Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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As stated, there is an over-reliance by the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan, and her Department on the private sector to plug the incredible gap in the lack of supply of social housing. This problem is particularly acute in the context of the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. For example, as the Minister of State will be aware, in Dublin city the RAS has collapsed. I have been informed by the housing manager, Dick Brady, that 101 landlords exited the scheme in 2013 and that a further 54 had requested withdrawal from it.

I have been approached by numerous constituents who are on RAS and whose landlords are now selling the properties in which they are living. They will effectively be left homeless, with nowhere to go. To date in 2014, perhaps only five or six new RAS properties have become available.

Rent supplement is a vital support but it is only a short to medium-term measure. The 78,000 people in receipt of it do not have security of tenure. It is proposed to introduce a housing assistance payment and to give responsibility for the administration of this to the Department of Social Protection. However, I understand that the scheme in this regard is only being operated on a small pilot basis in the city of Limerick where the Minister of State resides.

The housing policy statement issued by the Minister of State in February 2013 refers to a housing-led approach. That is incredible in circumstances where it is proposed to bring only 4,500 or 5,000 social housing units on stream this year. In reply to a parliamentary question I tabled recently, the Minister of State indicated that 2,500 of the 4,725 units that are due to become available will emanate from the rental accommodation scheme. That is unbelievable, particularly in view of the fact that over 4,200 people and families are on the housing waiting list in my constituency of Dublin Bay North.

The Government has also referred to ending homelessness by 2016. The rough sleeper count carried out in November showed that 94 people were homeless on the streets of Dublin. I know of families that have been living in homeless accommodation for over a year and that are desperately waiting for the Government to take action in order that they might obtain homes. Research carried out by the Simon Community and other organisations indicates that up to 4,000 people in the State may be homeless. There are ongoing difficulties with the shared ownership scheme as a result of the fact that some people's homes are in negative equity. Essentially, families have become trapped. Local authorities in Dublin recently moved to a time-on-the-list system and it was a shock to discover that some families have been on the waiting list for ten, 12, 14 or 15 years and have still not been either housed or rehoused by Dublin City Council or Fingal County Council.

I agree with Focus Ireland that it will be necessary to provide a minimum of 9,000 to 10,000 social housing units per annum if we are to begin reducing our very lengthy housing waiting lists. We may require some 25,000 to 30,000 units in order to work our way back to the position which obtained previously. In 2013 a total of 8,000 units were provided, as was the case in the Government's first year in office. We need to create - at all costs - a stable and sustainable housing market, without any further bubbles or severe shortages. The latter only enrich the developer and landlord classes. Unfortunately, the Fine Gael-Labour Government's record on housing is deplorable. The Minister of State must take urgent action in respect of this matter in whatever time she has left in office.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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The housing situation has become particularly acute in the Dublin area in the past 18 months. In previous years, those who experienced the greatest difficulties in finding accommodation would mainly have been single or separated people or those with addiction problems. In my constituency - I believe this to be the position across the entire greater Dublin area - there has been a noticeable increase in the number of families that were long-term renters, that can no longer afford to rent and that are being obliged to register as homeless and face up to all of the difficulties relating to the difficult position in which they find themselves. There is no question but that the rent allowance scheme is failing to meet the needs of those to whom I refer. Landlords are capitalising on a booming rental market by hiking up rents when leases come up for renewal. This is a common problem and my constituency office is dealing with those affected quite frequently. I am sure the position is similar for other Deputies who represent Dublin constituencies. Rent allowance has simply not kept pace with rent increases in recent times. There has always been a large cohort of landlords who have refused to accept rent supplement. In recent times, the size of that cohort has steadily increased.

Some long-term renters have never previously been in a position whereby they literally cannot find accommodation they can afford. Even if they eventually find something, it can lead to their being obliged to move to a completely different area and can have a devastating impact on family stability and school attendance. By failing to address this problem now, the Government is storing up huge social difficulties for the future. At the heart of the problem lies the issue of the supply of both private and public housing. It beggars belief that when we have such large numbers of unemployed people with construction skills, those in the councils and voluntary housing associations with planning and project expertise and such a huge shortage of social housing, the Government has found it impossible to arrive at a way of building more housing units which reflect the scale of the existing need.

It is also frustrating that some schemes which could deliver better supply have either been closed down or are not being developed further. One of these is the financial contribution scheme for older persons. This scheme used to operate very successfully in the Dublin City Council area. However, it is currently suspended. The scheme worked by allowing older people whose homes had become too large for their needs or perhaps too expensive to maintain to sell them to the council at a discounted price. In turn, they were accommodated in newly-built, good-quality sheltered housing units. This worked for both the council and tenants. It also worked very well for homeowners who wanted to sell and move to more secure and better-quality accommodation that was more suitable to their needs. It also increased the supply of social housing, allowed young families to be accommodated and assisted in achieving greater population density and diversity of housing, without the need to built vast new housing estates or the type of apartment developments which are often problematic. The scheme gave rise to a win-win situation for everyone involved. It was the lynch-pin of the housing strategy in my part of the city for many years and it worked very well. Older people who were living in insecure accommodation which needed to be upgraded by means of the provision of downstairs bathrooms etc., were able to move into good-quality sheltered housing. The scheme met their needs and helped to free up housing units for families on the waiting list. As a result of the fact that the housing which became available was dotted throughout communities, the scheme was also successful in creating the type of diversity to which we refer as being so important.

