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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 20 Jul 2016

Vol. 919 No. 1

Housing Strategy: Statements

I am sharing time with Deputy Maria Bailey. The area I would like to raise is affordable housing. The sector is crucial because if we get that area correct we can move north and south of affordable housing. North of affordable housing is private housing and south is social housing. I am very passionate about trying to ensure we have that area correct. The numbers I have been given very recently on the construction of a very standard three bed semi-detached house of less than 1,100 sq. ft., which used to be the old criteria attached to a first-time house purchase, is that it costs about €180,000. The difficulty with that is that the construction costs includes the site cost of about €16,000, profit of about €14,000 and VAT of over €21,000. Those figures are up to date as of last week. The difficulty is that somebody on moderate pay of around €30,000 will not meet the Central Bank criteria and will not get the loan unless they have a very large deposit. It is practically impossible to gather up that deposit along with paying rent. The even more difficult qualifying criteria from the Central Bank is the ratio of loan to earnings. There is no way around that; there is a way around deposit if one is fortunate enough for somebody to be able to give them some funds.

There are two options. The first option, the important one, is to bring down the price of the property. That can be done and I welcome the mixed tenure possibility involved in the housing plan. The State has land but should the State charge people on low pay on a mortgage over 30 years to pay for that site price? We want people to have the capacity to buy their own property, which is affordable, so that in future they have the capacity not to spend all their money on their house but to participate in society and community because they have some spending power. That is the real nub of this. If we get that right, we will have more people coming out of the rental sector and they will have purchased their own property. The pressure then will be relieved on the rental sector. The problem currently is that the rental sector is at an over-capacity stage.

I welcome the student accommodation. It is crucial that it happens in areas where the bulk of the students are - Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. There are other areas.

I will conclude and let Deputy Bailey in. It is really important that we move on the affordability of these housing units. It is more than just Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. There are areas around the country such as Greystones, my town of Gorey, Wexford, Kilkenny and many others where analysis is required.

I am delighted to see this action plan published. What this Department has achieved in 76 days is immense. I compliment the Minister, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister of State, Deputy English, their Department and the many Ministers involved in putting this plan together and supporting it financially and through other strands. I pay tribute to the numerous stakeholders for the immense consultation process that took place so that this plan will speak for a wide cohort of people, whether they are people who find themselves homeless, in mortgage distress or arrears, are looking to buy their first property and get on the property ladder, are seeking rent supplement or entering the HAP scheme, which is a very positive scheme that will be rolled out in totality shortly, or are trying to buy their first home but finding it immensely hard to put their deposit together. This plan encompasses all of them. While I accept we can go further in certain areas in future, this action plan gives a solid foundation to start to increase supply and plans to establish this and do far more.

Having come from local government, where I was a councillor for over 12 years, I have a great understanding of the barriers that are in place to develop housing, such as Part 8, and those infrastructural barriers in place for private developers pursuing their planning applications. The elastic timescale is soul-destroying for many people who need a home. I have great sympathy for them. Procedure and process should not hinder the delivery of this plan and I welcome the actions to diminish the timeframes in both public and private delivery. We have had approximately ten to 15 years of lack of financial investment in many Departments but mainly for direct build in local authority housing. This Government is now in a financial position to invest in housing. We need a strong economy to have a fair society and to invest in our housing supply.

To remind Deputies how far we have come in this process, it is not that long ago that the crash hit back in 2007. We found many families in very serious situations. I bring to this debate a personal experience of how the mismanagement of this country affected my family. I was one of those families in massive negative equity. Uncertainty hit my overpriced hall door with a very loud bang of unemployment. I had a very young family, one being a newborn, and I experienced the fear of the future and the torpedo of an emotional rollercoaster of financial distress that an overburdened mortgage brings to any family. Thankfully I have come out the other side of that through this Government's initiatives. In order to build more homes, we need to invest in addressing our infrastructural barriers. I am delighted with the €200 million investment secured by the Minister, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to secure that which confirms again a cross-departmental urgency and support for this housing plan.

I welcome the robust plan to tackle our housing situation. I wish the Minister and his Department well on the implementation of this plan and do so knowing it is being tackled with a very genuine and sensitive regard to provide people with a place they can call home, not just a house.

Next on my list is Deputy Barry Cowen but I do not see him here. I think he spoke before.

Deputy Barry Cowen was here last night.

Therefore, is it Deputy Eugene Murphy and-----

And Mary Butler.

-----Deputy Mary Butler sharing? Is it three minutes and two minutes, respectively?

Two and a half minutes and two and a half?

Whatever.

I want to say a few words on something that is very important to every Member of this House. I will start by wishing the Minister of State, Deputy English, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, the best of luck with this plan.

