Vol. 1032 No. 3
81. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the number of cost-rental homes delivered through the cost-rental equity loan in 2022; the number of cost-rental homes delivered by the Land Development Agency in 2022; and the number of affordable purchase homes delivered through the Affordable Housing Fund in 2022. [3842/23]
Is the Minister in a position to tell us the number of affordable homes delivered through the three principal public housing affordable schemes set up by his Department last year before the housing fund cost-rental equity loan and the Land Development Agency's Project Tosaigh?
As the Deputy will know, 2022 represented the commencement of a very ambitious programme of delivery of affordable homes under the provisions of the schemes which we introduced with the Affordable Housing Act 2021. This saw significant delivery of cost-rental homes by Approved Housing Bodies, AHBs, in particular through the cost-rental equity loan, the first cost-rental and affordable purchase homes also delivered through the Land Development Agency, LDA, and the first affordable homes for purchase made available via the first home scheme and, indeed, by our local authorities. This momentum will continue in 2023 with a pipeline of housing delivery in place and being developed by local authorities, by AHBs and by the LDA as well as homes being made available through the first home scheme. Local authorities have begun systematically collating information on delivery of affordable homes in their areas, including validated delivery from AHBs and the LDA, in the same manner as is currently done for social housing for submissions to my Department. We expect that in the coming weeks.
Separately, the first home scheme has confirmed it has issued more than 800 approvals to date on applications received from first-time buyers. Local authorities have been approved for affordable housing funding of more than €210 million for 42 projects across 15 local authorities which will assist in the delivery of more than 2,800 affordable homes for purchase or rent. The 2022 returns to which the Deputy refers are currently being prepared by the local authorities. Informed by returns of this data which is scheduled literally over the coming weeks, I expect that my Department will be in a position to report the confirmed 2022, not just affordable housing delivery, we will break it down by cost rental, affordable purchase and first home scheme, but also the delivery of 2022 social homes by the end of this quarter. I actually expect it by the end of February or early March.
The housing plan has an aggregate target for affordable homes for last year of 4,000 units, as the Minister knows. At no stage has the Minister provided Deputies with a breakdown of how many of those will be through affordable housing fund purchase, the cost-rental equity loan by AHBs, Project Tosaigh or, indeed, the very controversial shared equity loan.
It is not controversial.
As the Minister knows, the shared equity loan homes are not affordable. They are giving people an additional layer of debt but I do not want to have that debate today. What I want to know is what was delivered with the funding provided by the Minister to local authorities and AHBs? We know from the LDA’s website that Project Tosaigh delivered only 48 cost-rental homes last year. As of October only 300 cost-rental homes had been delivered by AHBs but that included the 35 delivered the previous year. On the basis of information I have, I suspect that not a single affordable home to purchase through the affordable housing fund was actually completed or purchased last year. We know, for example, that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in the brief to Deputy Paschal Donohoe when he became Minister stated that there would be fewer than 1,000 delivered. Is that the kind of ballpark figure the Minister expects when he gets the final figures from officials in the coming weeks?
We will not have the debate on the first home shared equity scheme today but it is equity that purchasers get and it is an extremely popular scheme that is working. As I said, more than 800 approvals have been made already to real households for real homes. That is good. We will break down that data when it is finalised. We will break it down between cost rental, affordable purchase through local authorities and Land Development Agency delivery as well. We are validating that data. We do not have the returns from every local authority area. I have given the Deputy the broad picture. We have a very good pipeline. The targets are without question challenging. They were challenging in 2022. The important thing is that we have proved the concept of cost rental in particular. We have hundreds of tenants in place already. When we have the data returns back in and fully collated and validated, we will certainly be publishing them in the detail requested by Deputy Ó Broin. It is important people see that and see the progress that has been made and where we need to fill further gaps as well. That will include such initiatives as Project Tosaigh. As the Deputy may know, we are looking at Project Tosaigh II returns right now, to which we have a good response.
My concern is twofold. With respect to the affordable housing fund purchases, in my own constituency homes were effectively completed midway through the year but because of disputes over legal contracts, they have not yet been purchased. We expect them to be purchased by February. That means those homes were not ready for occupation. In the Minister’s constituency, he launched affordable purchase homes in December. However, as at the start of January, those homes were not actually complete. Fingal County Council confirmed to me that they were practically complete but that utilities had not yet been connected and that was in the process of being resolved this month. In fact, the contracts have yet to be signed and will not be completed and ready for people to move in until February.