There is no reason why the scheme could not be re-established and the Minister of State should work closely with the HSE to ensure that this happens. There is also no reason why a similar scheme could not be put in place in the private sector, particularly as there is an undoubted demand for it. The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government could do a great deal in terms of encouraging local authorities to designate areas that would be specifically intended for the use of older people who want to live in accommodation that is smaller, easier to maintain and more secure. In turn, this would help to free up more private sector houses.

The other issue that arises relates to apartment dwelling. There are very few parents who would desire to see their children growing up in an apartment as a result of all of the shortcomings of such accommodation, including size, type and design. Children can be raised in apartment complexes in other countries but this is because the accommodation in which they live is of a decent size and is suitable to the needs of families. In addition, recreational and storage areas are provided. It is time the Minister of State put down a clear marker in the context of improving the standards relating to and increasing the size of apartments in order to ensure that apartment dwelling might become acceptable for families and might suit their needs. It will not be possible to deal with the housing problem in Dublin without apartments forming part of the solution. As matters stand and in view of the very low specifications which apply, apartment dwelling is simply not acceptable to people.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I cannot disagree with any of the sentiments expressed by previous speakers. The only qualification I make is that no blame whatever attaches to the Minister of State in respect of the situation in which she finds herself. This is a problem she inherited, which arose as a result of the neglect of public authority housing for a period of at least ten years. The latter used to be the bedrock of housing policy in this country. In the past we could rely on a certain number of people in a particular income group to acquire local authority housing or, alternatively, to buy private houses by using local authority loans. The second option to which I refer has not been available for at least ten years or more. During the so-called boom, the provision of local authority housing was gradually phased out and there was a move to what we have come to know as voluntary housing. As a result, we now find ourselves in a situation where there are no houses available and where we cannot accommodate people.

In the 1980s the local authority in my county, Kildare, was in a position to approve 400 loans per annum.

That was in addition to building 350 houses per annum. That is the guts of 1,000 houses in a year. We have been unable to achieve that in the past 15 years or get within the shadow of it. Sadly, all of those people are now back up on the housing list.

Great emphasis was placed on the fact that apartments would be the order of the day in future, that we would become like Europeans and live in apartments from now on and that we would not need houses. That did not work out but that is another story. Sin scéal eile. It certainly did not work out in my area and I imagine it did not work out in the constituency of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle either. Irish people, by tradition, tend to want to have a fixed abode that they own or that they have a right to aspire to own at some stage. They then take ownership of it in the manner to which they have become accustomed. It is their investment in life and they rely upon it. The sad part about it is that during the so-called boom we went away from that model and started this transient housing policy, which has been remarkably costly in an administrative sense. It is unsuitable to meet the needs of the people and it is certainly anti-family because that type of situation does not accommodate families in any way. Sadly, we now have a serious issue in this regard. In County Kildare there are 8,500 families on the local authority housing list. I believe a further 500, 600 or perhaps 1,000 will go on that list by the time all the information is collated and all the people have been adequately registered. The problem is being exacerbated by virtue of a housing shortage in the eastern region.

Landlords of buy-to-let properties have been pressurised by the lending institutions to get tenants on board who are capable of paying a higher rent. The result is that a large number or cohort of people have become homeless. These are people who, in years gone by, would never have dreamed of being homeless, but that is the position now and it is getting worse. The problem is simply this: we can do nothing to help them because we have no houses. We have no houses because for the past 15 years we did not have a policy of building adequate local authority houses or providing adequate numbers of local authority loans. As a result, some of these people have been on the list for ten years or more.

One of the problems I have seen in my time in public life has been the lack of serious forward planning to meet housing needs. It is not rocket science and it is simple to do. It was possible to do it in times gone by. In times gone by the local authorities were able to identify precisely the housing requirements in a particular area, whether public or private. They were able to adjudicate in respect of the county development plans on what was most appropriate at any given time. The cause of the problem is that there was no forward planning and we are in the current situation as a result.

