Paul McAuliffe
Question:9. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Housing for All progress report published on 14 November 2023. [50685/23]
View answerWednesday, 22 November 2023
Questions (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
Pádraig O'Sullivan
Question:10. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Housing for All progress report published on 14 November 2023. [50686/23]
View answer
Jennifer Murnane O'Connor
Question:11. Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the Housing for All progress report published on 14 November 2023. [50687/23]
View answer
Richard Boyd Barrett
Question:12. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Taoiseach to provide a progress report on Housing for All for which his Department is responsible. [51156/23]
View answer
Paul Murphy
Question:13. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach to provide a progress report on Housing for All, for which his Department is responsible. [51159/23]
View answerOral answers (11 contributions)
I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 to 13, inclusive, together. The Housing for All update and quarter 3 progress report was published last week. This report sets out our priority actions for the coming year as we build on the strong start we have made in tackling the crisis. It is clear that we are making real progress. We can see it on the ground, with new homes and apartments being built all over the country. In the past 12 months, 30,000 new homes have been built. That is 50% more than when this Government came into office and double the number when I first became Taoiseach in 2017. We have exceeded the Housing for All output targets for 2022 and we are on track to exceed them in 2023. We are also very optimistic about 2024, with almost 24,000 new homes started in the first nine months of 2023 and planning permission granted for over 20,000 new homes in the first half of this year alone.
Under Housing for All, we have seen citizens achieving homeownership this year at a greater pace than at any point in over a decade. In the 12 months to September, first-time mortgage approvals exceeded 30,000, helped in many cases by the first home and help to buy schemes. On State lands, building is underway on sites in Cork and Dublin which between them will provide over 850 homes, and the LDA now has planning permission for over 2,500 additional homes. This is on top of the 1,000 affordable homes due under Project Tosaigh.
Last week, Government took further action to bring additional vacant and derelict properties back into use, having doubled the target for the vacant property refurbishment grant. We have also agreed to extend the local authority home loan to people looking to buy and renovate derelict homes. Housing for All is a coherent plan designed to accelerate home building in a sustainable way. We have also shown a willingness to adapt policies as required. As set out in the action plan update, the coming year will see us continue reforms which will fundamentally improve our system of housing delivery. The new planning and development Bill, once enacted, will bring greater clarity, consistency and efficiency to how planning decisions are made. Importantly, the system will be more coherent and user-friendly, allowing for greater understanding on the part of both the public and planning practitioners alike.
For the longer term, we will revise our targets for home building, taking into account the census and the latest ESRI analysis. These revised targets will allow for better planning for housing delivery across the country between now and 2030. We will also continue to increase apprenticeships, launch campaigns to attract more people to work in construction from Ireland and abroad, promote the use of innovation in both public and private delivery and promote greater productivity in the house-building sector. We will continue to increase capacity in local authorities, An Bord Pleanála, Uisce Éireann and other State bodies to ensure faster decisions and accelerated delivery.
As I said, Housing for All is working. We are increasing housing delivery across all tenures. Over the next year, our task is to focus on implementation of the plan and maintain this strong momentum into 2024 and beyond.
I would like to raise an issue that the Taoiseach spoke about at the recent progress report update for Housing for All. It is something I have an interest in as a person who bought a house in the last few years, namely, the difficulties that people have when they go through the process itself. The Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, have spoken about the establishment of an expert group to examine the processes around purchasing a home with a view to cutting down on bureaucracy and stress involved for people purchasing their first home. I welcome the establishment of the expert group that the Taoiseach said will examine this. He referenced other countries when he was giving his few words at the progress report update. I know he does not want to impact the work that expert group will do, but he referenced how they do things very differently in Scotland and how it has worked. We can examine what happens in other jurisdictions and look at how we can learn from that. Can the Taoiseach elaborate on the ideas that he has going forward for that expert group, when it will commence its work, who will comprise the group and when he hopes to have an outcome and recommendations?
I have spoken to the Taoiseach about this issue before, as I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien. Daily, I have people coming into my clinics in Carlow who are waiting to be assessed to go on the housing list. At the moment, the waiting time to join the list is between ten and 12 weeks. That is unacceptable. I can say that the girls in Carlow County Council and the staff are excellent, but I believe that we need more staff. I know people that are waiting to be assessed and they cannot rent a property because they are waiting to get the HAP. They are actually couch-surfing. I ask the Taoiseach to address it. As I have said, I am waiting to get a Bill introduced to change the waiting period to three to four weeks, because I think no one should wait that length of time. It is urgent.
