Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 May 2018
32. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the spending by Galway City Council on emergency accommodation from 2015 to 2017 and to date in 2018; the nature of the emergency accommodation; the locations of the emergency accommodation; if the accommodation is provided directly; if not, the names of the agencies providing the accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19831/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraIf the Minister wants an example of how out of control the market is and the emergency being created, he should look at Galway city. My question is on emergency accommodation but I will preface it by pointing out that today the students in Galway are protesting because they have been subjected to an 18% increase in their lease for the coming year. As they enter the exam period, they have been told that they have to come up with an extra €1,000 for a nine month lease for next year. That is a symptom of the market.
Another symptom is the cost of homelessness services. At the beginning of May, there were 190 homeless people in Galway. What has been the cost to the State of housing our homeless people in 2015, 2016, 2017 and to date in 2018? I want to bring clarity to the situation in Galway.
On the issue of student accommodation, many changes have been made in that area since Rebuilding Ireland was launched. It is an issue of supply, like every other form of housing. We are intervening in the area of supply and are attempting to dramatically increase the amount of student accommodation. I do not have the specific figures for Galway because it was not part of the Deputy's original question, but I am happy to engage with her on the issue. We are trying to put our educational stakeholders in a better position so that housing can be delivered. Student accommodation must be sorted out, but it also reflects the overall housing market.
Exchequer funding is provided to housing authorities on a regional basis towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services. Under the funding arrangements, housing authorities must provide at least 10% of the cost of services from their own resources. Housing authorities may also incur additional expenditure on homelessness-related services outside the funding arrangements with my Department. Therefore, the exact amounts spent by housing authorities on homeless services, as well as the types of accommodation and the service providers engaged, are a matter for those authorities, as are many such contractual issues.
Galway city and county is included in the west region, along with counties Mayo and Roscommon, for the purposes of homelessness administration, with Galway city as the lead authority for the region. Reflecting the position at national level, the funding provided to the western region has been increased significantly in recent years from €1.7 million in 2015 to €2.37 million in 2016 and €3.79 million in 2017. To date in 2018, just under €100,000 has been drawn down by the western region, and I expect this to increase significantly in the coming months. In this regard, my Department has advised the region, and all regions, that funding will be provided for all required homeless services as the year progresses.
It is difficult to digest those figures, but I note the significant increase over a number of years. I mentioned the students because that is the latest symptom of an out of control market. The Minister of State has as much information as I have; the students are protesting because they are being subjected to an increase of €1,000. Can the Minister of State imagine that?
Homelessness is the most acute problem in Galway. The Minister of State is fully aware that not one social house has been built in Galway since 2009. It is clear from the figures from the Department that none was built last year. Galway distinguishes itself by being bottom of the league. It acquired seven houses; the lowest number in the country.
Is this just a complete inability to deal with a problem or is it a refusal to accept that the market will not provide?
I am asking the Minister of State about this matter again. I know it is difficult to hear these figures. In the context of emergency accommodation and the significant increase, I can tell the Minister of State that people are now in a situation whereby they are getting respite in apartments for a week or two in order that they can feed their newborn babies. They then have to go back to single rooms in hotels. That is the level to which the emergency service has been reduced. The Minister of State indicated that the Department spent €3.7 million in 2017. Does it not occur to him that he needs to go down to Galway on a regular basis, haul the local authorities over the coals and ask what land they have, why they are not using it and why they are not building?
I thank Deputy Connolly. That is exactly what we are doing. She will be familiar with this. I have visited Galway City Council and Galway County Council to discuss on a number of occasions. The Minister has also gone to Galway on several occasions and has visited some of the emergency accommodation provision being funded by means of the taxpayer's money paid to all the different service providers at local level.
It is fair to say that there is serious pressure in Galway city and county. There is no mistaking the figures; they are very clear. This year, 145 new social homes will be delivered into the system. The target for the next three or four years is 1,089. We expect Galway city to treat that as a minimum and we have told the council that very clearly. We are going site by site and road by road in order to try to see what we can do to remove barriers and deliver accommodation much earlier. There are a number of schemes in the system. However, these are not sufficient to deal with difficulties that exist in Galway, which is a major pressure area. It will be getting major attention within the Department. The Minister, the social housing delivery team and I will be down there on a regular basis, visiting all the different sections, to ensure that the needs of Galway are addressed. Last year, through the benefit of the housing assistance payment scheme, more than 764 housing solutions were found. That will not be nearly enough to deal with the emergency, so I will be working with the authorities this year and next year as well. There are opportunities in Galway. We have made the resources available and we have made it very clear that we will do whatever it takes to move matters forward. We want this to be addressed.
I appreciate that the Minister of State is taking it seriously, but we are reliant on the market. He accepts that not a single house has been constructed. As a result, we are utterly reliant on the market. When the Simon Community carried out its snapshot study, Locked Out of the Market X, in March, it indicated that there were very few properties available for rent in Galway. In fact, the study identified 15 such properties. That is all that was available in the three days of the study. In the month overall, there were 28 properties. In addition, the Government is totally reliant on housing assistance payment, the residential accommodation scheme and the long-term leasing. None of those schemes come next or near prices in Galway, all of which was set out in the Simon report. Even with the discretionary payment of 20%, people cannot get a home to rent in Galway. Besides the fact that we have created the problem, the Government is making it worse by not building. What is wrong with Galway City Council or with the Department? Where does the problem lie? Galway City Council bought a lot of land at huge prices when I was a member. It has been zoned for residential use and it is not being used. I understand that two thirds of the residential land has been set aside because of a proposed road which, if it goes ahead, will not be built until the mid 2020s. Two thirds of the residential land has been sterilised. Can the Minister of State tell me I am wrong about that?
Deputy Connolly is well informed at a local authority level because she has her own connections there. It is true to say that some of the land that Galway city owns is sterile because of a route selection. That project is going to be happening quite soon, which will deal with that part and which will open up the town. We have asked the council to bring forward plans for that land or, if necessary, for alternative land. We said we would work with the authority on purchasing new sites as well. We have gone through all the different areas, site by site. We have arrived at some solutions to bring forward some housing earlier.
To be clear, we have looked at Galway city and County Galway. There are difficulties with both, and there is a line on the map that separates the two. In other initiatives, in Cork and other places, we have managed to make this work through a combination of local authorities. We both think that a similar approach, namely, for the Department to work with the two Galway local authorities to bring housing solutions forward, might be appropriate. We will deal with this by taking the line off the map. There are potential solutions with which we can work. Through taxpayers' money allocated by our Department and this Government, the funding to address this is available. The supply issue is a major difficulty in Galway, for both private and public accommodation. There is very little private sector development. We will work with all our abilities to try to make this happen. We are looking at a new approach to making this happen a little bit quicker, because it is a priority area. It is an area that we want addressed and the resources are there to do it. There is a difficulty with land but not with all of the sites. We will deal with it on a site-by-site basis and we will find solutions as we go along.