Every Member of this House, irrespective of what his or her politics or whoever he or she supports, has been concerned and hurt for many families which have, without question, suffered over recent years in homelessness. It does not only apply to Dublin, Cork or Galway. I can tell the Minister of State that I know of families in my constituency of Roscommon-Galway living in hotel rooms. It is a very distressful time for them. I am hopeful that the proposed strategy will generally work, that we will ensure that everybody will have a roof over their head and that their parent or parents will not have to be worrying about where they will sleep the next night. We have all heard the stories about people having to put their children into a school in the daytime and walk the streets because they were living out of bed and breakfast accommodation. It is a horrific situation and nobody in this House wants it to continue. That is why I wish Ministers English and Coveney, and the strategy, the best of luck. While we might come from different angles, all contributors to this debate are concerned about getting this right.

I am a strong advocate of home ownership. We should not be saying to people that they do not have a right to own their own home. The Irish have a proud tradition of owning their own homes. On many occasions when I talk to tenants in local authority housing they tell me that they would like the opportunity to live in their own homes. I welcome the fact that we have a new tenant purchase scheme.

I do not approve of the situation where local authorities' properties under the Part V scheme cannot be included in any tenant purchase scheme for social housing. It is unfair. It is a nonsense and I would ask the Minister to take another look at it. We are told the reason the Part V units are excluded from the incremental tenant purchase scheme is to ensure that all residential communities remain mixed-tenure developments. This reason seems to be a perversion of the original intention of Part V, the previous scheme and the central idea of mixed-tenure communities. I would say that the tenant purchase scheme discriminates against lower income households in these mixed communities by stating that it is only the right of a higher income household in mixed communities to have an opportunity to own their own houses. I am very much in favour and a big supporter of Deputy Cowen's Bill.

As I said, I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well. I hope we can solve this problem. I hope that we can all work together to relieve what is probably the biggest crisis facing us in the country at present. Hopefully, that will happen very shortly.

There is no time left in that slot now. Deputy Butler has another slot coming up after three speakers or so. The next speaker is Deputy Martin Kenny. Is Deputy Martin Kenny taking the whole slot or is he sharing?

I am sharing with Deputy Ellis.

It seems, in fairness, that the Minister made some effort to tackle the housing crisis in this plan. While a strategic plan must be forward-looking and take a long-term view, we must realise that we are in the middle of a crisis and urgent action is needed for the thousands of homeless people around the country.

What will this plan do for the person sleeping in a doorway on Grafton Street, for the woman and her children living in a hotel room, for the young couple who have separated and gone back to living with their parents because they cannot afford rent or for the young worker who is couch-surfing from Billy to Jack while trying, but failing, to find affordable accommodation, particularly here in our capital city? While these are real people, all of them are in trouble. They need some urgent action to resolve their immediate crisis situation.

The capital spending on social housing for 2017 is set to increase by €150 million and the Minister's plans will result in 6,000 social housing units per year for the next six years. The Committee on Housing and Homelessness recommendation of 10,000 social housing units a year has been undercut to the tune of 40% in this new plan. The whole point of the Dáil committee being set up was to address the seriousness of the immediate crisis that we are now in.

The reality is that housing lists are growing and the number of people in emergency accommodation is also growing, and therefore these plans are not sufficient to deal with the reality of these people's lives. There has been universal agreement - universal among all except probably the landlords - for years that one of the major factors in the homeless crisis is high rents in the private rented sector. One of the few areas where we have seen a recovery is in the sector but where is the reform of the sector? Where is the protection for the responsible tenants, paying their rent and maintaining the property well? What will prevent the landlord turning up and saying that his niece is coming to stay and the tenant must go? For many tenants, there is nowhere to go or they are being told that the property has been confiscated by the bank, which must sell it while its empty. They are put out and have nowhere to go.

In a rural constituency such as mine, the stark homelessness of the cities is not so common, but the issue of mortgage arrears is damaging the mental health and well-being of so many. The programme for Government promised many measures, such as a custom-designed mortgage court and a code of conduct on mortgage arrears, but there is no sign of them here. Considering that there are over 85,000 households in mortgage arrears, this is a disappointing omission from the housing plan.

It looks like there is a lot more to be done and what is lacking is the political will to do it. It is time that the provision of housing for the people is regarded as a social responsibility and not just a source of profit for those in the business. Housing is a human right and the social policy governing it must reflect that. Unfortunately, this strategy does not reflect that social policy element.