There was another reason as well. There was an emphasis on apartments and one-bed accommodation. Naturally, that is not suitable accommodation for families. It simply does not work and it is not possible to bring up children in that kind of an environment. What about the unfortunate families who have children with special needs and who are trying to exist in that kind of environment? None of that was thought out. Some people did what was termed a "desktop assessment" as a result of which we got what we got, which is totally inadequate and unsuitable. It is an appalling thing to have to say to the people we represent that we are sorry but that someone did not plan properly in the past and as a result they will have to wait now. A number of families are homeless. The terms "homeless" and "homelessness" have been bandied around a good deal but this is serious stuff. This is something like we have never had before. There is a degree of homelessness which is affecting people through no fault of their own and these people are prepared to do what they have to in terms of paying rent or whatever is required within reason. They now find themselves in a position whereby they cannot afford to pay rent. As it stands, the rent supplement in the eastern region is far short of what is required. Rents have increased by up to 40% in the past six months in the part of the country I represent. I have listened to some of the pundits explaining that housing rents and house prices have gone up by 1%. I am unsure what the 1% refers to but I assure the House that this has been my experience and that of many other people in the areas with which we are all familiar.

I wish to raise the issue of supply and demand. Ironically, we have heard on numerous occasions in the past five years people stating that many houses which had been built would have to be demolished, because we did not need them and they were unnecessary. Now, we know that we do not have enough houses to meet the needs of the people in a large part of the country. Furthermore, in other places we have houses that we do not have people for, but they are so far away from family support and the settlements of the applicants that there are of no benefit.

At this stage there must be a solution and I believe we must approach it in two ways. In the short term we should try to acquire existing houses where we can. That can be done in a variety of ways, including by way of Government bond to support such developments specifically. We all recognise that the balance sheet cannot afford to be skewed in any way. In particular in the aftermath of the bailout we cannot afford to allow our borrowing to increase. If that arises in a meaningful or serious way then our interest rates will go up because we are in the open market, we have exited the bailout and everything we do in the economy is reflected in the interest rates that we are charged. One possible way around this would be a government bond. This has been done before in this jurisdiction and in other jurisdictions for different purposes.

The magnitude and scale of the problem is such that if we had 2,000 local authority houses in my constituency ready tomorrow morning we could fill them without a problem and we would not have made any significant impact on the numbers on the list, although it would have been a major help. We need such action now because there was no action whatsoever for several years. This is the position without taking into account all the problems that have arisen in respect of shared ownership loans.

I was one of those who had serious reservations about shared ownership loans from the beginning. I had reservations simply because these loans allowed people to buy a property which ordinarily they would have been unable to afford. Why was that situation presenting? It was because there were no local authority houses being built and therefore they had no option. Those unfortunate people had no option except to dive in and do the best they could. What really killed them was the fact that the interest rates or repayments on the rental part of the equity of the house went up by 4.3% per annum. That was never the original intention. Someone in some vital position at some stage decided to put the screws into the unfortunate people on the housing list. It was altogether wrong to do so because what has resulted is that those people are being penalised for being on a housing list or for being available to seek a local authority loan or shared ownership loan or whatever the case may be.

We need to approach the situation at that level and reintroduce the old local authority loan system and try to introduce a system that is fair, equitable and available. We should not have a situation whereby those in the Irish Credit Bureau are the people who approve the loans. What does it have to do with them, in heaven's name? I know what people will tell me. They will say that we must credit-check and ensure that people are capable of paying. What should we do with them? Should we leave them homeless? We are supposed to address the problem.

I support the Minister of State in her efforts to deal with the situation. It is a crisis situation now. It is not a situation she created. I do not intend to look at the people on the other side of the House because I know we cannot blame anyone on that side of the House now. It would be very bad for the psyche of the people over there if we were to blame anyone on that side of the House. The memory does not extend that far back and therefore we will absolve them from all guilt in that area. I appeal to the Minister of State to do whatever can be done in the short term, the medium term and the long term. Let us put in place the necessary forward planning and emergency measures to deal with the situation that presents.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome this opportunity to speak to this singularly important topic. As the previous speaker has outlined, the provision of social housing in Ireland is in a crisis at the moment. We have an unprecedented number of people on the social housing list.

Despite that, the Government, which has been in power for the past three years, has slashed investment in capital expenditure for social housing. Consider Westmeath, the county I represent, where capital expenditure in 2008 was €14.7 million. In 2013, it was €2.1 million.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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What was it in 2010?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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In 2010, it was €6.5 million, representing-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Fianna Fáil slashed it as well.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Fianna Fáil slashed it by more than 50%. Well done.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Members, please.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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-----a reduction of 66% in just two years at a time when there has been unprecedented-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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That is because of the straitjacket in which your party left us.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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You are in charge of the Department now, not us.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Members, please.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I am making constructive suggestions on how we might tackle an issue facing many people.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Do not-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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So are we, but-----

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Unprecedented levels of-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Through the Chair, please, and without interruption.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I accept that there are tight financial constraints, but there has not been a corresponding increase in rental accommodation scheme, RAS, funding. This compounds the problem facing us.

I recently attended a talk given by Fr. Peter McVerry, who stated that this issue was at breaking point in Dublin. At one point this year, 1,500 units were on the Daft website compared with 6,500 last year. This was due to a reduction in the number of units being built. Given the reduction in supply,-----

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Who caused that?

