Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:12. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [51679/22]
View answerTuesday, 15 November 2022
Questions (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
Ivana Bacik
Question:13. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [52891/22]
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Peadar Tóibín
Question:14. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [52971/22]
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Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:15. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [53229/22]
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Paul Murphy
Question:16. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [53232/22]
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Mick Barry
Question:17. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [53553/22]
View answerRichard Boyd Barrett
Question:18. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [53577/22]
View answerPaul Murphy
Question:19. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [53580/22]
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Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:20. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [54576/22]
View answerJennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:21. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [54577/22]
View answer
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:22. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Housing will next meet. [54578/22]
View answerPádraig O'Sullivan
Question:23. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [54579/22]
View answer
Paul McAuliffe
Question:24. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [54580/22]
View answerPaul McAuliffe
Question:25. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [54581/22]
View answer
Mary Lou McDonald
Question:26. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing last met. [54589/22]
View answerMary Lou McDonald
Question:27. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Taoiseach when the Housing for All progress report for quarter 3 of 2022 will be published. [54590/22]
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Cian O'Callaghan
Question:28. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [54612/22]
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Rose Conway-Walsh
Question:29. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Taoiseach when the Cabinet committee on housing will next meet. [55407/22]
View answerOral answers (29 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 29, inclusive, together. The Cabinet committee on housing has met seven times to date in 2022. The most recent meeting took place on Monday, 24 October, and the next will take place on Monday next, 21 November. The committee works to ensure a co-ordinated approach to the implementation of Housing for All and the delivery of programme for Government commitments regarding housing and related matters.
Housing for All is the most ambitious housing plan in the history of our State and contains actions to ensure over 300,000 new homes are built by 2030, along with delivering fundamental reform of our housing system. The target to 2030 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 and is having a very significant impact, despite a number of challenges which have emerged as a result of the war in Ukraine and other external factors.
We are on track to meet the target for this year of 24,600 new build homes. A total of 20,807 new homes were completed in the first three quarters of 2022, more than the whole of 2021. Almost 28,000 new homes were completed in the 12 months to the end of September, the highest rolling 12-month total of any period since comparable data was first published in 2011. Planning permission was approved for 44,715 homes in the year to June of this year, representing an 11.4% increase on the same period in 2021. Since the middle of last year, over 68,500 new homes have been either built or commenced. Last year 9,183 social homes were delivered. These are clear indicators that the plan is starting to work. However, the results will take time given the scale of the challenge and the need to bring about fundamental reform.
Along with increasing the supply of houses and reforming our system of home delivery, we have introduced measures to support renters. We are accelerating the delivery of cost-rental homes with State-backed rents at least 25% below what they would be on the private market. In 2023, a further 1,850 cost-rental homes are to be delivered. We have introduced legislation to cap rent increases and enhanced security for tenants through the deferring of no-fault terminations for the winter emergency period. Other initiatives which have been introduced include the first home scheme, Project Tosaigh and a vacant homes tax. A number of fundamental reforms are in progress, including a major overhaul of the planning process and initiatives to promote innovation and productivity in housing construction.
Looking ahead to 2023, we have committed a record €4.5 billion in public funding for the provision of more social, affordable and cost-rental homes. On 2 November, Government published its first annual update of the plan's actions, setting out how it is responding to challenges in the external environment, notably inflationary pressures and interest rate rises, while ensuring focus remains on delivery.
The stability provided by a clear and comprehensive plan is now more important than ever. The review was all about prioritising measures to activate and accelerate the delivery of housing supply while continuing to deliver on the fundamental reforms set out in the plan. The focus throughout 2023 will be on the following: meeting the challenges of viability, affordability and sustainability; reforming the planning system; delivering social and affordable homes; boosting productivity; increasing construction sector capacity; revitalising our towns and villages; improving the rental market; and planning for the future.
We can give a minute and a half to each Deputy here. I call Deputy Bacik.