The launch yesterday of the Government's action plan falls well short of addressing the needs of families are affected most by the housing crisis. There will be no solution to the housing crisis without a social aspect and there will be no solution without State intervention. The action plan for housing and homelessness launched yesterday is a case in point. There are some good points, but the plan is conservative in its outlook and where time is taken to expand on plans, they do not add up or are vague or misleading. For example, the action plan states that 1,500 rapid housing units will be finished by 2018. We have seen some of this before, as there was a rapid-delivery housing programme for homeless families then residing in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation rolled out in October 2015 by the Labour Party, which was part of the then Government, and which was to deliver 500 units by the end of this year. However, in an answer to a parliamentary question, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, told me last month that out of the 500 promised units, 22 were actually built in Ballymun, with the possibility of 171 being finished by the end of the year, and even this target is in doubt. Considering we are nowhere near completing the previous plan for rapid build housing, what are the chances of completing the 1,500 units before the end of 2018?

There are a number of excellent initiatives in the action plan for supports for families with children in emergency accommodation. These include dedicated child support workers, home-school community liaison, access to free public transport for school journeys and joined up supports between education, health and Tusla for homeless families, as well as important interventions to safeguard families in emergency accommodation. However it is not clear how all of this will be funded. Will the relevant Departments and bodies be expected to source the funding from their own budgets or will it be provided from somewhere else? The Minister knows as well as I do that funding will be the difference here.

The plan also allows for streamlining of planning processes for larger private housing developments. The proposal is for developments with over 100 houses to be referred straight to An Bord Pleanála, therefore bypassing the local council process, which was valuable for community input. Given that big developments will have the biggest impact on a local community, removing the local consultation part of the planning process would be a retrograde step. Part of the local accountability in planning comes after pre-planning consultations at local level and they often enhance or "community-proof" big developments.

By increasing the percentage of Part V units to at least 30% in special development zones, one could also provide for a mixture of affordable and social housing and other services related to correct community living. This will put mixed use estates, which are best practice across Europe, into our new developments and in turn re-energise these development zones.

I will read something to the Minister of State and see if he recognises it. It was echoed in the Minister's plan yesterday and it states:

Off-balance sheet mechanisms will be used to maximise financial opportunities and leverage other assets available to the State, including land. Under the strategy's governance structure, a dedicated work stream will be established from within the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Department Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of Finance and the Housing Finance Agency to progress specific off-balance sheet mechanisms: expansion of the NAMA special purpose vehicle, a large-scale public-private partnership and a new financial vehicle.

If it sounds familiar, it should, as it was put before the Dáil by the last Government by a former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly. It has just been copied and pasted into the current plan.

I am not as optimistic as many people. I would love to be optimistic in this House but I am not. I am certainly not optimistic when I look at the housing policy. The main reason I am not optimistic is because the prevailing idea is that the only way we will get housing is by going through the private market, which seems to reign supreme as God almighty; therefore we must look to it. I took some notes from a book today documenting the history of social housing. In the years between 2000 and 2007, there were 46,000 or 47,000 units of social housing stock of the entire supply; private housing numbered nearly 500,000 units. Probably a tenth of all houses are social houses. This document is non-committal about the delivery of social houses, meaning the more than 130,000 families on the social housing list will have to do one of two things, and it looks like they will only have the first option.

That option is to get into a housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme. Having been a councillor for the past seven years, I am familiar with the scheme. It is very difficult to get a landlord interested in the scheme, as they have the pick of the crop now and they can go to students, information technology workers and other professionals around the city and take them. That is instead of entering an arrangement with the local authority that would tie them in for a number of years. There is a commitment to get something like 550 families into the HAP scheme by the end of the year but by the time we come back there will be four months until the end of the year and the Government would work magic to get 550 families housed under the scheme by then. We will see and the proof will be in the pudding. I will put a few bob on it and say it will not be done and cannot be done.

The reason is that this Government relies entirely on the private market, as social housing is absent from this document. It is absent not by accident, but for a reason, which is ideological and political. It is about feeding the developers, bankers and the same old crooks, gangsters and financiers who put us in this current position. The Minister of State, and the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, are quite genuine about this to a degree but they will not achieve much. This Government will build more houses than the former Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, not because of the plan, but because it would be impossible to build any fewer than he did. We were promised 5,500 social houses under the former Minister by 2015 but we got approximately 400 by 2016, so we can work out the maths and see how much can be delivered.

