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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 24 Sep 2015

Vol. 890 No. 2

Topical Issue Debate

Homelessness Strategy

I thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. I begin by referring to a previous debate in the House on the same subject matter, not last month or the previous month but in December last year. During that debate I stated emergency legislation to freeze rents was required immediately, and this was almost a year ago. During the debate I, among others, made the point the situation of families becoming homeless would inevitably get worse. It is unprecedented because we have never been in this situation in the history of the State. Historically, when we have thought about homelessness we tended to think about individuals who are homeless but this has all changed. This is one of the legacies and part of the fallout of the so-called Celtic tiger, when the people on the opposite side of the House, who are not here, ceased building houses for social housing and did not fund it for years. They promoted the idea that everyone could be a private home owner and one could build here or there and that if one wanted to be a landlord one could build two or three houses and rent them out. This is what got us to where we are now and the situation is getting worse.

With regard to families becoming homeless, it is predominantly an issue that relates to the private rental sector. Everyone in the House knows rents have gone through the ceiling and the private rental sector can charge whatever it wishes. Rents continue to increase and I see this in my constituency. It is a big problem. One of the new features of homelessness is that it is not people who are out of work and unemployed who cannot afford private rents. We now have cases where families with two breadwinners are affected because the landlord continuously puts up the rent and these families are priced out of it. This is happening on a very large scale and is why we have the stories we speak about almost daily regarding the number of children who are homeless.

This is preventable. Unless someone else has a solution to it, I hold to the view I took last December that we need to take control of the increase in the private rental sector. The only way to do this is with a rent freeze for a period of two years to allow the Government to start to build social housing again and to allow the private sector to commence the construction of private homes. It is the only way to do it.

There are good and bad landlords, and I have met both types as, I am sure, have other Members of the House. Not all landlords are necessarily bad. However, I must say the vast majority of them are exploiting the present situation where there is not sufficient availability of rented homes. Rents continue to increase and will continue to do so unless the Minister and I as legislators do something about it.

I raise this issue again so the Government will make some commitment to introduce emergency legislation to stop this continuing problem of families and people who never thought they would be homeless ending up homeless.

I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, who is unavoidably unable to take the matter. I thank Deputy Maloney for raising the issue.

The Government is fully committed to addressing the issue of homelessness. There has been a focused and co-ordinated approach to tackling homelessness across Government Departments and agencies. The homelessness policy statement makes explicit the commitment to end involuntary long-term homelessness by the end of 2016. The Government is fully committed to achieving this target, though it remains challenging given the continuing numbers of those presenting as homeless.

A range of measures is being taken to secure a ring-fenced supply of accommodation to house homeless households and mobilise the necessary supports in order to deliver on the Government’s 2016 target. These measures have been identified in the Government's implementation plan on the State's response to homelessness and in the action plan to address homelessness.

These plans represent a whole of Government approach to dealing with homelessness, and the implementation of measures identified in these plans is being overseen by a group of senior officials drawn from key State agencies dealing with homelessness. Progress in implementing both of these plans is reported directly to the Cabinet committee on social policy and public service reform.

The long-term solution to homelessness is to increase the supply of homes. A range of measures is being progressed under the Government’s Construction 2020 strategy which is designed to support an increase in housing supply generally. In addition, in November 2014, the Minister, Deputy Kelly, launched the Government’s Social Housing Strategy 2020. This six-year strategy sets out to provide 35,000 new social housing units at a cost of €3.8 billion and restore the State to a central role in the provision of social housing through a resumption of direct building on a significant scale by local authorities and approved housing bodies. In addition, the strategy envisages delivering up to 75,000 units of long-term quality accommodation to meet housing needs through local authority housing support schemes. In the interim, while the delivery of these units is ramping up, a range of complementary measures is being implemented across Government agencies.

The Department of Social Protection continues to exercise discretion on a case by case basis for rent supplement clients who are at risk of homelessness as a result of demands for increased rents from landlords.

Under its interim tenancy protocol and national tenancy sustainment framework, "uplifts", or in other words, increases in the level of rent supplement normally allowable, have been granted to more than 3,500 households. A number of complementary awareness campaigns have been initiated to increase public knowledge with regard to tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities and where to access services and advice. The Dublin local authorities have been campaigning extensively in their region and the Department of Social Protection has been engaging directly with its clients. The Private Residential Tenancies Board has been overseeing national print, online and broadcast media advertising.

