Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 30 Nov 1999

Vol. 511 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - Local Authority Housing.

Mr. Durkan

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue again and to bring to the attention of the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government, Deputy Dempsey, the serious housing crisis in County Kildare, with particular reference to meeting the needs of first-time home seekers, and if he will outline his plans to meet these needs in the near future.

The Minister of State has not grappled with this problem. I wish to raise his reply to Parliamentary Question No. 319 of 16 November 1999 which dealt with the number of housing starts deemed necessary by his Department to meet the requirements in County Kildare. To put the matter in context, for the past two years, 2,000 families in Kildare have been in need of rehousing and on the council housing list. There are at least another 500 people whose income levels render them ineligible for a sufficient mortgage to buy an ordinary three-bedroomed house. At present, a Dáil Deputy's salary is not sufficient to raise a mortgage to buy such a house. The Minister's reply to that question stated that the Kildare housing authorities were notified on 15 January last of their approved 1999 local authority housing programme, amounting to 165 housing starts. By my calculation, if one increased that to 400 or 500, it would take at least five years to eliminate the total housing need in County Kildare, without another person making an application.

However, earlier in the year an evaluation was done of the housing needs of the various local authorities throughout the country. In County Kildare, because of the pressure on rented accommodation, a number of people on the housing list have had to move three or four times in the last couple of years. The result was that when the correspondence was sent to the relevant people, it was returned. Those people are now off the housing list and it now indicates about 400 less than the actual figure.

The seriousness of this issue has not percolated through to the Minister's Department. Another reply to a parliamentary question on 16 November, in which the housing needs assessment undertaken by local authorities at the end of last March is referred to, states that 1,126 households are in need of local authority housing in Kildare and that there are another 376 households whose needs are considered to be more suitably met by other housing measures, including voluntary housing or rent supplementation. Whatever the needs are, the only way to meet them is through extra housing accommodation. It does not matter whether it is privately or publicly rented, purchased or voluntary housing – it makes no difference. The lack of sufficient housing to meet the needs of the growing community in County Kildare and the failure to address this is tantamount to negligence. I am sorry that nothing in the national plan or anywhere else has given me any indication that there is a serious determination in the Department of the Environment and Local Government to address this issue. If it is not addressed soon – and this is beginning to manifest itself already – those on the housing list in counties like Kildare will have to emigrate to get a house.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Molloy)

Measures introduced by the Government since last year are helping to assist affordability for lower income and first-time purchasers, particularly through the withdrawal of investor incentives, reduced stamp duty rates, improvements in the local authority shared ownership scheme and the local authority affordable housing scheme. The grant of £3,000 continues to be available for first-time purchasers of new houses. Our objective is to provide more affordable housing with higher density, high quality design and sustainability as part of any integrated housing development. The recently published Planning and Development Bill will underpin the supply of adequate land to provide social and affordable housing and will ensure that provision is made for housing all sectors of the community in an integrated and sustainable way.

The inclusion of housing in the National Development Plan, 2000-2006, for the first time reflects the priority that the Government has given to this issue. The provision of £6 billion, which averages over £850 million per annum over the life of the plan, is more than double the £2.4 billion, at current prices, invested in housing over the period of the previous plan. This will ensure that the social housing needs of over 90,000 households will be met with Government assistance over the plan's period. Furthermore, substantial funding for supporting infrastructural investment is provided for under the plan which should facilitate the provision of some 500,000 private dwellings over the years to 2006.

Local authorities have a key role to play in the provision of housing for those unable to purchase their first home at current market prices. The enhanced national programme of 4,500 new starts in 1999 is the highest level since the mid-1980s. Together with output from other social housing measures and vacancies occurring in existing stock, I expect that the local authority housing programme will cater for almost 10,000 households in 1999. Substantial improvements to the terms and conditions of voluntary housing schemes and the new levels of assistance available should enable this sector to increase output to some 4,000 units of accommodation per annum over the coming years.

The Government has allocated substantially increased resources for expenditure on housing in the year 2000, with a total housing provision of almost £800 million – an increase of 50 per cent on the 1999 estimate, which is a record. Local authority and social housing programmes will be allocated £432 million – an increase of 60 per cent – to enable local authorities to meet existing commitments as well as providing for an enhanced programme of 22,000 units under the four year multi-annual programme due to commence in January 2000. This programme will empower local authorities to produce a more streamlined delivery of housing output over the coming years and facilitate a more cost efficient delivery of housing by local authorities. I am very pleased to announce that Kildare has been assigned 810 housing starts over the next four years, a significant increase of 44 per cent on starts over the previous four years.

Since 1993, almost 1,500 households' needs have been met by Kildare's housing authorities through the various local authority housing programmes. In addition to the direct provision of housing under the local authority social housing programme, the range of other schemes, which include the shared ownership scheme. Improvement works in lieu, vacancies, acquisitions, the provision of voluntary housing and the sale of sites scheme contributes to meeting the housing needs of lower income households.

There is strong evidence that the Government's strategy to increase the supply of housing is increasingly taking effect. Following five years of record housing output, completion figures for the first nine months of this year which show further increases of 11 per cent on the same period last year continue to exceed expectations. More significantly, output in the mid-east region is up over 8 per cent on last year's total. It is particularly encouraging to note that the number of planning permissions granted for new dwellings in Kildare in the first half of the year have increased by almost 46 per cent on last year, which should translate into even more new houses being built in the coming months.

At the end of last year, it was estimated that there were about 113 hectares of land in Kildare zoned for residential use and serviced for development. It is important that this land is developed in a sensible and sustainable manner, having regard to the guidelines on residential densities published by my Department in September. Under the serviced land initiative, two schemes have been completed, at Kill and Kilcullen, providing 480 serviced sites, while other schemes under construction or expected to start by the end of the year will provide an additional 2,500 sites. Where schemes are in progress, work on the houses that will be serviced can also start and run in parallel. In addition, under the main water and sewerage programme, there have been significant major works under construction in Kildare which will serve to open up land for development – the Oberstown scheme at a cost of £15 million and the Leixlip scheme at a cost of £17 million.

I am pleased to note that my Department recently sanctioned the appointment of a new post, that of project officer, to Kildare County Council. He will have responsibility for co-ordinating affordable housing initiatives in the county, under the affordable housing scheme. On the basis of submissions received from developers to provide affordable houses at numerous locations throughout the county, the council has commenced negotiations with landowners and developers with a view to providing approximately 61 housing units in central Kildare. Further negotiations with land owners and developers will take place in relation to further submissions received.

I suggest to Deputy Durkan that he should not look only at the local authority housing construction programme. Local authority members have the power to build additional houses under the various options, including the new ones I have introduced in the past year. More can be done in Kildare as regards affordable, voluntary and co-operative housing.

Mr. Durkan

The Deputy is the Minister of State.

Mr. Molloy

Low cost sites could be made available and the shared ownership scheme could be promoted in the county. I am not impressed by the extent to which Kildare County Council is availing of the various options other than local authority houses. The solution to the problem raised by the Deputy lies much closer to home than he is prepared to admit.

The Dáil adjourned at 9.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 December 1999.