The problem with the housing market is that it is a market and it gives us many problems. It does little to deal with homelessness. I will comment briefly on modular housing, as I have some in my back yard in Cherry Orchard. There was a recent protest to stop the building going ahead but people did not object to the housing. The people in Cherry Orchard have one shop and school, with no post office, dentist or doctor, and a lousy bus service. They objected to the housing scheme going ahead because the builders did not know what they were doing. They were cutting through an estate, taking away culs-de-sac, while they put main roads through another estate. When the council was called to check what was going on, nobody had any maps or drawings. Even at that most basic and fundamental level, we are making a hames of this. We are paying somebody - I do not know who it is - €250,000 for each of these modular houses. I am not saying they will be nasty or horrible but we know from builders and people like Deputy Mick Wallace that one could build a decent home on public land for approximately €150,000. Why are we not doing that? It is because the market reigns supreme and the Government cannot get that out of its head. It should move away from the market and take responsibility for providing decent public housing.

Deputy Mary Butler will speak next. Perhaps Deputy Eugene Murphy might take the Chair as I will speak after her.

After being a member of the housing and homelessness committee, I awaited the Minister's plan with much hope. As has been well documented in the House, this is not just a crisis for the Minister and his Department to deal with; it is a real-life emergency. As a member of that committee, I was disappointed that more of our proposals were not taken on board. However, I compliment the Minister and the Department on delivering the plan on time and giving us the opportunity in the House to debate it before the summer recess. I welcome most of the housing action plan and it is extremely important that the plan is given a chance to work. Every man, woman and child in emergency accommodation tonight deserves a chance for the plan to work. The 23 children in emergency accommodation in my constituency of Waterford deserve for this plan to be given a chance to succeed.

There are a few areas of concern. We all remember last year the launch of the plan by the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and I remember the phrase "shovel-ready sites". Unfortunately, we have not seen too many shovels at work and local authorities only managed to deliver 28 houses in the past 12 months, with the rest delivered by approved housing bodies. I keep repeating the role local authorities will need to play. The local authorities delivered social housing in the past and did it well but the problem escalated when local authorities stopped building. Their input must be reimplemented on a large scale and I look forward to seeing that happen. This cannot just be another plan and we need to see the bricks and mortar.

I welcome that the Government has promised to end the practice of homeless families staying in hotels by next year and to build 47,000 units of social housing. The commitment to streamlined procurement and approval of new social houses is also very welcome. The procurement and approval processes are out of date and they bear no relation to the emergency housing issue we are now experiencing. They are in need of urgent reform and simplification. There is always a risk in developing more procurement powers for local authorities and approved housing bodies. Given the snail's pace at which the Department approves new social housing projects, the risk is worth it. We dealt with this issue a lot in the committee and the frustration was great when dealing with procurement matters. In my home town of Portlaw in Waterford, we saw plans last June and the local authority had already built 24 houses on a site. There were no objections and the finances were in place, but not a sod has been turned 13 months later.

With regard to improved social housing delivery, I welcome the proposals for a new financing model, including the commitment to request that financing of social housing by the State be considered off-balance sheet to improve approved housing bodies' ability to access finance and establish a new housing procurement agency with staff from the Housing Agency, National Treasury Management Agency and the Department dealing with housing, planning and local government, as well as the Department of Finance. This is so local authorities and approved housing bodies can deliver their social housing programme.

I also urge the Minister to work with the credit unions. This morning we all heard in a briefing that they are restricted by the Central Bank in how they can currently invest. The credit unions have €10 billion on deposit. To use even a quarter of this to provide social and affordable housing would make sense. They are really anxious to get involved and we should take them up on the offer. They have much to offer if they were allowed into the market.

I am concerned that a moratorium on repossessions was not addressed. Unless we prevent people from being evicted, especially in cases of negative equity, it will be difficult to stop the ever-increasing waiting lists.

I would have liked to have seen more detail on student accommodation. Thousands of students are already facing difficulty in securing third level accommodation, especially in the larger cities, for the forthcoming academic year. While the Higher Education Authority estimates an existing level of unmet demand of approximately 25,000 student bed spaces nationally, this strategy has proposed that 500 new student accommodation places would be built on DIT's Grangegorman campus. I would like to see proposals on how universities and institutes of technology could gain better access to finance by borrowing independently from the State.

Aspiring home buyers hoping to get a foot on the property ladder also felt let down. There is not a lot in the report on first-time buyers and the difficulty of trying to get a 20% deposit together, especially in cities where it can amount to €50,000, which is outside the reach of most people.

There are gaps in the strategy that have to be filled but I sincerely wish the Minister well and look forward to seeing these houses, homes and apartments under construction as quickly as possible. As stated in the overview of the action plan, good housing anchors strong communities. I genuinely hope this plan is successful and look forward to seeing its implementation as soon as possible.

I think we are all delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this particular strategy. It has been long awaited and is long needed. I thought for many years that we would never see the day we would get to the stage where a housing strategy became evident in the House of Parliament. At last something is being done directly about the issues, which some of us saw and foretold many years ago while they were gradually and inexorably coming in our direction and creating what was initially a problem and then a crisis.