Local authorities are implementing a significant programme of returning void units to productive use, especially in the Dublin City Council area, where approximately 500 units have been brought back into use to date in 2015, with further works being progressed. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, is committed to the continued funding of this programme, with the expectation that the city council will have every lettable unit in its ownership returned to use in the short to medium term. Furthermore, the Minister has issued directions to key local authorities to prioritise homeless and other vulnerable households in the allocation of tenancies under their control. He recently extended this direction and it will apply until 31 January 2016.

The Government keeps the housing market and housing supply issues in particular under review and further measures, including those relating to rent certainty, are under consideration. Intervention in housing market issues raises many complex economic and legal issues and any measures proposed must be balanced and have the desired effect on the rental market while being fair to landlords and tenants alike.

I thank the Minister for his detailed reply. The number of families becoming homeless will continue to increase unless some form of emergency legislation to freeze private rents gets priority from this House. If a rent freeze is not legislated for immediately, many families now in the private sector will be forced from their homes. Many landlords, as I already stated, are exploiting the fact that the demand for rented premises is outstripping supply. In reality, most landlords are increasing their rent without any link to the cost of living index. The sector has gone crazy and landlords have free rein, if I can use that phrase again.

It is worth reminding the House that it is our function in this Dáil to legislate for the common good. It is not the function of this House to allow landlords free rein when misery is created for families who are turfed out of private rented accommodation. We have a role in this and we should be here for the common good rather than the protection of one sector of landlords who can charge what they like. On 28 February, a motion in my name at the Labour Party conference called for a two-year rent freeze. The motion was passed unanimously, making it party policy. If the threat of additional families becoming homeless, and the misery associated with that, is to be halted, only prioritised legislation - the freezing of private rents - can be effective.

I have listened to the main points from Deputy Maloney in response to the contribution from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. I will make three points in return, based on my personal experience of the matter and the input I can give through the Cabinet.

The first point is that I agree entirely with the Deputy's argument that we should be governing with a mind to the common good. I can think of few examples which are more threatening to the common good than the number of families, in particular, now facing homelessness and the larger number which face the risk of homelessness. I have dealt directly with the matter through my constituency work and I know the incredible misery and stress this can cause. I also know the measures being taken to provide other forms of accommodation for people, including hotel accommodation, although that is an emergency action that is, in turn, unsustainable for families in the long run.

A second point is that we must examine additional measures to bring forward quickly a supply of housing stock in the short term. The Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, has outlined all the measures likely to improve significantly this matter in the medium to long term as housing stock increases but that is no comfort to anybody who is homeless tonight or worried about being homeless before Christmas. We must contemplate how we can quickly bring about different forms of accommodation that will offer respite to people, as we face a darkening position.

I have spoken to the Minister, Deputy Kelly, about my third point and I am sure he is aware of the Deputy's view on the matter. I will relay it to him in any case. We must now examine measures relating to certainty of rents and what rents could look like in future. I know the Minister, Deputy Kelly, is working on that now. I thank the Deputy for raising the matter and I will ensure the Minister is made aware of these issues at our Cabinet meeting next week.

Employment Rights

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue. It is not new and the matter has been ongoing for two years. It involves 12 families in the town I am privileged and honoured to serve, Clonakilty. Two years ago, Hood Textiles, a factory in the town, closed without any notice. On that day, the 12 workers turned up for work and found the doors locked, and from that day to this, those people and their families have been trying to get what is owed to them. To add further injury to the injustice of the 12 workers, the company is in receivership but has not been liquidated. If it had been liquidated, the workers would enjoy the same rights as any other worker who has been unfortunate enough to lose a job. The 12 families have not just experienced the terrible trauma of having their livelihood terminated without any notice, with a lock placed across the door, but the further injury is that the 12 families feel a double grievance because they are owed money by the employer for holiday pay and other terms and conditions that all workers enjoy.

There was a recent, very high profile case in Dublin involving 500 workers at Clerys but I argue that the 12 workers in Clonakilty are every bit as valuable to the community and their families are equally impacted. There were no cameras or headlines for the 12 families to assist them or promises of Government action but I have been doing my duty as a public representative over the two years and met those people numerous times. They do not have the financial resources to take the legal steps, although they have engaged at some level legally. They do not have the resources to take a case like this to the High Court to get justice.

I have raised the matter with the Minister and the Department for two years through parliamentary questions and correspondence but I have been getting the same answer. I have been told that a review is taking place and it is expected to end shortly. The families are getting tired and fed up, as they have lost their livelihood, which is difficult to take. There is a further loss and grievance as the Government and the State are also turning their backs as well.