Likewise, the Minister has not proved the concept of cost rental. The LDA homes that were advertised under Project Tosaigh are coming in at rent of about €1,500. There are still no cost-rental units in the urban core where we need them. I suspect even when we see them in the urban core of Dublin that we will be looking at rents of between €1,600 and €1,900. Cost rental has to be affordable and €1,500 for a two-bedroom or three-bedroom unit outside Delgany is not an affordable rent. Therefore, as the Minister knows from his engagement with the AHBs, that scheme is in a bit of a crisis. Until we really grasp the issue of affordable cost rental, that scheme is going to run into huge problems not just in terms of the delivery last year but in the update of delivery this year and the year after.
The first cost-rental tenants are actually in place. I met many of those residents. They have long-term, secure tenures with below-market rent. The rent is calculated on the basis of covering the cost of the delivery and management of the development. We have set an income cap of €53,000 net for that scheme. I am looking at changes to the cost-rental scheme and we are working through that. Every single cost-rental development we have advertised has been oversubscribed by ten or 12 times.
It is a very popular form of tenure and it is working. We are not just talking about it and we actually have tenants in place in those areas.
In regard to affordable purchase, there were issues in regard to conveyancing and legal issues in particular with the first local authority affordable purchase homes being sold but they have all been rectified. That was something we discussed here before. On the specific scheme that the Deputy references in Fingal, my own area, there were some issues with utility connections through the ESB to be very frank. The developer, the local authority and the ESB worked very well to rectify those and residents were issued with an update on that two weeks ago. The homes are complete and the first residents are moving in.
82. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on the slow-down in the construction of social housing, and on the implications of this slowing-down for renters reliant on the housing assistance payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3749/23]
I ask for the Minister's views on the slowdown in the construction of social housing and the implications of this slowdown for renters reliant on the housing assistance payment, HAP, the repeated failure to meet housing targets for social homes for the past three years in a row and the implications this has for recipients of HAP in particular.
As the Deputy knows, Housing for All is our plan to increase the supply of housing across all tenures to an average of 33,000 homes per year. This includes the delivery of 90,000 social homes, 36,000 affordable purchase homes and 18,000 cost rental homes, so it is a very ambitious and badly needed programme. Housing for All is supported by an investment package of over €4 billion per year, through an overall combination of €12 billion in direct Exchequer funding, €3.5 billion in funding through the Land Development Agency and €5 billion of funding through the Housing Finance Agency.
We all know there were significant challenges to delivery in 2022 due to significant construction inflation, rising energy costs and supply chain difficulties. Nevertheless, local authorities and our partners in the approved housing bodies have worked very hard to maximise delivery throughout 2022. My Department will be preparing delivery statistics based on returns from the local authorities in the coming weeks so I do not yet have final output figures – I outlined the position to Deputy Ó Broin on the affordable side. However, I expect that when figures are collated, we will see higher numbers of social houses delivered this year than in many years. This is for new builds and there is also lease and acquisition, although we are phasing out leasing. The figure will be substantially higher than the figure referred to in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform briefing document, and I know the Taoiseach has also said that.
It is also clear that a strong pipeline for social housing has been established. The construction status report for quarter 3 of 2022 showed there were 9,115 social homes under construction at the end of September 2022 and a further 13,709 homes at various stages of design and procurement. In 2022, we also delivered significant additional homes through targeted leasing and the acquisition programmes, such as purchase for tenants in situ, with which all Deputies agree and which we want to ramp up further. These are all available to be allocated to households on the social housing waiting lists. The statistics for quarter 4 will set out details on all delivery streams and will be published in the coming weeks. I will be coming before the Oireachtas joint committee on that.
We all await those figures for quarter 4 with great interest. I agree with the Minister and I have raised many times the need to ramp up the tenant in situ scheme, and I think there is cross-party agreement on that. However, listening to the figures that the Minister is giving and looking at the Housing Commission report today, it is hard to see the value of the targets being set by the Government at this stage, particularly when we are so unclear about whether they are being met. The Minister gave a figure of 9,000 under construction at the end of quarter 3 of 2022 but the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is estimating only 6,500 social homes were completed in 2022, some 2,500 fewer than the initial target.