We are great in this country for having problems for every solution. That does not necessarily apply to this House but it certainly applies outside the House. The first question is if it will work and the second is where will the money come from. We cannot afford the luxury of it not working. That is the bottom line. The Government has correctly put in the extra resources necessary because things do not happen unless provision is made. The provision in this case comes down to the funding available. There will be issues but the strategy can be tweaked satisfactorily to the benefit of the country, economy and the social life of the country.

I do not understand why people object to other people's houses at the present time. I know there have been situations where explanations have been given, but I just do not understand it. I am one of those who feels that the most urgent issue for most families is a roof over their heads. Many people in this country either do not have a roof over their heads or face the prospect in the not too distant future of not having a roof over their heads. We have all dealt with cases where people have slept in cars, under bridges and in the open air over the past six to eight years. This happened night after night and, in some cases, included small kids. Whatever about adults in that situation, this has a most detrimental effect on children. We hope that during the course of this plan we will see coming to fruition something that will address what we have all been talking about for a long time.

There is another issue that I would like to see dealt with. I have spoken to the Minister about it and I hope it will become a reality. It concerns the old-fashioned local authority housing loan. We all knew about them. They were the first port of call for most young professionals. For most people in working class areas, the very first thing they wanted was to own their house. I think the Acting Chairman, Deputy Eugene Murphy, mentioned that Irish people do want to own. They do want to own their house. The reason they want to own it is it gives them security. They have a stake in society and they are part and parcel of the economy. They know that if they have a job they will be able to hold on to their house. They have a vested interest in the economy of the country, which is a good thing because it involves everyone.

Those who told us many years ago, when I objected to the housing plans that were followed, that we would change and become more reliant on private rental property were wrong. It did not work, cannot work and will not work because it does not give the tenant the responsibility they want themselves, nor does it give them fixity of tenure. They can never know when they will be asked to move on or for what purpose. We all know about that issue. Incidentally, there is a good cohort of landlords who are very decent. They treat their tenants on the front line as if they were their own family. Unfortunately, others are not so concerned and we have seen their activities over recent years.

I am delighted we have reached the stage of having a tangible plan before us. We hope it works. We should all do everything possible to ensure it works. We should add to it the bit about the housing loans, which can be provided for in the plan, to encourage those who are now asking where they will get a loan. They want to buy and own their own house and are asking how they can do it. There are two issues. We need to make supply available to them and we need to ensure a loan system on which they can rely is also available to them. I mentioned that at my parliamentary party meeting earlier this evening.

I met a substantial business person in the recent weeks. The first thing he said to me when he was talking about this housing situation was that the very first house he owned was purchased with the benefit of a local authority council loan. Thousands of people throughout the country did the same. The strategy will be hugely beneficial to everyone, the economy, the social life of the country, house owners and tenants. Everything that has been added into the mix eases the current pressure.

I am delighted to have had this opportunity to contribute and thank the Acting Chairman for facilitating me.

I thank Deputy Durkan for that off the cuff presentation. It was very good. I call Deputy Pat Casey.

Last week when I spoke in the House, I protested at the lack of scheduled debating time for this plan. I am glad to see that not only has some extra time been allocated but that I am the beneficiary of it.

It is time well spent.

It is new politics at work.

As I have stated previously, this Dáil will be rightly judged on its ability to deliver on housing and homelessness. The Government action plan announced yesterday, while comprehensive, has omitted some details which I will try to outline. However, we will save the plaudits until the plan is actually delivered.

I would also like to say at the outset that substantial cross-party work has been achieved on housing and that has been acknowledged by both Ministers. I am disappointed, however, with the selected leaking of the report to media prior to its publication.

That is old politics and disrespectful to the genuine efforts of the Opposition Members who engaged constructively on the housing crisis. I hope, for the future of new politics, that this is the last of the spinning as we move towards a Government and a Parliament working together as the people rightly demanded.

The very first line of the report states that housing is a basic human requirement. I would like to see the State and the Government go further and state that housing is a basic human right with the obligations that go with it. As a modern and ambitious nation, Ireland must work towards achieving that model, where housing is seen as a right and not simply as a vague requirement subject to the whims of changing agendas.

I am concerned about the lack of detail with regard to those in mortgage difficulties. The squeezed middle is often overlooked in major policy proposals and I fear that this may be the case again. The past eight years have been enormously difficult for these people. I would be stunned if any Deputy here did not during the recent election come across people who were visibly suffering from the strain of maintaining their mortgage repayments. These citizens are also at risk of homelessness every month when the payment is due to be made. I see no specific detail in the report which the Government has termed historic in its holistic capacity to embrace all housing issues.