They now regret that they did not do what many other workers did and stage a sit-in, commanding the attention of the State and the media, at the time. They took the hit very gracefully and did what they could themselves. I have done my bit for them but I am reaching an end point now. We owe it to these 12 families, and this is not just about those 12 families in Clonakilty. There are numerous other families the length and breadth of this country who have had the misfortune to lose their job and to have this grievance added to it. I look forward to the Minister of State outlining any plans to complete that review so we can finally get justice for these 12 families and all the other families in the country as well.

I thank Deputy Jim Daly for raising the issue of the review of the Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act. I have circulated a response but I would rather have a conversation with him than read a scripted response on this. As a member of a trade union for many years, I understand the Deputy's and the families' frustration at not being able to get the repayment that I also believe they are entitled to. The response outlines the legislation we are working through. I will not read it for the Deputy because it might be a bit insulting as he has been arguing this point very strongly for the last two years and there is a level of frustration.

I reassure him that my Department has been reviewing the situation. It has been consulting with a range of interested parties, including the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement; the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and the Revenue Commissioners to establish what, if anything, can be done to progress payments to individuals in this situation. To date, officials from the Department have had one formal meeting with various parties mentioned above in connection with the issues and it continues to engage with relevant parties to try and progress the matter. Given the difficult legal issues that need to be addressed, I am not in a position to indicate when this review will be completed. However, I will take this up.

Deputy Jim Daly has articulated very clearly his concern for these 12 families and many other families and I will be happy to meet with him to see if we can progress this further. The finishing line for this Government is early next year and I believe the Deputy is anxious that we are able to resolve it for these families and many others. I am happy to sit down with him and my officials, give him an up-to-date report and see whether we can make progress on this very important issue. I was not aware that the Deputy was going to raise the individual case. If I was, I would have come much better prepared to respond to the situation of those people in Deputy Daly's constituency and many more who are caught in that situation.

It is a very complicated situation in respect of legislation. There are many Acts involved, as illustrated in the circulated response. Deputy Jim Daly is correct in raising the issue today. Let us see whether we can work together over the next five months to bring this to a speedy resolution. I thank him for raising an important issue. Sometimes members of the public believe that those who shout loudest get the most, but we must ensure that everybody is treated equally, whether the television cameras are on the case or not. These 12 families are as important as those who were affected by what happened with Clerys and I am happy that we can work out a resolution in some way to speed up the case.

I am very disappointed with the response because it is the same one I have been getting and the Department has all the details of the case I have been raising. It is exactly the same response I have been getting for two years. If I am frustrated, the Minister of State can imagine how frustrated the 12 families are. Notwithstanding that, I appreciate his sincerity and I know he is very genuine in his response. I appreciate that and it gives me a great deal of comfort. I appreciate that there are difficulties in moving this on and there are many different Acts but, as one of the family members said to me, this review is going on so long and there is nothing there for us: how long does it take to review nothing twice?

I will take the Minister of State up on his offer. I will meet with him and his officials in the coming weeks and we will try to progress this not just for the 12 families in Clonakilty, who are my paramount concern, but also because there is an equality issue here. What I appreciate most is that the Minister of State grasped this. Every citizen is entitled to equal dignity and for the State to shine the same light on them. That is what is at issue here above and beyond everything else. The trauma of losing one's livelihood is so severe and so difficult, but then to feel one is treated unequally in the eyes of the State and not afforded the same attention when the media takes such an interest in the conditions of others who are in the same position compounds that. I thank the Minister of State for his offer, which I will take up, and I thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this issue in the Dáil. I look forward to making progress with the Minister of State and his officials in the Department.

I will be in touch with the Deputy in the coming weeks to organise that. He can brief his 12 families on this. There is nothing more shocking and upsetting than to lose one's job. Getting the redundancy payment and holiday benefits to which one is entitled can sometimes help to alleviate the financial problems, but there is nothing worse than when a company becomes insolvent and then one cannot get one's holiday payments, statutory notice or redundancy settlement. I can very much understand the frustration felt by the 12 families in Clonakilty and by other families that have gone through this. Let us sit down and see where the blockages are in respect of the review. I assure the Deputy that the officials in my Department take this very seriously. It is not just in high visibility cases such as Clerys that this has an impact. We will work together. I am aware that we have a finishing line. Deputy Daly is as anxious as I am to make sure issues like this are resolved before we face an election next March and I will work with him to get a resolution to the issue.