Internal records from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage revealed last Thursday in the Irish Daily Mail confirmed the Housing for All targets are not adequate to meet the growing need. When the Government plan was published, the Labour Party made it clear that Ireland needed close to 50,000 homes per year, rather than the target of below 30,000 under Housing for All. The Department's records show 42,000 homes per year are needed, meaning there will be a shortfall, even according to the Department's records, of over 65,000 homes by 2030. This shortfall was already clear before the publication of the census showing ongoing population growth of 7.6% since 2016. Will the Taoiseach confirm that the Government will revise the targets for housing construction and put in place new measures to deliver more homes?
We also expressed serious concern that there was no additional capital funding allocated in the Government's budget to account for construction inflation. The shortfall is even more acute because fewer homes can be built with the funding available from Government. It is clear the State needs to build substantially more housing - local authority homes on public land - if enough homes are to be provided.
I have suggested in recent weeks that the Government should invest more in the tenant in situ scheme, even in the short term, to ensure councils are empowered to buy back homes where tenants would otherwise be evicted. This would be a way of meeting housing need while ramping up the construction of affordable homes.
For the next two weeks, People Before Profit and others will be doing everything to urge people to get out in their many thousands on the streets of Dublin on the Saturday after next for the Raise the Roof housing protest.
One of the components of that protest will be people from places such as Tathony House, another multi-unit apartment complex in Rathmines, St. Helen's Court in my own constituency - all places where landlords are threatening or attempting to implement mass evictions on people who have done absolutely nothing wrong. There are many individuals who have done nothing wrong whatsoever, some of whom are not covered by the Government's recently passed Bill to defer certain notices to quit, who face the imminent prospect of homelessness. Under pressure, the Government has somewhat conceded in theory that local authorities could intervene to stop people from being evicted and purchase these complexes or individual homes. In practice, all the excuses are coming out, in many cases from local authorities. One of the big excuses, enunciated by Owen Keegan, for example, is that not everyone in these places is on the social housing list, they are above the threshold and so the council cannot possibly intervene to buy the property. Many others are in that situation as well. Will the Government do something to prevent people being made homeless by ensuring properties are bought and that people being over the threshold is not an impediment to such purchases?
More than 100 victims of apartment and duplex defects will gather this Saturday for a major public conference of the Not Our Fault campaign in the Plaza Hotel in Tallaght. They will have discussions among themselves, they will hear from activists from the Mica Action Group about its campaign and experience, and they will hear from the different political parties, all of whom are invited to come and put their position. I understand they are still waiting for a response from Fianna Fáil, by the way, on whether it will have a spokesperson there. They are determined to fight for 100% redress and nothing less. They know that is the only just and only workable solution for the 100,000 families who are going to be affected by this, most of whom do not know about it yet but who will have a bill of €25,000-plus, in some cases €70,000, coming down the road. They also demand that the State pursues the builders responsible. They will also be on the streets on 26 November as part of the Raise the Roof protest because this is part of the housing crisis and the consequence of housing policy made in the interest of builders. Will the Taoiseach get a Fianna Fáil representative to attend? Will he commit that whatever scheme is introduced will be retrospective? Will he commit to 100% redress, which is the only workable and just solution?
The eviction ban does not extend to emergency accommodation; it should. I recently came across a case which shows why. It involves a woman who is in emergency accommodation in Cork city. She attempted to get a diagnosis of autism through the State. She is in that process, which is very slow, and she does not have the finance to go private. She clearly feels herself that she has autism but she has refused accommodation offers on the grounds that they are not suitable for her with her condition. However, the accommodation placement service does not accept what she says. It says she does not have an official diagnosis. She has received a notice to quit, having refused properties that would not be good for her health. This is in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and a housing emergency and in the weeks running up to Christmas. I understand the Taoiseach spoke to her briefly at the weekend. I am asking him to accept there is a serious case here in both the particular and the general. Is he prepared to look into it in the particular and the general as a matter of some urgency?
I am aware that the interdepartmental steering committee is making domestic violence service provision a priority. I am told there is funding available to support action at local level while we wait for a women's refuge in Carlow town. We are moving on it. It is a bit slow but we have the funding and we are getting there. However, we are struggling with the provision we have for emergency accommodation for those fleeing violence and experiencing homelessness. This is not just a women's issue. Men's Aid Ireland has reported a 37% increase in demand for its domestic support service for men. Those figures are also replicated in Carlow. It is worrying as we approach international men's day this week. We have some safe houses in the local authority buildings in Carlow, but when they are full, the local authority cannot put in regulation 49 in social housing. They need to have approved housing bodies, AHBs, managing them because there is no such thing as a temporary licence. The legislation must change to react quickly on this. Will the Taoiseach speak to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, about this? I welcome the Taoiseach's commitment and that of the Government to building houses and affordable houses in particular.