Speaking of targets, as recently as ten days ago, the Taoiseach seemed to announce arbitrarily an increase in the Housing for All target, from the average that the Minister has given of 33,000 homes to 40,000. I know our housing spokesperson, Senator Rebecca Moynihan, at the time said it seemed the Taoiseach was plucking figures from the air in terms of targets. Can the Minister say for sure that these targets are valid, particularly as the Housing Commission has now said Ireland needs between 42,000 and 60,000 new homes per year? How can we rely on targets?
The targets under Housing for All are set out year on year. They were set based on very detailed research and input from the sector. It is about building the capacity within the sector to deliver the homes that we need, doing things better and having more people in construction to build the homes we need. We have had about ten to 12 years of significant under-delivery across all tenures but if we look at 2020 and 2021, in those years there were just over 20,000 new builds. Obviously, that was impacted by Covid and two construction shutdowns. I would expect we will substantially exceed our overall Housing for All target of 24,600 for this year and we will have CSO figures very shortly in that regard. We need to ramp that up. These are baseline targets. Last year, 2022, we had a target of 24,600 and I would expect us to exceed that quite substantially. This year the target is 29,000 and I want to exceed that too. I will come back in my supplementary reply with regard to the Housing Commission.
Listening again to the points about targets, the Minister acknowledged there has been under-delivery for years. The reality is that no matter what targets are set and what figures the Government gives, the experience of people who approach my office and the offices of other Members every day is that they simply cannot find homes, particularly people seeking help to find a social home. It is heartbreaking to tell them their position on the social housing list and to tell them about the lack of capacity in the system to deliver their housing needs.
I want to come back to HAP again because the reality is that many of those on HAP should be provided with social housing instead, and I think there is cross-party agreement on that. When we look at the figures that were paid out on HAP even last year, they are staggering figures that should instead be put into the delivery of social and affordable homes. Many of those on HAP are competing with other renters in the private sector in trying to find somewhere to rent and, in the meantime, HAP is subsidising private landlords. There is a lack of logic to the current system, with huge amounts of money being spent yet a failure to deliver the homes that people need.
I will use an example. In 2021, the last full year for which we have published figures, we had just over 5,000 new-build social homes but, overall, just over 9,000. We need to do more than that. In 2022, we set a target of 10,500 overall and we will be very close to that, and the figures on new builds will greatly exceed the figure the Deputy referenced from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, and I can give Deputies an assurance on that.
With regard to HAP, it supports about 60,000 tenancies and, of course, the people in those homes. I am no great fan of HAP but it is a necessity right now as we are building more social homes to transition people out. Over the last few years, we have reduced the level of funding available for new tenancies, so we are reducing that dependence. However, we cannot pull the plug on HAP overnight or what would happen to the 60,000 households? What we have to do is ramp up that social housing new-build delivery. In this quarter, we will have the final figures for that delivery. Even in the difficult year of 2022, there will be a substantial increase and I can confidently say we will have delivered more social homes in 2022 than we have done in decades. That is a good basis to work on and to ramp it up further from that.
83. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will provide an update on the regulations for and the opening of the enhanced defective concrete block redress scheme. [3597/23]
I ask the Minister to give us an update on the regulations underpinning the enhanced defective block remediation scheme for homeowners in Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick and an estimated date for when this new scheme will be open for homeowners in Donegal and Mayo and also for those in Clare, Limerick and other counties.
It is a very important scheme. I am glad the Deputy referenced that it is an enhanced scheme, an improved scheme on what was there before. We all know its purpose, which is to remediate dwellings damaged by the use of defective concrete blocks. We passed the Act to implement and give legislative underpinning to a series of measures to improve and greatly enhance the current grant scheme and that was agreed by Government on 30 November 2021. The 2022 Act will be commenced once the related regulations have been finalised.
To get to the nub of the question, draft regulations have been prepared and will be the subject of consultation with key stakeholders before the regulations are finalised and adopted in early 2023. The draft regulations have been with the four local authorities to seek their feedback. It is intended that the consultation with key stakeholders, which will be conducted by the appointed homeowners liaison officer, will commence next week with the homeowners themselves through John O’Connor, and that will go through the draft regulations with the groups. The regulations will provide for detailed matters within the 2022 Act which are to be prescribed, for example, the grant rates, the damage threshold and the form and content of various reports, certificates, forms and declarations: basically, the working of the scheme.