In helping people in mortgage distress it is simply not good enough and I hope that in the autumn specific measures will be published for them.

I am also concerned about the number of approved housing bodies involved in the provision of social housing. There are 542 with approved status. To properly manage the provision of social housing in the long term that figure seems far too high. My personal belief is the capacity of local authorities to deliver in this area should be increased. A capacity building programme, with appropriate recruitment and training, should be undertaken to enable local authorities to gain the skills necessary to manage all aspects of social housing provision. This would be an efficient and functional model of social housing management.

As I am not in a position to address all of my concerns, I will leave points about rent certainty, student accommodation, having one State agency and off-balance sheet items until the committee meeting tomorrow.

This Dáil has hit the ground running on the issue of housing provision. An action plan has been launched. The time for talking is over, while the time for delivery has begun. I welcome the Minister's determination to track his actions in providing solutions to the housing crisis. In this regard, I have one important and sincere piece of advice to give to him from my own experience, both as a businessperson and a public representative. When a major project is undertaken in the business sector with many aspects to it and various timelines, it often happens that a particular proposal is simply not working. In the business environment remedial action would be taken immediately, even if that meant scrapping certain proposals. Throwing good money and resources at an idea that is not working cannot be tolerated today. However, I have been frustrated during the years in seeing public policies that clearly are failing being continued simply because the public system does not have the courage to raise its hand and say, "We got this wrong, but we are changing it and will make it right." The strength of the report will be the ability to change. The public system's resistance to what is simply good management practice needs to change.

I wish the Minister and the Minister of State well, as I do the committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Maria Bailey. I also believe the committee, with its oversight function, has a huge role to play in the delivery of the plan. This Dáil will be judged on its ability to deliver in dealing with the issue of housing and homelessness.

We are awaiting two more speakers, Deputies David Cullinane and Fiona O'Loughlin. If nobody else is waiting to speak, I call the Minister of State.

Perhaps I might let them in if they turn up.

I thank everyone for his or her contribution today and yesterday and in the couple of months since the Government was formed. There is lot of good work going on in the housing sector and there had been a lot of discussion about homelessness, even before the general election. It became a major issue which focused people's minds. The quality of the debate is very clear and people genuinely want to solve the problem. There are various ideas about what we should do, but people want the crisis to be solved and those who are homeless to have a home. They want to end homelessness and the provision of emergency accommodation in hotels and bed and breakfast establishments.

The action plan is an attempt to bring forward a version of everybody's approach. There is something in it for everybody to buy into and support. The idea behind an action plan is that it is an evolving document. If something is wrong, we will give up on it and take it out, but we will try it anyway and constantly add new ideas. The document, Rebuilding Ireland, has been well received in the media and elsewhere. People want to push it even harder and ask for more, which I understand. We would like to do more if we had the money and resources. People might say we only have €100 million, but there was a fight to get that amount because every other Department wants resources too. I was in two Departments previously and they both wanted some of the money that was available. When there is some fiscal space, it is hard to compete for it. It is an achievement that an extra €2.2 billion has been allocated to housing. Spending hundreds of millions of euro extra next year is not an option, but another €100 million in capital has been allocated, a 40% increase. We want to build on that figure and in the following year the increase will be over 100%. If we had more money, we would spend it, but the plan is a fair attempt to start us in the right direction by building capacity with local authorities and other agencies, as well as in the private sector in order that it can build houses again. It is an ambitious and comprehensive starting point in the Government's efforts and resolves to really deal with the issues of housing and homelessness.

The plan is ambitious, but it is also appropriate. It has to be ambitious and hit targets. The committee had further ambitions and that was its job. I was a member of a committee a few years back and it was its job to push the Government and analyse policy. Committee members have to scrutinise and put Ministers and Departments under pressure by asking questions and constantly coming up with new ideas. I have seen this from both sides and it is an essential job. We have got close to the target, but we are not there yet and everyone hopes the plan will go beyond what has been set out.

I generally enjoy listening to Deputy Bríd Smith, but I cannot let the claim that the belief in social housing provision is absent go unchecked. A commitment to build 47,000 houses represents a major development, if we can make it happen, and a sum of nearly €5.5 billion is not small change. It is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money and shows there is a belief in social housing provision. We can disagree about the percentages, but there is a commitment to deliver a lot of social houses and that should be recognised. We can disagree, but we must face facts.