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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-----the cost of rent has escalated, yet the Government has chosen to reduce the supports provided to people in receipt of rent allowance. That allowance has also been reduced significantly in recent budgets. Due to this direct policy, the Government has forced people to live on the streets. I am not the one saying this. I had the pleasure of listening to Fr. McVerry last Sunday night in the Church of Ireland church in Mullingar. He outlined the awful consequences that some of the Government's policies were having. Thanks to the reduction in the rent allowance, some people - even those who have not lost their jobs - do not have enough money to pay deposits for private rented accommodation.

The Government needs to approach the European Investment Bank, EIB, to ensure-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We did.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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-----there is real capital investment in social housing. We are removing responsibility from county councils when the reverse should be the case. Local authorities throughout Ireland always did a good job of providing social housing. Unfortunately, previous Governments as well as this one have moved too much money into the voluntary sector. While I compliment that sector on the good work it is doing, ultimate responsibility for the provision of social housing should remain with local authorities. I asked a parliamentary question recently to which I did not receive a definitive reply. I wanted a comparison between the amount of funding provided to local authorities and the amount provided to the voluntary sector. I will resubmit my question, as the answer was inconclusive.

Despite being at crisis point, only 10% of the NAMA units that were identified for the provision of social housing have been allocated. Why is that?

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should ask his local authority about that.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy, please.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State heralded the mortgage to rent scheme as a major success. Will she supply indicative figures showing the number of people who have availed of it? As of late last year, the number availing of it from Westmeath County Council was low.

When will the tenant purchase scheme be reintroduced? Some people in local authority housing would like to purchase their houses, but the scheme has been suspended. This is starving local authorities of much needed funding. If Westmeath County Council sold a local authority house, it would reinvest that money in upgrading its remaining social authority stock. That scheme has been suspended for a considerable period.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It has not.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State will confirm that it has been suspended.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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There were a number of tenant purchases in Kildare last year.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State might indicate when the scheme will be reintroduced. It has certainly been suspended in counties Westmeath and Longford.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It has not been in Kildare.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Perhaps the scenario in Kildare is different.

The proposed social housing legislation must deal with the realities facing many families, for example, family composition and marital breakdown. If a family breaks down and the husband or wife must move out of the home, he or she cannot get approval for social housing because his or her name is on the title deed. I know of a woman who needed to leave her family home because of domestic abuse. She could not get rent allowance because the legislation would not allow her to be approved for social housing. We must examine this issue urgently. I could describe further examples, but time will not permit. Recently, income limits for qualifying for local authority housing were also reduced.

I will raise the question of what the Minister of State has done to grants for the elderly and the disabled. I was alarmed that a Labour Minister of State would do such a thing. I was alarmed that a Labour Minister of State-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I could give the Deputy the explanation again. The grant increased last year compared with the previous year.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The figure for Westmeath in 2010-----

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is a county council issue.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Troy to conclude.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Troy keeps slinging mud.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Troy without interruption, please.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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In 2010, the figure for Westmeath was €1.6 million.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Blame Westmeath County Council.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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In 2013, the figure was €561,000, a reduction of 66%. That is not on. These grants are critical, as they allow the elderly and people with disabilities to continue living in their family homes for longer than would ordinarily be the case. Saving people from entering long-term nursing home or institutional care saves the State money in the long run. Not only has the Minister of State slashed the budget allocation to these grants, she has also amended the eligibility criteria. No longer can anyone over 60 years of age qualify for a grant to repair a door or window or to do a bit of rewiring - people must be at least 66 years of age.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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No longer is the maximum grant €10,000 - it has been reduced by 25%. Every application requires an occupational therapist, OT, report, placing further costs on the applicant. The people availing of these grants do not have discretionary funds. They do not have the €200 or €300 needed to pay for OT reports. What was wrong with a family doctor writing a medical report to the effect that a person whose leg had been amputated needed a level access shower? That should be black and white. Why would an OT report be necessary in that case? What was wrong with a general practitioner, GP, writing that a cancer patient who only had eight or nine months to live could benefit from home modifications? Why was this scheme changed unnecessarily? It was changed in a sly, underhanded way to try to prevent people-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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That is not true.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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-----who needed these supports from getting them. This is the experience on the ground.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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-----from local authorities.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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It is not the council officials' fault. They are only implementing the scheme introduced by the Minister of State. Why were these changes made?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I will tell the Deputy why the money was missing for three years - he agreed to it.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Why is it such a savage cut to the elderly and disabled? Shame on the Minister.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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It was the Deputy's party that put the three years of constraints on us.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Sometimes we criticise the outside but we do not look at home. I am heavily critical of Kildare County Council because I am anxious to ensure that the council is getting the maximum level of grants and funding available. The Deputy came in here and criticised the Minister for not giving the money, but the money is available. Westmeath County Council could get off its rear end and seek that money-----