The grant rates to be included in the final regulations will be based on the regional construction costs for 2023. That is something we debated before. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland is doing that work and we said we would review it. Thankfully, we are doing this because we have seen quite sizeable construction and materials inflation in that period. That work is being done by the SCSI. Pending the opening of the enhanced scheme - it is important people know this - applications can continue to be made to the relevant local authorities. I am glad to tell Deputies we have seen a significant increase, particularly in Donegal, in applications being submitted and being processed. I am seeking that we get to a position where we will be able to provide a monthly report on the progress with this. People are engaging with this. I would like to inform Deputy Ó Broin that we will have consultation next week with the homeowners and we will receive their feedback. We aim to have the regulations published by the end of February, subject to the feedback that we get from homeowners, because we want their input into this.
I thank the Minister for his reply. My understanding is that of the four local authorities which received the draft regulations at the end of last year, the one in Donegal is refusing to give the Minister’s Department a formal comment because it is not allowed to discuss the regulations with its elected members. I welcome the fact the Minister has asked the SCSI to update the unit-square metre cost but I understand that for Mayo and Donegal, it will not be completed until the end of February, and for County Clare, it will not be completed until April. That means the final regulations are unlikely to be concluded until March for the first two counties, and May for the second two counties. The local authorities will require at least two to three months to get their systems in place, which means people will not be able to either apply to the new scheme or be transferred to the new scheme until June at the earliest for Donegal and Mayo, and August for Clare and Limerick. If any of that is incorrect or different from the Minister’s own expectations, please let me know.
As the Minister knows, there is considerable anger in the counties affected by defective blocks because the scheme that we have all worked together on for a long time with regard to building defects has an element of retrospection, which is something that was denied to folks with defective blocks. There are also no caps where full 100% redress is intended to be provided for building defects. That, again, is something that is not in the legislation in regard to defective blocks. Will the Minister revisit those two key issues, namely, retrospection and full 100% redress for the families affected by the defective blocks in all counties?
In the first instance, I would like to inform the Deputy that we have to work through this, and I believe people will understand the regulations are important to underpin the scheme and its operation. There is no pause on applications coming through. Anyone who applies to the previous scheme will get the uplift of the new scheme and, thankfully, people are applying and we are seeing an increase in applications. The Housing Agency has boots on the ground in Donegal, with a specific team there. It is also providing advice. I have received feedback from three of the four local authorities. Just in the past week, I wrote again to Donegal County Council and we will be meeting with it. It is important we have its input into this but that is not going to delay people accessing, applying or, most importantly, getting applications approved.
On the two specific points raised by the Deputy, the enhanced defective concrete block scheme we have has a cap of €420,000. We are revising the costs within that, independently with the SCSI, which I said I would do. That will cover 99% of homeowners. The average cost in respect of the apartment defects, as the Deputy is aware, is on or around €25,000. It is a different scheme.
In the area of retrospection, however, or costs already incurred, I intend to include a provision for that in the regulations on the basis of certified work. The work has to certified.
Is that for defective blocks?
Yes, it is for defective blocks and I want to be very clear on that. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, in particular, has been in contact with me, as have other interested Deputies, on that point. I believe there will be a very small number of homeowners in the affected regions who have had work completed. It will have to be certified and invoiced appropriately, etc., for it to access the scheme but I intend that will be part of the regulations we publish.
Importantly, when these regulations are published, the joint Oireachtas committee will have full sight of them and we will work through the scheme. Nobody should stop making an application. Homes have been remediated already in Mayo and in Donegal and that continues to be the case.
The Minister, I suppose, is right that people can continue to apply but, as we know, there is a very significant number of people, particularly in Donegal, who are not able to get through stage 1. Part of that is because of the restrictions on IS 465. From what our committee was told, it is unlikely completion of the review or changes to the scheme, in respect of the National Standards Authority of Ireland's work, will be completed this year. That means many people who have already applied to the scheme will not be able to progress until the enhanced scheme is open and transferred to the Housing Agency.
