Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak. The fact we are having this discussion at all means there is at last some recognition of the need to address the whole issue of not just homelessness but housing supply and the dearth of housing. It is incredible to think a previous environment Minister, Mr. Dick Roche, from my constituency, went on the television one day to say, "Hopefully, we will build 80,000 houses this year". The problem was we were building them poorly, in the wrong places and they were costing too much.

It beggars belief that we should have a discussion about homelessness or a shortage of housing, but we do. In 2010, that much maligned organisation, the Construction Industry Federation, conducted a survey which showed that Limerick city, followed by Wicklow, Kildare, Limerick county, Cork city and Waterford, had the least amount of reserve housing stock available outside Dublin, and it flagged there was going to be a problem. It was okay when the letting market was depressed but, as it has risen and new family formations have come on board, it is apparent that, while we are after spending the last two or three weeks talking about one particular matter, we should be focusing on this issue. This is the big crisis that is coming and we need to address it urgently.

I welcome the initiatives the Government has taken. I understand that nothing can happen immediately, with the exception of a few measures such as turning around vacant stock that needs to be put back into the system, for which €15 million has been made available. In addition, there is the possibility for local authorities to lease or purchase property and there is the option of allowing voluntary housing agencies to provide some housing. However, the big problem, which I see in Wicklow and know is the same in the areas around the greater urban settlements, is that there are not enough houses becoming available. It is a banking issue, a confidence issue and a matter of getting the whole system cranked up again. Unless we do that, we are going to be firefighting for the next four or five years and we will not sort out the dearth of housing.

On homelessness itself, the fact the Minister of State will have a co-ordinated approach to this is very welcome. It is estimated that somewhere between €75 million and €80 million is spent each year on homelessness initiatives and supports between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, through the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan's office, and the HSE. That is a huge amount of money spent every year for a comparatively small cohort of people in the national context. It would seem a lot more sensible if we were to try to divert 10% of that. I acknowledge that, as the Minister of State said in opening the discussion, some 1,500 people have moved from the homeless services in Dublin in the past two years, with all the necessary supports, which is to be welcomed. However, it would be best if a percentage of that €75 million-odd was diverted into targeted initiatives to provide long-term housing supports to get people out of homelessness and to move away from high-cost sheltered accommodation.

The Minister of State is aware of the grave concerns I have had about an initiative Dublin Simon has put into Wicklow, where it seems there was no consultation with the local drugs task force and no proper tender process. It is very precious about giving out information about consulting with the local community and seems to be using it as some sort of means of drawing down State funding, although I hate to use those terms. While I could be wrong, I certainly have grave concerns about it.

This issue needs a multi-agency approach. To be fair, the Minister of State has started in the right vein by creating the homelessness oversight group, but it will need other Departments involved, in particular the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Finance and Social Protection. There is a situation in Wicklow, which also affects other areas, where rent supplement has gone down in a situation of diminishing availability of stock, and where there is a natural prejudice against rent supplement clients because landlords can get more in the open market. I know of one case of a single parent with two children aged 11 and five, one of whom has severe autism. She has always paid but because the rent supplement is going down, the landlord has no choice but to ask her to leave. It is very heart-rending to see this case. In the very short term, just restoring the rent supplement would sort out that person's problem. In another case involving three children, one with special needs, the owner of the property is in NAMA and the property is being sold. It is very difficult to get alternative accommodation because there is no housing stock available, and for the housing that is available, as daft.ie will prove, the rents are far higher than the rent supplement. In that case, it is the father who is the carer of the young child with special needs. These are the human stories that all of us come across every day in our constituency clinics.

I welcome the fact we have the discussion but we need actions. I know the Government is saying targeted construction initiatives will be announced in the coming weeks. Nonetheless, they will take a year to 18 months to roll out any significant number of stock. When one looks at the numbers, probably 5,000 families in Wicklow alone, and 2,500 outside of Arklow, Wicklow and Bray, are on the housing list. To get even half of the housing for those people built in the next 12 to 18 months is virtually impossible. We have to concentrate on the short-term, the medium-term and the long-term.

There are now people who are not of the classic profile who are presenting as homeless. There are those who cannot afford to pay their mortgage, although the initiatives with the banks in the area of mortgage resolution are helping in this regard. There are those who become homeless where rent supplement has gone down, when they would never normally have done so.

The classic case is somebody with either an alcohol or mental health problem, social limitations or a disability. The numbers of such people are being added to by others who should not and might not be homeless but for a lack of housing over the years. I know Deputy Finian McGrath told us to get on with it. We are getting on with it but it is, unfortunately, a legacy issue. Something is drastically wrong when 80,000 homes were being built in a year, yet we have a homeless crisis.

I thank the Minister of State for sitting through the discussion and for listening to what we all have to say. Across the House there is agreement that this is something that needs to be tackled. I hope that any initiatives that are taken are welcomed and that they are incremental and built on. It is expected that 5,000 new units will be built nationally in 2014. It is a small amount but it is a start and we need to ramp that up as quickly as possibly. The units need to be placed strategically. There are ghost estates without the same level of housing need while areas with the greatest need have no ghost estates or vacant stock. This is the key factor on which we need to focus.

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