Deputy McDonald touched on the planning Act review that the Government and the Attorney General are undertaking. I seek a progress report on this. Will the Taoiseach give us a timeline for when that legislation will be ready? There is a multitude of issues there that are very pertinent. The role of An Bord Pleanála needs to be examined thoroughly. The powers of the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, also need to be examined along with the streamlining of legislation, which the Taoiseach mentioned earlier, especially pertaining to renewable and green energy. An féidir leis an Taoiseach freagra a thabhairt dom?
I welcome the Taoiseach's answer. It gives an example of the depth and breadth of the Housing for All plan and how it touches on so many different areas of increasing supply, not least with the provision of public housing on public land. On the last count, more than 25 public sites are delivering public housing in my constituency. That is very welcome. The most recent of those was announced today with the extension of grants for vacant homes, Croí Cónaithe, of €50,000 in cities, including Dublin, and many towns and villages. It will be particularly welcome in my constituency.
I am concerned by the increasing interest rates and its impact on those developing housing. Will the Cabinet subcommittee step in to ensure the Land Development Agency, LDA, ensures those sites that having planning permission are developed for public housing, cost rental, social and affordable purchase and that the Croí Cónaithe cities is accelerated to ensure the viability of those sites, which may now be called into question in the context of increased borrowing costs, to ensure the delivery of new supply?
The Taoiseach describes Housing for All as the most ambitious plan. He talks about significant impact and indicators of success, yet all the evidence on the ground in the real world is of a social emergency. There is catastrophic failure in the housing market that has implications for people's quality of life, their life options and chances and their mental health. Younger people are actively making the choice to go because they cannot get a roof over their heads. The depth and breadth of the failure of the Government's approach cannot be overstated.
I have a question about the third quarter progress report. The Government committed specifically to deliver 9,000 new build social homes and 4,100 affordable and cost-rental homes this year. I do not want overall global figures, but on that commitment for 9,000 new build social homes, how many were built? On the commitment for 4,100 affordable and cost-rental homes, how many have come online?
We can argue about the inadequacy of those targets, which, as Deputy Bacik has reflected, are too low, but they are the Taoiseach's targets nonetheless. Will he give me a specific answer to my specific question? If he does not have one, will he provide it to me at the earliest opportunity?
To follow up on that, I want to ask the Taoiseach about claims the Government is making on housing delivery. Is he aware that some of the information that he and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage provide on housing delivery is simply not correct? For example, the Taoiseach claimed in the Dáil last week that the number of housing commencements is up when in fact it is down by 14% over the last year. On the issue of social housing delivery, the Government claims 1,765 new-build social homes were delivered in the first half of this year. An analysis has been done of that figure by Laoise Neylon of the Dublin Inquirer. It shows a significant number of the homes claimed to have been completed in the first half of this year were not completed and were still being worked on several months later. Will the Taoiseach explain to me how homes that are still being worked on end up in the official figures for completed social homes?