Obviously, we do not know what the new square metre or square foot rates are but under the old rates in the legislation, many homeowners have told us, at the committee and in correspondence, that even where they had modest-sized family homes of 80 sq. m or 90 sq. m, they would be short €30,000, €40,000 and €50,000. Obviously, I will wait to see the SCSI's rates to see if that is rectified. Can the Minister confirm that more than 90% of the people who apply under the enhanced defective block scheme will get 100% like-for-like remediation? Can he also confirm what the timeline will be for the retrospection in terms of how far back he will go with the certified works for defective block homeowners?
With regard to certified works, works which have been done already and on the retrospective element of that, we will look at the date. We will be flexible and we will do that in consultation with representatives. It is only fair and proper that we do that and it will be a very small number of properties.
Just to let the Deputy know, we have had 150 applications in Donegal which have been processed and have gone through the stages since December. We have also provided assistance there to ensure people’s applications are actually processed. Homes are now being remediated but we want to see that stepped-up significantly.
The objective of the enhanced defective concrete block scheme passed by the Dáil is to provide 100% redress to people and to cover the costs they have incurred through no fault of their own to get their homes and lives back. I am confident we will be able to do that. We needed to set up the scheme in primary legislation, which we knew. As I said, the regulations are coming down the track shortly. I expect it will be by the end of February. There will not be any delay in accessing it because people who accessed the old scheme and applied for it will get the uplift of the enhanced scheme. There is the administrative work-----
That is except for those who are stalled, that is, the 500 who are stalled at stage 1.
There is not quite 500 of those.
It is just shy of 500.
Local authorities have asked the Housing Agency to look through those cases. If we had accepted the views of some others in the Opposition to wait until IS 465 was fully interrogated, we would not have the scheme up and running now. It is important it is and that it is there. We will take on board the feedback we get and the research done on IS 465, which we will look at and share with Deputies also. It is moving now and that is a good thing.
84. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage why his Department failed to spend its 2022 capital allocation for new build housing; the action he will take to ensure this does not happen in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3828/23]
Close to €1 billion was allocated for capital spending to the Department of Housing, Local Government, and Heritage was not spent as originally allocated in 2022. How much of the unspent capital housing budget was surrendered back to central Government by the end of 2022?
I thank the Deputy for his question. Budget 2022 provided record levels of investment to support housing programmes, levels which we have not seen before, including for the delivery of increased levels of social and affordable homes. Exchequer funding of €4 billion was made available, comprising €2.6 billion in capital and €1.4 billion in current funding. Additional capital funding was available through the Housing Finance Agency and the Land Development Agency.
As I have already stated publicly, my Department put arrangements in place to carry over the full 10% capital allocation from 2022 to 2023. This amounted to €340 million and the detail of the allocation of that funding was published in the 2023 Revised Estimates Volume, REV. Section 91 of the Finance Act 2004 provides for the carry over of up to 10% of the REV allocation, which is the capital, from one year to the next. The capital carry over is a practice which is used across Departments to ensure the continuity of funding for capital projects.
As Deputy O'Callaghan is no doubt aware, the impact of the war in Ukraine has genuinely presented significant challenges as we faced high levels of construction inflation, significant increases in energy costs and issues with the supply chains. These are just facts and, in particular, there was an issue around supply chains for building material. These issues caused delays in some large social housing projects as contractors faced concerns that the costs of delivering the projects exceeded prices agreed under public works contracts.
To address some of these challenges, in May 2022 the Government responded with the introduction of the inflation and supply chain delay co-operation framework.
That framework allowed for the payment of up to 70% of the increased costs to contractors by local authorities, with detailed guidance provided to support its implementation. Delivery recovered very strongly in the second half of the year, as I said it would and as was anticipated. However, the delays encountered meant some projects did not progress as expected during 2022. This in turn reduced somewhat the levels of capital claims received by the Department from local authorities.
It is quite incredible that this Government is using cost inflation to justify an underspend of almost €1 billion on the original allocations. I asked the Minister how much of the unspent capital housing budget was surrendered back to central government at the end of 2022. He did not answer that at all in his reply so let me help him. A total of €337 million that was allocated to local authorities to build homes was reallocated elsewhere, including to pay down local authority debt. A further €340 million was carried forward into 2023 and, according to December's Fiscal Monitor, at the end of 2022, a further €249 million was not spent, of which €231 million was on the capital side. That is a total of €926 million that was not spent but carried over, reallocated or surrendered back to the central Exchequer. How can the Minister stand over such a huge underspend in the middle of a housing disaster?