The Oireachtas committee was very important and informed the debate in bringing forward its report. Some suggestions made in it have not gone away, but they could not be factored in or achieved at this stage. Proposals on rent certainty are an example. We are developing a rental strategy, but we have to make it attractive to both investors and tenants. I understand from where the committee was coming on this issue and we will spend a couple of months trying to tease it out further to come up with the best strategy we can to make the sector work. Despite what people have said in this debate, there is a desire to provide rental properties. Apart from social housing, the figure for rental properties is above 20%. People are not only interested in buying houses; if one can rent at the right price, people are interested. There is an onus on us all to give them that choice and develop a proper rental market with proper services, as well as proper communities. We must work on that issue.

The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, and I, as well as departmental officials, have met a very broad group of stakeholders in all areas. We have hosted two well attended stakeholder forums, both of which generated constructive debate and feedback. The process has added greatly to our understanding of the housing system and its faults and failings and how its difficulties are leading to homelessness for many. The housing system is a broad and interconnected set of markets and sectors. Importantly, each sector of the market impacts on a different group in society. In developing the action plan the Minister and I were acutely aware of the need to deal with each part of the housing system individually but also to address the interconnectivity and cross-dependencies in shaping an overall solution to build more homes. It is a whole-of-government process, into which every Department and agency is feeding. Everybody has been asked to buy into it and put his or her name to the actions to be taken.

Am I allowed to give way?

Most Members' contributions were to the effect that the plans are reasonable, they contain targets but can it happen. The difference between this plan and other plans is that it involves a whole-of-Government approach involving many Departments. It involves consultation with stakeholders, agencies and all the different players. That is the same process we followed in the Action Plan for Jobs process. Some Members will be familiar with that but others are not. The Action Plan for Jobs process worked. It set targets that nobody thought could be achieved, and it went way beyond those targets. Why did that happen? It was not because of magic by the Government but because there was buy-in by the private sector and all Departments. It became priority No. 1. Everybody's focus was on creating jobs and now, through this plan, everybody's focus is on building both social and private houses and finding solutions for people who are homeless and living in emergency accommodation. There is a focus and a drive and that is backed up with actions, timelines, ownership and real cash. That is why I have no doubt this plan can work. In fact, I believe it will go beyond its targets. We will monitor that and make an adjustment if needs be; it is an ongoing process. There are more ideas out there that we have not captured in this plan. We have to try to find them and include them also.

In taking this approach, we have the dual objective of repairing the broad housing system while at the same time providing real solutions for people. For this reason, I was most pleased with the responses to the plan that referenced the fact that, for the first time, Government was looking at housing in its entirety. That is really at the heart of this plan. It is all the solutions in one document containing approximately 84 actions. It is a focus that can make that happen.

To restore the housing system to a sustainable level we need to deal with all the component parts. We looked under the bonnet of each sector and market of housing and came up with key actions to help repair what is broken or what can be done more effectively in each. That is why we have the five pillars to set out the areas we will try to tackle in different ways.

On homelessness, we have set a clear target to have no families in hotels by mid-2017, except in very limited circumstances. I hope we will get ahead of that target but that is a realistic timeframe in which to address that and we will do it. We have to do it because it is not acceptable in this day and age to have families living in hotels and emergency bed and breakfast accommodation. It is not appropriate either to have homeless people living on the streets but there is a combination of reasons for that and different solutions required. Real involvement on the part of different Departments is required to address that, which we will do over time. The challenge in terms of ending people living in emergency accommodation is to provide alternatives and trebling the rapid build programme to 1,500 homes is the key action to make that happen. As I stated, it is an additional 200 this year, 800 next year and the rest the year after, so it will happen. We have learned from the initial process and we can make this happen much quicker.

In the meantime, we will ensure that services for families, and particularly children, in hotels and other emergency accommodation is far better including enhanced liaison on family support, child welfare and child protection, including family resource centres; access to early-years services; school completion programmes; enhanced locally available practical supports for daily family life; access to free public transport for family travel and for school journeys, which is essential; and practical supports and advice for good nutrition for those without access to cooking facilities. It is difficult to cover all the basics in one's own kitchen in terms of providing good food but we accept that it is even more difficult when one is living in a hotel.

The other side of this debate is people who are rough sleeping, which is often compounded and tied in with mental health and addiction issues. This is a complex area that requires co-operation with the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive and others. For that reason, we are trebling the funding for mental health and primary care services for homeless persons from €2 million to €6 million in budget 2017. That is an appropriate response to try to determine how we can help these people get into a position where they can live in a home with support, with sheltered support or on their own and try to deal with the various issues that add to their problems.