Deputy Bacik asked the first question. To make a general point, there is no document of substance on the housing issue that is an alternative to Housing for All. There is nothing with its comprehensiveness, breadth and depth covering all aspects of housing. In it is an inbuilt review mechanism, which is important in any plan. Deputy Bacik raised the issue of a census. There is no limit to the number of houses we want to build. Funding is not an issue; the issue comprises delivery, the planning system and the question of whether we can get projects through quickly enough from concept to occupation by tenants or purchase. The modality concerning how we build houses is also an issue. We need to have much more discussion on advanced manufacturing technology off site for house construction, be it associated with steel frame housing or other types of housing that can be built faster, because the population is growing. There are many people coming into the country. Deputy McDonald says many are going but many are coming in. The net figure indicates people coming in, according to the Central Statistics Office. In any event, the housing situation in Ireland is similar to that right throughout the United Kingdom. Last Thursday and Friday, I met officials from England, the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales, and officials from the Isle of Man, Jersey and smaller areas, and I noted all have similar housing issues. There are not enough houses and people are asking whether they can be built fast enough. There is also a genuine issue in terms of prices. The same applies across Europe. Very few countries in the world, or certainly in the developed world, are not experiencing genuine housing pressures. That said, with regard to the issue of the target, there is within the plan a facility to review targets. This year we set a target of 24,500 completions. The likelihood is we will exceed that. There is no limit to the number. Obviously, some of the houses are private but many are social. With regard to the social fund we are looking at, the Minister seems to believe the number of social homes this year will be 8,000 plus, in addition to those for purchase, for lease and to address homelessness. We can get those figures and we will have them-----
Are the 8,000 new builds?
In local authorities.
Except that they are not all built or finished.
I know that. I am just stating what the Minister has indicated.
The ones-----
I have listened to the Deputy at length. I am saying where we are in respect of this. Obviously, we will have more definitive figures at the end of the year, when a lot of completions will come in.
On the tenant in situ scheme, the Minister took the initiative and local authorities have purchased houses where tenants were facing homelessness. He has instructed local authorities to proceed and take those houses-----
They are not doing it.
They are doing it, actually. A good few hundred have been purchased at this stage. I do not believe we should legislatively force local authorities to buy every single house that becomes available. There can be all sorts of background issues. Local authorities have to have some discretion in individual cases. Without that, why have local authorities and why not manage everything from the centre?
They are looking for excuses.
Please do not interrupt, Deputy.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised a similar issue concerning tenants in situ. It seems he is basically saying the local authorities should be automatons and do what they are told across housing. I am not sure that is the right policy and that councillors on the ground would appreciate that approach. There has to be some delegation of authority to local authorities. What we can do is resource them on the housing front, as the Minister has done, to increase their capacity to deliver housing projects in the first instance and to give them the necessary resources to intervene-----
They are using the income thresholds as excuses not to do it.
-----in issues that arise in their jurisdictions. On the question of income thresholds, of course there is an issue. There has to be, and some mechanism is needed to resolve it. There is no point in saying there is not an issue because many people with lower incomes cannot get housing. Therefore, there has to be a targeting of resources too. We cannot just go in one direction only. Every local authority has resources. Each has to allocate those resources for different schemes. Again, there should be ways of intervening to prevent what is going on in the case the Deputy has identified. I am aware the Minister has been in touch with the Deputy and has engaged with him on this. We banned evictions more generally across the system until the end of March. The relevant legislation has been introduced.
On Deputy Murphy's question on apartment defects, I have said in the House that the Minister will come back to the House later in the year regarding a scheme and the associated report he published. He will come to the Government with it and then to the Oireachtas.
On Deputy Barry's remarks, I have met the person concerned. I do not believe we should raise individual cases here. The organisation dealing with homelessness has been outstanding down through the years. There is a huge crowd of community supporters. I do not know the background to the case, which I will pursue further, but we need to be careful in the House that we do not interrogate the actions of organisations that have for a long time been working with homeless and emergency accommodation.
We are out of time.
We should allow people their space. There has to be balance in how we raise these issues.
I will follow up on Deputy Murnane O'Connor's point on emergency accommodation for men. On Deputy O'Sullivan's comments on the planning review, the hope is the legislation will be published in a matter of weeks. Then it has to be deliberated upon.
We are out of time.
It deals mainly with the planning code, not necessarily the OPR or other issues. We will revert to the Deputy on this.
Deputy McAuliffe raised the issue of Croí Cónaithe. I agree with him that if opportunities arise in the context of interest rate increases, the Land Development Agency should take over sites for use for cost-rental or other initiatives.
Deputy McDonald raised the issue of housing output this year. I will revert to her with the specifics. I do not accept there is a catastrophic failure. Housing for All is making a difference. It is catching up on a lot of the construction that did not take place in previous years. A huge effort is being made.
I will come back to Deputy O'Callaghan on his remarks. With respect, I did not read the article concerned.