I will refer to a couple of the examples used by the Deputy. He mentioned the paying down of local authority debt. Does he know why they are doing that? There are encumbered sites throughout this country that have not been able to be developed for the social housing the Deputy says he wants because the local authorities have been carrying a very significant debt, some of them for up to two decades. We have used that reallocation to local authorities on the basis that they will deliver and start to build on 38 different sites we have identified throughout the country. These are for much-needed, additional social and, in some instances, affordable homes. We have already engaged with local authorities on that.
There is a reality behind what the Deputy said about not hiding behind cost inflation or issues we have with the supply chain. Will we just forget the fact there was a reality in April, May and June of last year regarding difficulties getting product and material, which have slowed down some projects that will be delivered in 2023 as opposed to 2022, hence the capital carryover? The Government has to live in the real world too. We cannot just wish these things away and that issues do not happen. We have not had a clear picture this year or last year, but in 2022, we will deliver more new-build social homes than we have done in decades. I expect that at the time we announce those figures, the Deputy will be the first to welcome them.
I do not need to tell the Minister that, in the real world, under his position and tenure, rents, house prices, the number of people in their 20s and 30s still living in their childhood bedrooms, and homelessness are at record levels. Under his tenure, we now also have a record level of the housing budget's capital spend not being spent and being reallocated, sent back to the Exchequer or carried over. That is some level of records.
On paying down local authority debt, the Minister knows that money was allocated to build real homes that people were meant to move into this year. Instead, some of it was diverted to paying down loans. If that was such a good idea, why did he not decide to do it at the start of the year? He decided to do it towards the end of the year, when he was failing to spend the money he was allocated to build homes. What will he do to ensure this not happen again? Every year he has been Minister, hundreds of millions of euro have been carried over into the following year, which were meant to be spent building homes.
On the delivery of our affordable housing programme, I remind the Deputy that he and his party voted against the Affordable Housing Act. For the very people who are living with their folks-----
It was a flawed Bill.
-----later than they would like to, we have now provided avenues for them to get into home ownership. That is why 16,700 first-time buyers were able to buy their own homes in the past 12 months, many of them through the first home scheme, which had more than 800 approvals. Again, the Deputy's party opposed that scheme. Many of them used the help-to-buy grant that gives them €30,000 of their own tax back, which, again, the Deputy opposed. He cannot have it both ways. We will never turn this around-----
Will you answer my question about capital underspend?
-----in a year or two years. However, I am pleased to say to the Deputy that we will quite significantly exceed the target of 24,600 in overall delivery set for 2022, which is a big step up from the previous year. We have a very good pipeline for 2023. We will deliver more new-build social homes in 2022 than we have done in decades.
I am fully open to criticism. That is what I would expect from the Opposition and that is fine. However, some constructive criticism and acknowledging progress is also important, as is acknowledging the Deputy's position that any of this significant legislation we have brought forward to enable people to buy their own homes-----
The Government did not accept our amendments.
-----or to build on State-owned land, such as that in respect of the Land Development Agency, was again opposed by him.
You mean compulsory purchase order powers.
The Government has not built a single house-----
I know what Deputy O'Callaghan is against-----
-----four years later.
-----but I have no idea what he and his party are for.
85. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage further to Question No. 89 of 30 November 2022 and Question No. 60 of 28 September 2022, if he has received the report in respect of 2021 and 2022 to date from the Galway social housing task force; if so, if he will provide a copy of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3857/23]
Baineann mo cheist leis an tascfhórsa, a cuireadh tús leis, breis is trí bliana ó shin i nGaillimh. Cá bhfuil na tuarascálacha maidir le 2021 agus 2022? My question relates to the task force that was set up more than three years ago in Galway because of the housing emergency there. Three years later, that task force still rumbles on. I have before me my last communication to the Minister in March 2021, which related to 2020. Where are we now?
I will come back to the real world for the Minister in respect of the Simon report.