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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We apply for additional funding every year.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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----- rather than have people come in here to pontificate in front of the Minister about untruths. Westmeath County Council should be more proactive rather than-----

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy should learn the facts before running down Westmeath County Council.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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-----send the Deputy here to be so political.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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On a point of order, a Deputy cannot come here and criticise Westmeath County Council without knowing the facts.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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That is not a point of order.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister will be able to confirm that it applied on three occasions in the last two years.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy, that is not a point of order.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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To be fair to the Minister, she gave Westmeath County Council additional funding last year when it applied. If the Deputy wishes to make a point about Westmeath County Council, he should learn the facts.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Westmeath County Council also has a responsibility to provide matching funding.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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It does that. It would not get additional funding if it did not.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It must allocate it from within its budget, so the fault is with Westmeath County Council for not allocating sufficient funding within its budget.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy does not know what he is talking about.

Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Anyway, I am delighted to speak in this debate. I was anxious to correct some mistakes made by Deputy Troy.

We are here to discuss social housing and homelessness. The issue is that there is a housing crisis across the board. It is a crisis for people who have put money by to get a mortgage because they cannot get a house. No houses are being built at present in the State. When one considers the number of houses that have been built in the last number of years one can see there has been a total collapse of the construction industry. As a result, pressure is being put on the rental market, and that is also putting pressure on people who are on social welfare and seeking rent allowance because they cannot compete with the people who are in employment and seeking a mortgage to buy their own house. It is not just a social housing crisis or a homelessness crisis but a national housing crisis across all sectors. It therefore requires a holistic rather than a sectoral approach within the housing sector. It is important that we tackle this with that approach so we can try to find solutions across the board.

From my perspective, and I have consistently said this in the House, Part V has been the downfall of the housing market in this country. I voted against it in Kildare County Council and have strong views on it. It allowed for the building of houses but did not create communities, and I have said as much to the Minister previously. It is important that we build communities and that people have a sense of ownership of the area in which they are living. Part V destroyed that. In 1997 and 1998 we worked on a development plan for Kildare. We were seeking a 20% contribution from people who were asking for lands to be zoned. The 20% was a land contribution. The council could then decide what to do with that contribution, whether to build houses or allocate it for recreational facilities, sports fields or a school. These are the things that build communities. Instead, Part V came into operation and it built houses. It was the be-all and end-all solution for people on social welfare and people who could not get accommodation. When housing construction collapsed, no houses were being built. As a consequence, the implications of Part V were that the local authorities were not getting any houses to house people. As I said earlier, we must take a holistic view of this.

I wish to make a few suggestions to the Minister. An 80% windfall tax was introduced under the NAMA legislation. We must take a serious look at that and change it. As regards land prices, approximately two years ago I saw an area of land for sale that was zoned for development. The advertisement stated that it was zoned land with the potential to be zoned agricultural. When one sees that one can appreciate the collapse in the price of zoned land. An 80% windfall tax will discourage people in certain areas from having agricultural land changed to zoned land. That is something we should consider.

We must also examine the Supreme Court judgment in the McHugh case. Mr. McHugh is from my area in Naas, County Kildare. He was responsible for the fact that Kildare County Council could no longer continue its practice of acquiring land through the 20% contribution.

Another matter which I have mentioned previously to the Minister is having shovel-ready projects in counties. The Minister should write to county councils and ask them to be more progressive on that. Instead of waiting for the money to be allocated and then starting work on a project, the Minister should let them have most of the planning process carried out beforehand so that as soon as the money is allocated they can start building. I would encourage local authorities to do that.

Finally, local authorities say there is only a small number of houses within their areas that are not available for rent because they must be renewed. There is probably more than that. We must have a stronger renewal policy so we can get these houses back into use.

There are 6,104 people on the housing list in Kildare as of this morning. We are in a crisis but it is a holistic crisis rather than a sectoral one. If we take a holistic approach, we will find a solution to it.

Alan Farrell (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I wish to contribute to this discussion because it is of such critical importance. I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, and the Minister, Deputy Hogan, for coming up with some money for the funding of social housing projects across the State. The sum for my constituency is €4.75 million and 39 homes are to be constructed. However, it is a drop in the ocean compared to what is required.

I concur with what Deputy Lawlor said with regard to the holistic approach to this crisis. One can look at my constituency and the rent allowance levels versus the rents being demanded for private rental accommodation at present, if one can get it. Most private rental property clients cannot avail of the private rental market because their rent allowance is so low that they are being priced out of the market.

We must do something drastic, and do it very quickly because I am very concerned with the second part of the subject of this debate, which is homelessness. We may be failing families who are unable to find accommodation for a variety of reasons. In the private rented sector landlords might give them notice to vacate or a property might be sold, as has been the case for a couple of constituents who were in touch with me recently. Unfortunately, we might not be able to respond in a timely fashion to such families if they cannot find private rented accommodation. That is a huge concern because we might end up with an increase in homelessness rather than achieve the aspiration of eradicating it in the State.

