with more than 30,000 commencements in 2021, the highest since 2008. Of 213 actions in Housing for All, a total of 123 either have been completed or are being delivered on an ongoing basis.

We have introduced measures, such as Project Tosaigh, to activate existing planning permissions and accelerate delivery of houses in key strategic locations. It is clear that the sector is rebounding from what has been a very difficult two years and we are confident that the target for delivery of 24,600 homes in 2022 will be met. Employment is back to pre-pandemic levels and apprenticeship registrations are increasing significantly. An international recruitment campaign will get under way shortly to further bolster capacity in the sector.

The actions outlined in the plan are backed by over €4 billion in annual guaranteed State investment in housing over the coming years. It is clear we also need to attract up to €10 billion of private capital into the market each year to meet our targets and ensure we deliver social, affordable, cost-rental and private homes at the substantial scale required right across the country. Through Housing for All, the Government has implemented a number of measures to make homes more affordable to buy or to rent. The new local authority home loan is open for applications, the help-to-buy scheme has been extended, we are scaling up the delivery of cost-rental homes and rent in rent pressure zones has been capped at 2%, or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. We are also continuing to support our most vulnerable, those experiencing homelessness and those who have more complex housing needs. The Cabinet committee will continue to focus on delivery of the Housing for All plan.

This Friday in the District Court, behind the Four Courts, five individuals and families - working-class people - are going to pay the price for the Taoiseach’s failure to address the housing crisis. The case of the St. Helen’s Court apartment complex, where a vulture fund is going to evict the families, really tells the story of this housing crisis. They have always played their rent. The vulture fund is evicting them for no other reason than it wants to increase the value of the property – for profit. Faced with homelessness, they go to the council as they are on the housing list, but the council does not have any council houses for them because there are 5,000 families on the housing list. They are told to go and find a HAP tenancy but the council will only give them €1,000 to find a HAP tenancy and average rents in the area are €2,200. In other words, they are absolutely goosed. These are very worried people. What is the Taoiseach going to do for these people facing homelessness? Otherwise, they and many like them are going to be driven into homelessness over the coming weeks because we have not delivered the rent controls, the tenants’ rights and the affordable rents that people need.

The Taoiseach in his introduction mentioned affordable, social, cost-rental and help-to-buy housing but he did not say a word about strategic housing development, SHD, which is practically all build to let. In Drimnagh, Crumlin, Walkinstown and Ballyfermot, we have been swamped with applications for strategic housing development, which means there will be no sustainable communities and no permanent homes for the tens of thousands of families who are on the waiting list in those areas. It also means another thing, which is that sustainable communities will not be built. The Taoiseach is going to be asked by the community in Cherry Orchard to come out to visit them. They have been subjected to a massive increase in antisocial behaviour, which arises from the social conditions. I hope the Taoiseach does come to Cherry Orchard but he will be shocked. When I moved into Ballyfermot 30 years ago, Cherry Orchard had one shop and it still has one shop, but no cafés and chemist or post office. It does have a very good national school, which the community fought for, and a good equine centre. Beyond that, there are no facilities yet a strategic housing development is being given planning permission to go into that area, with hundreds more apartments, which probably means a few thousand added to the population. Where is the thought for infrastructure for sustainable communities?

I have quite incredible correspondence with me from Augustus Cullen Law Solicitors on behalf of Ardstone Homes Limited, which is a development and investment company. They are threatening letters to a Tidy Towns group, Ballyboden Tidy Towns Group, threatening to sue it for defamation. Why? It is because the group has stood up for proper planning against abuse of the SHD process and initiated two judicial review processes with Ardstone as a respondent. In the words of the Tidy Towns group’s solicitor, Fred Logue, the litigation threatened in the letter amounts to SLAPP, strategic litigation against public participation, in other words, bullying. To quote Mr. Logue, it is litigation aimed not at obtaining the stated relief, but rather calculated to intimidate and silence civil society, environmental defenders and persons exercising their fundamental rights. It goes on to say that it is a calculated attempt to punish Mr. Logue’s client for exercising its rights and to effectively shut it down. Will the Taoiseach condemn the abuse of the legal process to attempt to intimidate Tidy Towns groups which are attempting to stand up for their community?

The Taoiseach’s housing strategy and policy is a fiasco and a disaster. If he was to listen to those we call generation rent and their experiences, that would be apparent to him, as it would if he was to observe the clear generation gap, the generation cleavage that exists right across this State and reflect on the fact a whole generation of people have been locked out not alone from any aspiration to own their own home, but even to afford a stable, sustainable roof over their heads. I have said this to the Taoiseach many times but I say it to him again.

The Taoiseach has lauded his achievements with regard to homelessness. However, a report published by the Dublin Region Homeless Executive reflects a different story, in fact, a steady rise in homelessness for single people, families and children throughout last year, a dramatic drop-off in exit from homelessness compared with 2019 and 2020, and a very high level of long-term homelessness. We know from previous data that there can be a December hiatus in the Christmas period and numbers can drop but then they surge again.

The decision of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to lift the Covid-19 ban on evictions has made a really bad situation worse. Will the Taoiseach intervene on that score at least and effect some minor change in those circumstances?