I thank the Deputy. I have not received the report referred to in my reply to Question No. 89 of 30 November 2022. I understand it is in preparation but the public housing delivery outputs for 2022 are currently being validated for all local authorities, including for both Galway councils. This information will be important for the report's completion. I anticipate this report will cover the activity of the task force over 2021 and 2022. I will make it available to the Deputy when it is received by me. The Galway housing task force continues to provide a valuable focus for social and affordable housing delivery across the two Galway local authorities as well as related challenges such as homelessness. We anticipate we will have the report referred to by Deputy Connolly early in 2023. It will be delivered to the Minister. I understand the Deputy's frustration but the commitment has been given that, once the Minister has received the report, it will be given to her more or less straight away.
Déanaim comhghairdeas leis an Aire Stáit as a fhreagra díreach agus ionraic. I thank him for his straight and direct response. We are talking about a city where a task force was set up in 2019 and where the Simon report - unfortunately, the Minister has had to step out - tells us about the lived experience of real people. Can he imagine that rents have gone up 24% in County Longford, 20% in counties Roscommon, Leitrim and Cavan, and more than 14% in County Galway? That 14% is staggering in itself. We have a city where no houses are available under the housing assistance payment, HAP, or even under the discretionary payments. We have a serious housing crisis, a list that is as long as your arm and all we have is a twisting of language.
A task force was set up under the able stewardship of Ms Geraldine Tallon, who has pointed out a number of things, but there are no reports. The task force was under obligation to give an annual report on what it identified as the blocks in Galway.
It would have been expected that we would have received the report for 2021 in 2022. That has not happened. We are where we are. I will follow up with the task force on the matter of the report being with us. We are now in the first month of 2023. The report will be received by me by the first quarter but I will certainly follow up to make certain it is expedited. We are looking to deliver housing nationwide, but the Deputy's case of Galway city and county is a particular priority for the Government. The starting base is the need to get the report finalised and submitted to us and the Minister. That report will then be made available to the Deputy.
I will correct what I said. Rents have risen by 16.4% in County Galway. This is the Simon Community's 28th report - it has been published every quarter over seven years - which gives us a snapshot over a three-day period. What does it tell us? No properties are available under HAP, which is the big scheme in town that Deputy Bacik deplored earlier. She forget to say, however, that HAP was the turning point in housing policy, when Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party stated that HAP was the only game in town and removed people from the housing waiting list.
I welcome the Minister's comment that he is not happy with HAP, even if he says we cannot get rid of it overnight. We have to recognise that was the crucial turning point in the commodification and privatisation of housing. That is what happened. It was back to a task force. A task force was set up. Surely it has a job to do in a limited time, that is, to focus on the emergency and to come up with a report. Instead, it appears to have become part of the establishment, and I say that reluctantly, when the manager and the management should be doing their job, highlighting if there is not enough money, coming back to the Government and giving us a master plan for Galway to sort out the housing problem.
I reiterate that that report is imminent. The report for 2021 should have been delivered in 2022. Both respective managers of Galway City Council and Galway County Council will give an update to their members at the next local authority meeting. More particularly, we will follow up to make sure this report is finalised with immediate effect - at the very latest by the end of the first quarter, although I think we can get it quicker - and that we can implement its recommendations. They must be practical in orientation.
The Deputy spoke about HAP. One of the developments the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has brought in is that the houses of HAP tenants can now be purchased by the council. That is a positive measure.
86. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he plans to extend the moratorium on certain evictions after 31 March 2022; the other measures he will put in place to stop the flow of people into homelessness; if those measures will include an increase in the number of Part V property bought, allowing councils and approved housing bodies, AHBs, to buy homes where people have a notice to quit and would be eligible for cost rental, and accelerating the programme to bring vacant homes back into use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3875/23]
This is a priority question and the senior Minister is not here, which I find unacceptable.
On Friday week I will accompany to the court Jackie and her husband - he has worked all his life for a State company and they have two kids - for a case involving an enforcement order, following which they will most likely be evicted from their home having done nothing wrong. Because they are slightly over the income threshold, they are not entitled to HAP or social housing and are expected to live in their car in a couple of weeks' time. Added to that can be Tathony House, with 35 residents facing eviction, and Rathmines Road, with about a dozen facing eviction. All this is happening and the Government continues to allow families and working people - decent people who have done nothing wrong - to be evicted into homelessness. What will the Government do to stop this shameful scandal?