I do not blame the Minister for the inability of the Department to provide more money in terms of capital spend. Clearly, we are in the midst of a very difficult financial period and although things are improving slightly, there is still a huge capital investment requirement over the next number of years not only to keep up with current demand but also to cater for the enormous backlogs on the social housing waiting lists in local authorities. If there are 7,000 or 8,000 people on the housing list in Fingal and the national figure is just under 100,000, it is clear we will have to do something drastic to meet the demands of both the backlog of the last number of years and those into the future as our population continues to grow.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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The Irish State has never really embraced a full role in the area of housing. Instead, we have seen successive governments allow the private sector have free reign in this area, even to the extent of selling off social housing schemes to occupiers in some instances, rather than introducing longer term rental schemes and so on as they did in Europe. We have the examples of other European countries which heavily invested in social housing over decades, such as Britain and Holland, and as a result these countries have quite a high level of standardised socialised housing stock, although that too is currently being eroded in the neoliberal march across Europe that we see everywhere. However, Ireland always had a low level and a poor approach to social housing, and that is why we are now paying a higher price than some of the countries.

We have to call this what it is, which is a crisis. It is a crisis because we do not have a sufficient stock of social housing. The attempts by the Minister of State to address that are minuscule given the extent of the overall problem. Other Deputies have referred to the huge numbers who are on the waiting lists, with figures having tripled over the last few years. We should note that those waiting lists occurred at the same time as the housing boom. We should remember that RTE used to dedicate whole programmes to encourage young people to buy property, get on the housing ladder, scrimp and save, or take out 100% mortgages. Now we have the irony that some of the people who did purchase those properties in a massive panic, thinking that they would never get a roof over their head if they did not, have found that they bought a two bed or a one bed apartment in an area which they wanted to be a starter home, got married and had children and they are now stuck where they are and cannot get rid of it. In many instances, they have had to go and rent somewhere else themselves while they rented out their own property, and they have only become landlords because they cannot live in the house they bought as their home as it does not meet their needs. We have a complicated situation arising out of that mess.

Other Deputies have spoken about some of the tragic cases that come to our doorsteps but we must recognise that there has been a huge change in recent times. What was initially a trickle has become something of an avalanche at this stage. Not a day goes by without some horrendous case landing on every Deputy's doorstep, and we must respond swiftly, but that is not being done. I will not give all my time over to this, but Deputies know that there is a great number of people on waiting lists for years. The fact that we have to tell people who are on the list for five years that they must wait another five years tells its own story. It is not that the State is not spending money on housing; the State is spending a massive amount of money on housing but again it is going into the private sector. That is not good and it is not sufficiently regulated.

We carried out a search on www.daft.ie yesterday, which examined properties for rent in Swords, which is where I live. There were 37 properties for rent, and 31 of those offers stipulated "no rent supplement accepted". This is becoming a hallmark of our housing situation. It is not good enough because the Government, like its predecessors, has been prepared to abdicate responsibility for housing to private landlords, who are then free to discriminate as they see fit. That is unacceptable in a modern society, as if being in receipt of a social welfare payment is some sort of a character flaw when it reality it is a flaw of our economic system which needs to be addressed. It is not good enough that this situation is being allowed to prevail.

Threshold carried out a survey which showed that more than 50% of people receiving rent supplement from the State are topping up those payments. Threshold is a great organisation and does good research. We all know its finding are true. I am surprised it is that low, because nearly everybody with whom I deal is paying over the odds and is topping up their rent as the rent supplement being allowed by the State is not anywhere near enough for the market rents that landlords are getting. I appreciate what has been said before and that we do not want to be contributing to driving up rents but the only consequence of the way in which the Government is dealing with this is that it is driving people into homelessness and into hostels, which is a nightmare for families. We met a couple who were on the council housing list for five years and there was a change in the ownership of the property in which they were staying. The couple, one of whom was working, and their three children had nowhere else to go. They were moved from north County Dublin into a hostel on the south side of the city. Every morning they had to bring the children to school in Swords. On the weekend of St. Patrick's Day, the hotel was booked out as it would be for tourists, so the family had to go somewhere else. These stories are being replicated all over the place and the State is spending a huge amount of money on this. Driving people into a scenario like that, which is expensive for the State and not good for those families, is madness.