Home Building Finance Ireland was set up to provide finance to private developers at market rates for commercially viable housing developments. I would appreciate it if the Taoiseach would look into what I am about to raise with him. There is a small development funding product for developments under ten units through this organisation. However, while it will fund projects of between five and nine residential units, the rules limit access. The size of the loan must be from €1 million to include land purchase up to 50% and development funding. Small builders who want to borrow less than €1 million, for example, those who want to borrow €500,000 or €600,000 instead of €1 million, are excluded from the scheme. In rural parts of Ireland in particular and on urban infill sites in towns and villages, they are excluded because they do not need €1 million and, for example, might only need €500,000. These types of schemes are also lower risk because, generally, small builders know who they are building for as they are normally local people. They want to limit their risk, build in small phases and not be too leveraged, if the Taoiseach understands me. Will the Taoiseach look at the limit to see if there is a way in which it can be changed to facilitate small amounts of building in rural and urban areas, where it is necessary?

For more than a year, I have been raising with the Taoiseach the issue of standards in privately run emergency accommodation for people who are homeless. I have also raised this with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. While these are privately run homeless shelters, they are in receipt of public funds. I want to read a quote from one young woman about what she found when she came back to a hostel recently. She said:

All my stuff was robbed, which I was told would be safe and that only staff had access to rooms. I rang and the supervisor was telling me to go away and not be annoying him. Only the staff had keys to the room. I am only young and I have a job. I can’t be in hostels. I have chosen to sleep outside some nights rather than that.

This is in publicly funded hostels where people cannot leave their personal possessions without fear of them being robbed. When they raise a complaint with the management of the hostel that we pay for, they are told to go away and leave them alone. This is not acceptable. When is HIQA going to be asked to conduct independent inspections of emergency accommodation for homeless people?

I know it is clear we need to build housing but we need to make it affordable. I still meet people who do not qualify for the local authority home loan and they do not qualify for social housing.

We talk about supply being the issue, but there have been other issues, including a backlog in housing applications. I thank the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage for addressing that by means of fast-tracking the appointment of new staff. The housing department in Carlow has five new staff and Kilkenny has six new staff. However, I had a family with me yesterday who are in receipt of income supplement. They are above the threshold to qualify for social housing. I ask that this be looked at. We cannot have a family on family income supplement who are not qualified to go on the local authority housing list.

There is one other matter, which I know the Taoiseach will address. There are significant issues with the local authority adaptation grants and the policy relating to children. There does not seem to be a policy in place. It all seems to be for elderly people. I welcome that support, but lately I have met many children who need grants. This is a major issue. I thank the Taoiseach.

A developer was told by Deloitte last year that an apartment project in Cork city would only be viable, or, in other words, profitable, if rents of €2,800 per month were charged for two-bedroom apartments. Perhaps the most famous apartment project in Cork, the Elysium, was left half-empty due to extortionate rents. Why does the Government persist with promoting this build-to-rent strategic housing development housing model? This matter has come up in a number of contributions and it can currently be seen with the planning application for 191 apartments at Hewitt's Mill in Blackpool in Cork city. Does the Taoiseach accept that for-profit apartment development is not what we need in Cork or elsewhere, that these build-to-rent developments are driving up the average price of rent, and that the focus instead needs to be on the provision of social and affordable housing and apartments?

I thank the Deputies for raising those wide-ranging issues. Deputy Boyd Barrett referred to the five families in St. Helen's Court and the challenges that they now face.

They are facing eviction and will be in court on Friday. I do not know the specifics of what will transpire in the court case but, suffice it to say, every effort should be made to prevent eviction, particularly when families have real challenges in securing alternative accommodation, whether through the housing list or through the HAP system. There are rules governing evictions and the basis upon which evictions can be granted.

The law allows this one.

I do not know the specifics of why this-----

Sale by a vulture fund.

The matter is before the courts. In my view, every effort should be made to prevent eviction. I do not know whether or not the local authority has been involved with the tenants. That should be pursued.

Deputy Bríd Smith raised the issue of affordable social and rental housing. Councillor Daithí de Róiste was in touch with me about what has transpired in the past week. He said that the committee would contact me to ask me to visit the area, which I will do. I am familiar with the facilities in Cherry Orchard, particularly the school facilities. I was in government when that was last developed. There was a comprehensive solution at the time. In the context of sustaining communities, a Cabinet sub-committee is developing a policy position in respect of key areas such as social and community development, housing and giving communities the tools to be safe, with an emphasis on childcare, early education and so on. It is somewhat similar to the drug task forces we had in the past and to the area partnerships that were developed. That is the way to proceed in order to give areas supports that are required. Officials in my Department are working on that agenda as I speak.

With regard to Deputy Paul Murphy's question, nobody should ever intimidate a Tidy Towns committee that is pursuing its objectives and work. It would be wrong to do so. I am not familiar with the specifics of the case the Deputy raised, but, in my view, Tidy Towns committees do exceptional work. They should be supported in that process and should not be intimidated by anybody.

Deputy McDonald referred to the housing policies and described them as a fiasco and a disaster. They are anything but that. Significant progress has been made, notwithstanding the impact of Covid-19 on housing construction in 2020 and 2021. The 30,000 commencements are significant. We need to build on that. The Deputy does not have to appreciate it, but I find it hard to reconcile what she said with the constant serial objections to good housing schemes in circumstances where there has been an abundance of debate about mixed solutions, including a combination of social, affordable and private housing. Projects such as that relating to O'Devaney Gardens went on for too long. It is a shame on everybody that they were allowed to go on for so long.

I will follow up on Deputy Kelly's questions.

We are out of time.

There are many questions here.

I am faced with a situation with many questions and less than ten minutes.

I take the Leas-Cheann Comhairle's point. Deputy O'Callaghan has been a consistent-----

We are moving on to question No. 19.

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