In examining the social failing that is homelessness, one point was made again and again - prevention is far better than cure. We are therefore targeting families and individuals worried about, or at risk of, being put out of their home or their rent agreement being finished - people who are worried that they will not have a roof over their heads. We will do that through an awareness campaign and the Tánaiste who is sitting beside me has brought forward a new facility, backed up with additional money and resources, to try to help people work through their arrears and mortgage difficulties, stay in their home and build more trust in that system. We will try to get people to engage with the banks. I am not saying the banks are saints but if someone will not engage it is difficult to help them. It is difficult even to pinpoint their bank for a solution if the person will not engage. We have to try to encourage that, and the efforts of the Tánaiste, through the service, are to encourage that engagement and work through solutions.

Our Department is in charge of the mortgage to rent scheme, which I believe has failed. I would have thought it was a solution for thousands of people. It has been tweaked in recent months. We will change it again. We have looked at new ideas and will try to bring in more investors' money as it is well to put more money in the pot. I believe that a new version of the scheme which we will roll out shortly containing new ideas can greatly impact on people and give them a choice, in terms of dealing with their arrears and a mortgage they might never be able to afford in the future, to stay in their home. In my view the scheme was not explained properly and if we believe in the scheme we should back it up. That will help many people deal with their problem of debt while staying in their home. I look forward to that working in a better way because I believe it is a solution that is appropriate and fair and protects the family home. I hope we will be able to work on that through the committees also in the weeks and months ahead.

The link between a lack of sufficient social housing and homelessness is clear. The lack of social housing options is also putting pressure on the rental sector, with one third of renters now supported by the State. Again, the target is very clear – 47,000 new social housing homes by 2021 at a cost of €5.35 billion.

I mentioned the figures earlier but it is worth clarifying them once and for all because there is confusion or doubt about them and I would hate for the wrong information to be given because it makes my life difficult when I am trying to get on a radio programme. On the money side, the Social Housing Strategy 2020, published in November 2014, committed to the delivery of some 35,600 social housing units in the period 2015 to 2020, supported by investment of some €3.8 billion.

The social housing element of Rebuilding Ireland - an Action Plan launched yesterday proposes a significantly increased level of ambition, aiming for the delivery of 47,000 social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisitions and leasing over the 2016 to 2021 period supported by an investment of €5.35 billion. A further €200 million is being provided for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund. The €5.35 billion investment proposed for the social housing area-----

The Minister of State said that with a straight face.

I am going through these figures. Does the Deputy not trust me? I spent a few hours on them to make sure I am right. The €5.35 billion investment proposed for the social housing area over the 2016-21 period comprises some €4.5 billion in capital funding and €844 million in support of programmes funded from current expenditure.

In terms of capital funding, the €4.5 billion being provided represents a very significant assignment of resources towards addressing housing needs. In summary, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has secured €2.2 billion extra money-----

-----I will say it three times if I have to - of the available €5 billion capital fiscal space over the 2017-21 period.

The Minister said that with a straight face too. Well done.

A total of €2 billion of this funding is being assigned to support the delivery of social housing. I am confident of those figures and have no doubt about them. I understand where there might be confusion, but the figure is right. It is new money. It is taxpayers' money. It is not my money or the Government's money but taxpayers' money being invested in a key way. The €200 million for the Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund is an important part of opening up sites for social housing but also for private housing. It is about getting the market moving and achieving delivery. This reflects a clear demonstration on the part of the Government of the high priority that it assigns on behalf of us all because the message is clear from everybody that we must spend money in regard to housing. I have no problem going through the figures at a later stage in committee because I have no doubt about them.

With regard to building more homes, when the housing market is working well, there is a good supply of a range of new and second-hand homes for purchase, which cater for the entire span of the market from starter homes upwards. Currently, we are producing half the 25,000 houses a year we need. Half of those are one-off rural houses so they are not where we need them in our main cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. In fairness, having worked with the Members and Senators and having met councillors I am aware there is a housing problem in all our towns and villages. It is prominent in our cities but it is evident now in all areas where people are waiting on homes.

Similarly, due to this shortage of new homes, the second-hand market is half what would normally be seen. The key graph on output is on page 30 of the plan if people want to analyse it. It shows output predictions with the various elements of the plan implemented versus "business as usual" without these measures. We believe that with the intervention in the plan we can double that figure up to 25,000 houses by 2019 and, I hope, increase it to 28,000 or 30,000 by 2021. There is no reason it cannot go even further if everybody here works on that because when Government intervenes and commits to actions and backs that up with money and a delivery unit the markets will react because we cannot beat competition. If we say we will build houses under a State plan-----

Minister, will you conclude your remarks, please?

----the Members will soon see action on the field next door. I believe this can work. I will not read the rest of the speech into the record but it is available if anyone wants to read it.

Give us the figures again.

This plan will work and, with the support of this House, it can get even better. I thank the Members.

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