People are being driven out of the areas in which they live and in which their children are in school and they are told to move somewhere else where the rents are cheaper. We must deal with this issue. The Minister of State said recently that the rental market in Ireland should be regulated along the lines of what happened in other European countries, and suggested that the price of rented accommodation should be capped in line with the cost of living, which would be of some benefit in the short term. However, we need a much more longer term solution which must involve providing more housing stock. That means construction, which is not in the right places where there is a need, is essential. There is a pool of properties, which are currently owned by reluctant landlords, which are those who bought their property as a home and are only keeping it as a rented property in order to be able to pay the bank back some contribution for it. They would happily give back the keys if they thought they were not being left with a debt. The State needs to evaluate the number of such properties and whether a collective scheme can be undertaken where they are taken into the ownership of the State. Let us remember that many of the banks are in our ownership and much of the rent that is being paid on those properties is being paid through rent supplement to people who do not want to be landlords in the first place. We need to be creative and we need to look at that whole area as well.

The issue of rent controls must be considered in this scenario, so that at least rents are affordable for everybody. Many examples have been given about the experience in other countries, such as Germany, where rents have been regulated since the early 1970s. The German rent index takes in a lot of different and very good factors, such as the age and condition of the building and the quality of the facilities and the locality. The tenant has much better rights than they would have here. As a result, rents in Germany increased slower than anywhere else in Europe. They have a rent oriented real estate market, which makes it very easy for people to get rented properties. Only 43% of Germans own their own homes, which is the lowest rate in Europe because the rental market is so attractive, so secure in terms of its tenure, and the rents regulated and controlled. We must move in that direction if we are to deal with the horrific cases of which we are all aware.

It is unacceptable in this day and age that families are being driven out of the communities in which they live, that they have been put in inadequate, temporary accommodation and are dealing with the stress and heartache that this has caused. It is the cause of so many problems now and it is not good enough for the Government to state that it was a crisis caused by Fianna Fáil. That is old news. Things have deteriorated substantially within the last three years in the lifetime of this Government, and while some measures are welcome, they are way too little, far too late and not in any way substantial enough to address the housing crisis. We need new start-up builds, we need rent controls and regulation, but we also need to deal with the mortgage crisis which is driving people into the social housing need bracket without the housing stock being there to address it.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ciara Conway and Deputy Ann Phelan are sharing time and have five minutes each.

Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour)
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While I do not doubt that there has been some welcome news in this area in recent weeks, it has been quite small in scope because of the difficult financial times we are continuing to endure. We often talk about the financial crisis, but it is clear from what has been said during this debate by Deputies on all sides of the House that we are facing a housing crisis as well. I welcome the funding that has been made available for 15 units in County Waterford. This significant development in the centre of Dungarvan, which will provide accommodation for older people, might free up larger properties that are much needed by families that have been on the waiting list for a long time. Some moneys have also been made available in Waterford city, but the number of units to be developed there is quite small and more are needed. This development of social housing in Waterford is positive, but it is just a drop in the ocean.

I would like to illustrate my point by referring to the small town of Dungarvan, which had a population of just under 10,000 people at the last census. I have alluded to the development that has been sanctioned on the site of the old Ormonde cinema. We often hear about housing problems in cities, but the fact that there are over 400 names on the Dungarvan Town Council housing waiting list is an illustration of the extent of the housing crisis. Single people and families are waiting on the council to provide them with accommodation. The level of funding being provided is just not enough to make inroads into the lengthy lists. Not enough houses are available to meet the needs of individuals and families. Housing is at the top of the agenda when people call into my constituency office every day of the week. It is a huge issue for the people I meet at my clinics. As other Deputies have said, people are not considered for housing unless they have been on the list for more than five years. This problem is not confined to large urban areas and cities. It is important to point out that it affects every town around the country.

I have found during my work on this issue that there is a particular shortage of three-bedroom family accommodation. I understand that internal research which has been carried out by the Labour Party shows that there is also a shortage of accommodation for single people. For many years, policy has understandably favoured certain groups while failing to meet the needs of people who are not married and do not have dependants. As a result, many single people have had to live in bedsits and other unsatisfactory forms of housing. We know that living in poor accommodation can lead to poor health outcomes. It is important that we try to meet the needs of all groups of people.

The Minister of State will agree that the most frustrating aspect of the housing issue for public representatives and their constituents who are looking for housing is to have to walk past houses that are boarded up. While I welcome the moneys the Minister of State has made available to local authorities to deal with the issue of void units, it is up to the local authorities to spend those funds in a way that provides homes for people. We have all heard about bathrooms and kitchens that are perfectly fine being torn out of houses, thereby delaying families from accessing those homes and increasing significantly the cost to the Exchequer of providing housing. A common-sense policy needs to apply as we deal with this crisis.

An estate renewal programme is vital because there are ongoing problems in large residential areas with empty houses. When a house that may be unattractive but is potentially tenantable and inhabitable is allowed to stay empty, the local area can unfortunately become affected by anti-social behaviour and crime. The projects and initiatives that are being pursued in Limerick, with which the Minister of State is very familiar, need to be extended across the country. A great deal of investment has been made in the regeneration of the Ballybeg area of Waterford. The aesthetic improvements that have been made to that housing estate have lifted the whole area. The benefits of that initiative in areas like social capital, community potential and how people live their lives provide first-hand evidence of the positive effects of regeneration. It is a good investment because it prevents the degeneration of a community, which is hugely important.