I welcome the information the Taoiseach has provided today. We have a number of new schemes, including the affordable housing scheme, the first home scheme and the vacant property grant. They are all really good schemes. We probably need to get more information out on those schemes. Many people who come into my office are not really aware of how many good schemes are available. I am working with people at the moment who are applying for mortgages, which is really good, to Carlow County Council. As the Taoiseach is aware, applicants have to get everything ready, give it to the local authority, and then the application goes to the Department for approval. The timescale on waiting to hear from the Department is absolutely unacceptable. The other issue is that currently, there is a 55% refusal rate, through the Department, on mortgages. These are local authority mortgages that we are encouraging people to apply for. I am aware that the Taoiseach is working hard on this to try to get the challenges in housing sorted. I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, about it. These issues really need to be addressed.
Jennifer Bray recently did a fact check on the Government's Housing for All progress and it was pretty revealing. She revealed that in 2022, the Government's target for affordable housing was 4,100, but what it actually delivered was 1,757. In fact, it was really less because it had included 750 approvals for the first time buyers scheme, and there was actually only 137 draw-downs. This year, the target for affordable housing is 5,500, but in the first six months the Government only delivered 1,290. In terms of social housing, the target for last year was 9,000, and 7,500 units were delivered. Mel Reynolds has pointed out that the number of actual council houses built on public land was only 1,689, a fraction of what the Government actually stated was happening. In other words, we are relying completely on the private sector and purchasing. I believe we should purchase those homes in the absence of the State actually delivering, but where is the actual delivery of public housing? It is nowhere close to what is needed or the Government's own targets. Jennifer Bray has pointed out that when Housing for All started, rents were €2,082 per month in Dublin. Two years on, they are now €2,330.
Let us just think about that - €2,330 average rent in Dublin. Who the hell could afford that? The Government is doing nothing to control those rents. I urge the Taoiseach once again to look at the number of people who are trapped in homelessness. I had a couple come in to me this week, both working, who are two years in homeless accommodation. They are both going out to work every day. They are absolutely miserable and wonder how they can carry on with this stuff. Their case can be multiplied by thousands. An audit should be done of the long-term imprisonment of people in emergency accommodation to try to help people move out of emergency accommodation. It is just not right to leave working people, families, kids for years and years in emergency accommodation.
The Government is committed on paper to a major programme of retrofitting of homes, which makes all the sense in the world from the point of view of the cost-of-living crisis, allowing people to significantly reduce their energy bills, and from the point of view of the climate crisis, allowing people to significantly reduce their energy usage. However, the reality on the ground is very different. I am dealing with a woman in her late 80s living in a council home in Tallaght who has single-glazed windows, as is very common still in council properties across South Dublin County Council. Not only that, she cannot shut her kitchen window. She is facing now into another winter of being unable to keep her home warm. She has been waiting 15 years for the council to deal with the windows. This is not about some big deep retrofit, which is really what should take place, but just to deal with the windows. We have multiple cases people with entirely inadequate windows, and the council is not dealing with them.
On retrofitting, the council plan between last year and this year was to do 363 homes by the end of this year out of a total housing stock of 10,000. This simply is not good enough. Will the funding be provided by central government to ensure that people like that woman and others in that position are able to access basic standards in getting their windows done and their homes retrofitted?
Many of us have brought up the issue of housing adaptation grants, particularly those to be used for older people and those with disabilities. There are particular issues in respect of councils running out of money but beyond that, the thresholds and amounts are not sufficient to deliver what is required. We have heard about the review that is ongoing. Can the Taoiseach give us an update on where it is and the timeline? Hopefully, it will deliver on some of these issues.
We are constantly talking about modern methods of construction. Is there is a timeline or targets for the use by the State of modular builds and the likes of 3D concrete printing? When will we see a ramp-up? A matter was brought to my attention, particularly on foot of the recent flooding, which I could not miss it as it was outside my front door, and that is the need to deal with legacy systems that are not fit to manage wastewater. We need a drainage area plan for Dundalk, which is planned. The Government also needs to look at our capacity not only for getting rid of wastewater but also for delivering clean water, particularly in towns, cities and areas where more houses will be built into the future.