Road Projects

As the Minister knows, master plans for the north fringe of the Dublin City Council area and the adjoining south fringe of the Fingal County Council area were first drafted around 15 years ago by the planning departments of the two councils and a new urban district of 10,000 to 15,000 people and ancillary commercial development was planned, providing for a future population of 40,000 plus. Unfortunately the crash of 2008 brought much of the development to a halt and the discovery of high pyrite levels in foundation infills and insulation and other construction problems have greatly delayed the much-needed completion of the core of the north fringe.

The spine of the new city region is a main street or boulevard running from Clare Hall-Burnell on Malahide Road, Dublin 17, across Belmayne, Priory Hall and Clongriffin to Clongriffin town centre, which is alongside the planned town centre in the coast development of Fingal's south fringe. A number of key road improvements are a prerequisite for the development of this master plan for the north fringe-south fringe district. These include the Hole-in-the-Wall Road-Moyne Road improvement scheme now being addressed by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council, the proposed Northern Parkway strongly linking the Dublin city and Fingal parts of this region and finally, and most importantly, the Malahide Road realignment or bypass at Clare Hall-Burnell which is a joint project of Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council.

The Malahide Road realignment was a key roads improvement objective in the 2005-11 Dublin city development plan, which I helped design. Dublin City Council road design and construction engineers and the north central area management teams held widespread consultation on this project, especially with Fingal colleagues, and produced detailed plans for the proposed realignment. Traffic on the very busy Malahide Road was to be diverted to the west at Darndale Belcamp and over a new bridge and across the N32, now known as the R139, through Belcamp College lands and then moving back eastwards to re-join the Malahide Road near the Moyne Road junction. In the Dublin city development plan 2011 to 2017 at section 5.1.4.8 under "Road Capacity Improvements" the construction of the Malahide Road realignment is named as a key objective. The realignment's importance is underlined in many reports since 2008 to the north central committee of Dublin City Council and to the North Fringe Forum, a residents' and stakeholders' group which meets quarterly to review progress on the north-south fringe.

At our recent north-fringe forum, which took place on Tuesday last, the north central area manager, Mr. Dave Dinnigan, highlighted efforts by Dublin City Council to encourage well planned development at a key site on the junction of the Malahide Road - R139 - and Clare Hall Avenue. This is the site of Clare Hall town centre and an earlier effort by the local authority to develop the centre was stymied by the withdrawal and collapse of Stanley builders. However, the critical public infrastructure necessary to create the environment of the new Clare Hall town centre is the urgent funding and construction of the Malahide Road bypass or realignment. The bypass will take the considerable north-south traffic out of the location and, with other measures to ease the east-west traffic flows, would permit a true urban retail and services centre to develop where the Tesco Clare Hall shopping centre and the Hilton hotel are the flagships of a commercial development at present.

The last detailed report we received from DCC engineers put a cost of €50 million on the project a couple of years ago, but as a key measure to enable the sustainable completion of the north fringe-south fringe region, capital expenditure on this realignment would be a valuable investment. Many thousands of new homes, services and businesses are needed in the region and, in addition to addressing our catastrophic housing crisis, this road investment would be a significant boost to the public infrastructure needed to complete the north-fringe urban region. I urge the Minister to ensure the National Transport Authority makes the project a priority for the 2016 capital programme.

I noted the Minister's recent announcements. Incidentally, I hope his recent reconsideration of metro north is not merely a general election ploy and he is sincere about this. As the Acting Chairman, Deputy Farrell, will be aware, it would be devastating for the northside if the Minister, who himself is one of our region's Deputies, dangles this carrot in front of us and then does not help to follow through on it. I hope that reconsideration is real. In the announcements, there are many important road improvements. I note the N11 New Ross bypass and the road connecting Sligo and Donegal - the north-west region - and I am a strong supporter of all those. However, for our region, and I think the Acting Chairman would support this 100%, we should do the Malahide Road realignment.

I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this matter with me. As the Deputy would expect, I am familiar with the area to which he refers. There is a response that will be circulated to him but I will pick up on a few points in response.

Deputy Broughan will be aware of the overall position on road funding. From a height of almost €3 billion in 2008, this year the level of funding available to me for road construction or maintenance is €760 million, which is a decrease of almost two thirds. Alongside that, there is considerable pressure on the money I have available to fund a range of different projects. The Deputy referred to some of the national projects elsewhere for which there is a great need. He also touched on some of the speculation about metro north. I will not get into what the proposal will be because I must get Cabinet approval for it, but I assure the Deputy that whatever proposal goes forward with, I hope, Cabinet approval, it will be one we are confident we can make happen because I am aware of the number of times different plans have emerged, some of which have happened but many of which have not.

