Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I take issue with some of what the Deputy said about my response from last week, because I did deal with the protection issue. The Government has brought in a raft of legislation and measures to protect tenants. There is also the rental tax credit, which was brought in in the budget before last and was increased in this budget.

More fundamentally, the issue is the supply of housing. More than 100,000 new homes have been delivered since 2020, and that figure takes into account the stoppages during the Covid period, when two lockdowns impacted it. That figure includes approximately 30,500 social homes that have been added to the social housing stock to Q3 of 2023. We reckon that a further 10,000 social homes in 2022 and 12,000 social homes were delivered in 2023. Approximately 23,000 social homes are either on site or at design or tender stage.

The importance of social housing is that it relates to homelessness and gives greater capacity to deal with the homelessness situation. We have developed strategies to exit people as quickly as possible from homelessness. The housing first initiative has been very effective in supporting a person who is experiencing homelessness into permanent housing as quickly as possible. The Deputy is familiar with that. Approximately 1,300 tenancies cover the period from 2022 to 2026. These have been provided for. They have been delivered in terms of the targets, etc. That is working with the various bodies that are involved in homelessness. We have exceeded the two-year target of 551 already in respect of that.

We exceeded targets last year on housing generally. This year, we can build close to 35,000 new homes, but we have to incrementally increase those. In respect of the short-term lets, as the Deputy has correctly pointed out, we have legislated and we have provided an initiative on that. Yet, as the Deputy knows, the commission will have to adjudicate on it. It has sought more time, much to our frustration. There is no point in going ahead and subsequently being judged to have infringed. Then, we would have a bigger mess. We are putting on the pressure and we are identifying to the commission the seriousness of this situation with the housing supply issue, as well as the need to get as much housing as possible available for the rental market.

We need more people to get into the rental market. We need more people to rent out homes, etc., as opposed to other options. That is always a balance on the regulatory side as well, because there is evidence that many people are leaving the market. They believe there is no certainty in the market for them either. That is something that we have to bear in mind.

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