I thank Deputies for their contributions. Deputy O'Sullivan raise the process of buying a house. Approximately 60,000 people a year are buying houses. It is great to see that happen. For a lot of people who I know and who bought a house in the past couple of years, some found the process seamless and others found it really complex and stressful, particularly if they were involved in bidding wars or were victims of gazumping. In some cases, they found homes that were put on the market but should not have been put on the market at all for various reasons such as legal reasons around probate. The idea is to establish a review group to look at those issues and to look at best practice in other countries and recommend some changes that could be made. The group is currently being convened. It will comprise members from Departments, legal professionals, auctioneers, estate agents and, crucially, consumer representatives and other stakeholders. Having reviewed the current conveyancing and probate process and identified scope for greater efficiency and streamlining, the group will report its recommendations to the Housing for All Secretaries General delivery group. Hopefully, that will be done in the next few months.
Deputy Murnane-O'Connor from Carlow raised issues and delays for people having to wait to get on the housing list. I agree that people should not have to wait long, maybe just a few weeks from the time they make the application to a decision. I will definitely raise that and bring it to the attention of the Minister, Deputy O'Brien and Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. It might be the case that more staffing is required in Carlow County Council. The Deputy also mentioned the high refusal rate for local authority home loans. Sometimes there is a reason for that. It must be borne in mind that if somebody applies for a local authority home loan, they have already been refused by a bank or maybe even two banks. That is often because they are not able to pay the money back. It is not a good thing to give people a loan they cannot afford to pay back. That does not do them any favours in the medium term either. That might be the reason but I am only speculating there.
Deputy Boyd Barrett raised Jennifer Bray's analysis in The Irish Times, which I thought was reasonably fair. I would not agree with it all but I thought it was reasonably fair and not as negative as the Deputy put across. It acknowledged good progress on overall home building, first-time buyers and social housing, but pointed out that we are falling behind targets on affordable purchase schemes. We know that and accept it. It is an area we are going to need to focus more on. That does not mean less focus on social housing or homes to buy in the normal way but it means a bit more focus on that, particularly by the LDA, which will lead on a lot of those projects.
There are many different forms of public housing. There is cost-rental, social housing, council housing, housing built by approved housing bodies, housing built by the LDA and the tenant in situ scheme. It can be built and it can be bought. There are too many people trying to drill down into statistics to diminish what has been achieved by not looking at social housing or public housing in the round, taking one aspect of it which might be direct build by councils and saying that is the only social housing being built. That is deeply misleading and it is not the reality on the ground. I have the pleasure to meet people from time to time when they have moved into new social housing projects. They are delighted to be there and to have a secure tenancy and affordable rent. They never raise with me whether it was the LDA that built it or an approved housing body. There is an academic interest in that, which is not reflected on the ground with real people in the way it is in the media.
Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned people in emergency accommodation for more than a year or two years in some cases. Roughly a third to half of people who require emergency accommodation from the State are out of it within six months and most within a year. I agree it would be useful to have a better analysis and better understanding as to why people are in emergency accommodation for more than a year or two. There may be complex reasons. Having dealt with some of those cases, I know what some of the reasons are but I do not have a document that gives me a breakdown as to what the reasons are. That would be useful and I have discussed it with the Minister, Deputy O'Brien.
On retrofit, we are ramping up to 30,000 or 35,000 retrofits this year, which is pretty good going. Every year, we are building or retrofitting approximately 60,000 new homes. We can improve that further. Finally, Deputy Ó Murchú asked a question about modern methods of construction. We are using them. OPW does and Fingal County Council does in my own constituency. We have the construction technology centre in Galway and a demonstration park in Mount Lucas. "Modern methods of construction" is a very broad term. It ranges from factory-built homes that last for 30 to 50 years to whole slabs of concrete being brought in. It is a term that people use correctly and it is a better term than modular, but it mean lots of different things. It works in some places and not others. We are using it already and are going to use it more in the years ahead.
What about the housing adaptation grant?
That is with the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell. A decision has not been made on it yet. It recommends changes to the income thresholds, recognising the fact that people earn more than they did before, and also increasing the amounts of grants given, recognising that the cost of construction has gone up. It has not been formally signed off on yet.
I assume the Taoiseach agrees with me on my third point on assessments of water capacity.
I do broadly, yes.
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Cuireadh an Dáil ar fionraí ar 1.50 p.m. agus cuireadh tús leis arís ar 2.50 p.m.
Sitting suspended at 1.50 p.m. and resumed at 2.50 p.m.