On the road project to which Deputy Broughan referred, the funding position of Fingal County Council, Dublin City Council and the other Dublin local authorities is that, in view of their implementation of the local property tax, each is now in a surplus position in terms of their overall finances and is in a position to self-fund services, including road expenditure. On the particular proposal Deputy Broughan made for the Malahide Road bypass near Clare Hall, to date my Department has not received a proposal from any of the local authorities for that road. That may be for different reasons in terms of examining the proposal or its cost, and the Deputy may well be aware of them, but I have not received a proposal for that road.

A capital plan will be published, I believe, next week. That will refer to some projects that will be progressed, but I anticipate that other projects could be deployed out of the funding that local authorities themselves will have available to them. At this time, neither I nor my Department has received a proposal for that road. Perhaps Deputy Broughan might be able to offer a perspective on that because I am aware, given that I know to where he is referring, that there is a need to look at the road infrastructure in that part of the north side of Dublin city.

On that point, there were detailed plans in 2012 or early 2013. The Minister's predecessor would have received some outline requests for support because it is a project that encompasses two local authorities and it needs that kind of background support.

I have advocated for many years for a strategic development zone in the north fringe - the south fringe from a Fingal perspective - which would be a massive new city region. If we had an SDZ in the region, which we should have and which is something the Minister could take to Government, we would have key infrastructure such as roads, schools and services going in as occupants moved in. We have had a terrible time with the north fringe and south fringe, and the Acting Chairman can back me up in every word I say, because of the pyrite problem, which was an horrendous imposition on young families, men and women who had struggled to save and were paying mortgages. We also had insulation problems and all types of other problems.

There is the example of other countries. For example, when the north fringe was first mooted, some city councillors may well have visited Stockholm. Stockholm, like Dublin, has four local authorities and in the northern part, where they were building a new north fringe, they tried to put all the integrated services in together. That certainly included roads. It included taking major traffic out of the new centre, a place called Hammarby Sjöstad in north Stockholm. They also examined other EU capitals where there was major town development, but the roads were part of creating a new urban district.

Obviously, there will be significant changes in south Fingal and the north part of Dublin city. In particular, the county manager envisages Swords becoming a major regional centre. It is the fifth or sixth largest city in the country already - the fifth or sixth anyway. It is a major regional city. We hope to have major services in terms of education, health and so forth encompassing the population back to Dublin Bay North, which is mostly in the city area. A key part of progressing this is to look seriously at this road project.

On a final point about metro north, when the former Rail Procurement Agency held substantial consultations in 2008, it had three corridors for the new metro north, or metro-heavy rail, one which would have gone through the western part of Dublin Bay North, coming up through Coolock from Drumcondra. Eventually, the RPA decided on the alignment that is being discussed in press statements and elsewhere in the context of the Minister's reconsideration of the project. People felt the north west had to be brought into this and the result was the western part of Dublin Bay North was left out of the equation. We are fortunate to have the DART in Malahide and Portmarnock on the eastern side of our region. Therefore, we need some major public transport capital infrastructure as well and the Malahide bypass-----

I thank Deputy Broughan. His time has expired.

I have one last line. I thank the Acting Chairman, who is very generous.

On the last point, I want to bring the Malahide Road to the Minister's attention. I do not know what will happen when we have the general election in a few weeks or months time and who will be sitting behind the Minister's desk. If Deputy Donohoe is still there, in whatever circumstances, I hope he might remember the Malahide Road realignment and help our engineers in both counties to bring it to pass.

I heard the two different points the Deputy made. My priority is to find a way to significantly improve public transport access on the northside of our city in a way that will benefit many of the communities to which the Deputy referred. This means there are other initiatives that I, or any future transport Minister, will not be able to do for some time, given that it will require investment to put in place new public transport access for the north side of Dublin. Regarding the Malahide Road, my Department has not received a proposal on it, although some costings or work may have been done a number of years ago. I will soon meet the two local authorities regarding other transport matters and I will raise it with them and see where the matter stands. I know that part of the city well and, while there is a need to improve our public transport access overall, I am familiar with the quality of some of the roads to which the Deputy referred. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

The Dáil adjourned at 4 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 29 September 2015.
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