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist seo.
The aim of the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 is to afford time for housing supply to increase and to reduce the burden on homelessness services and the pressure on tenants and the residential tenancies market. To assist in managing demands on housing services after the winter emergency period and to ensure there is no cliff-edge impact on 1 April, the Act provides for deferred notices of termination to take effect on a phased basis over the period from 1 April to 18 June 2023. The Act has been carefully calibrated to limit its interference with landlords' constitutional property rights. As a further emergency measure, the Minister has written to local authority chief executives informing them of a decision to continue, for the duration of the winter emergency period and up to the end of the transition period in June 2023, with the delegated sanction of purchasing homes where the tenant is at risk of homelessness.
Ultimately, increased supply across all tenures is key to eradicating homelessness. Housing supply is increasing under Housing for All. Record State investment of €4.5 billion will be made available in 2023 to support the largest State home building programme ever, with 9,100 direct-build social homes and 5,500 affordable homes.
Due to the provisions of the scheme, cost rental does not facilitate the purchase of individual second-hand properties, with capital expenditure focused on acquisition and development of additional new units to help increase overall housing stock. In line with Government commitments, the Affordable Housing Act 2021 will increase Part V provision from 10% for social housing to a mandatory 20% for social, affordable and cost-rental housing requirements.
I will come back in with a supplementary response to the specifics of the question.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. This is the problem when the senior Minister is not here: we just get script. No disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, but that is the problem. None of what he said stops the cliff edge Jackie, her husband and their two kids face in being evicted next Friday from the home in which they have lived all their lives, and this during what is supposedly a moratorium on such evictions. That is what is happening in reality. What the Minister of State said does not stop the stress the 35 residents and families with kids and so on in Tathony House face as their landlord tries to drum them all out from the places where they have lived. All of them paid their rent and never did anything wrong and they are being chucked out on the street. Then there is Rathmines Road.
The Government needs to say clearly that people who pay their rent and have done nothing wrong will not end up in homeless accommodation. That can be done by banning such evictions and by having a clear policy whereby the State will step in and buy properties where landlords are exiting the market, regardless of whether those tenants' incomes are slightly over an income threshold - an arbitrary, cliff-edge income threshold, to use the term the Minister of State has just used.
I am not familiar with the specifics of the cases the Deputy has raised. If he would bring them forward to us, it would be useful.
While there are no further proposals in respect of the extension of the current moratorium, the Department is keeping this under constant review and our Department has commenced work on an overall review of the private rented sector, as committed to under a review of Housing for All, which was published last November.
As for acquisitions and support to prevent homelessness, the Department is supporting local authorities to acquire homes for social houses for priority purposes, including acquisitions which support a household to exit homelessness or appropriate acquisitions with tenants in situ to prevent homelessness. There is a suite of measures in that regard but, again, I am not familiar with the specific cases the Deputy raises. If he would bring them-----
I know the Minister of State is not, but the Minister is. Jackie and her husband, who, I repeat, works for a State company, with their two kids have written to the Minister, to the Taoiseach and to everybody. They have written to Frank Curran, the head of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. They are over the income threshold, so none of the things the Minister of State said will help them. Jackie and her family cry themselves to sleep every night and they are going to be living in a car because they have nowhere to go, no HAP and no support. Then there are the families in Tathony House and Rathmines Road, all facing the prospect of ending up on the street because there is nowhere to go.
There needs to be a clear policy whereby people who have paid their rent and have done nothing wrong will not end up in emergency accommodation or in a car. That has to be the policy. The State must step in even if a person's income is slightly over the threshold. Cost rental is a recognition that people who are not eligible for social housing still cannot afford market prices. Therefore, the State needs to step in in those cases as well and there needs to be a clear imperative that it will do so. Why would the Government let people become homeless? It will have to pay for and deal with the consequences of that. Why would it not do everything to stop that?
The State is intervening at an unprecedented scale in dealing with the homelessness crisis and the issues of residential tenancies.
Specifically, our Department is reviewing the case to which the Deputy refers. I give that assurance to the Deputy. So far I cannot speak any further to it but it is under review.