I would like to mention some other issues before I run out of time. Many families are trapped in the rental accommodation scheme. If they accept a contract under the scheme, they have to come off the housing list. If their family circumstances change for some reason, or if their landlord no longer wants to rent the property after the five years have elapsed, they have to go back to square one because they are not on the housing list. I know the rental accommodation scheme provides a solution in the short term, but it is not suitable for families or communities in the long term. Essentially, we are asking people to uproot and move every five years. I do not think that is a good social policy. I do not think it is good for families, children or communities. While I commend the Minister of State on the work she is doing in this regard, I think we need to do more. The Minister of State needs the help of her colleagues, including the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance, as she tries to secure the finances required to tackle this crisis. I hope they are listening to this debate.

Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour)
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I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak on this important issue. At the risk of sounding flippant, I am tempted to say in response to Deputy Troy, who got very excited when he spoke earlier, that this is another fine mess the Deputy's Fianna Fáil colleagues got us into. I said in this House a few weeks ago that the Government needs to place a greater focus on social housing and homelessness. After all the house-building of the boom era, it is incredible that we are having to deal with a housing crisis again. It beggars belief that we built so many houses but now we do not have enough properties to cater for those on the local authority lists.

I trace all our difficulties in this area back to the decision of a Fianna Fáil Minister, Martin Cullen, to water down the 2004 legislation in a way that ensured our response to housing supply difficulties was led by developers, rather than being based on housing need. I believe our problems in this regard have arisen from that amendment. It is unbelievable after a building boom that we are now facing a housing crisis of great proportions, but that is what the Minister of State has inherited. My constituency is considerably affected by this issue. I thank the Minister of State for investing capital funding in six housing units in the Borris area of County Carlow. I know it is not a huge development, but it will have a huge impact on an area that has faced a chronic housing problem.

I am a member of the Labour Party sub-committee on housing, which has been actively identifying specific areas that require precedence and focus from the Department. The developing crisis in this sector can be attributed to a shortage of supply. Demand for social housing units exceeds supply to such an extent that it is proving impossible for local authorities to meet the needs of those who are most in need and most vulnerable. My office, like that of every other Deputy who has spoken, is inundated on a daily basis with housing representations, the volume of which has increased significantly over the last nine months. In December 2013, some 72% of those classed as eligible for social housing were dependent on social welfare, 15% of them were in some sort of employment and 2% of them were being incentivised under the back to work scheme.

I cannot stress enough the importance of accurate data in the area of housing need. I believe we have achieved that now. Deputy Durkan referred to a desktop study of how housing needs are responded to. I believe we must have accurate data. In 2014, an assessment of social housing need revealed that over 89,000 people were in need of housing. This level of need is further amplified by the current cap on rent allowance and the high rental rates, which have resulted in a substantial reduction in the availability of private rented accommodation. Rental rates in Kilkenny have reached €850 a month. The rental accommodation scheme has played a pivotal role in recent years in delivering units in the private rented sector to those most in need of housing who cannot be accommodated by means of social housing.

Unfortunately, rental rates are now rising rapidly and landlords are refusing to accept rent-supplement tenants over private tenants. Some 27 landlords in Kilkenny left the RA scheme in 2012, which compares with only 12 in 2012. Rising house prices in Counties Kilkenny and Carlow are linked with February's CSO figures indicating that property prices have increased by more than 8%. This demonstrates how in the absence of an increase in the supply of social housing, the introduction of rental caps in the short term will merely aid the further deterioration of the social housing sector as the economy continues to improve.

In February five out of seven residents in the Amber women's refuge were referred to it owing to homelessness while the Good Shepherd centre had 22 residents, which was its highest number of residents in years. There has also been an increased use of bed and breakfasts and hotels by the local authority to provide emergency accommodation.

I welcome the Minister of State' decision to renew the State house building scheme. I also welcome the money allocated for voids. I also welcome the Minister of State's very proactive approach to address the issue of unfinished housing estates. Urgent action is required in the interim, as the crisis is getting worse. I would also like to see the introduction of rent moderation and rent regulation in the Irish market. As has been mentioned, these measures are used across Europe and I do not see why we cannot introduce it here. We should introduce a professional level of landlordism in Ireland, which might help in dealing with the crisis.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I gave the Deputy one minute's leeway given that she used the first minute to abuse the Chair.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important debate on the issue of housing, homelessness and social housing. The issue is very complex as well as being a shortage of homes and houses. We need to focus on the neediest in our society. I would put the focus on those who have no home, flat or apartment. We need to get these people into a stable environment.

As a former full-time voluntary worker and soup runner with Simon, I saw at first hand the complexities of people who were homeless. Some had mental health issues, some had drugs and alcohol problems and some were on the margins of society. I commend the voluntary organisations that are doing a magnificent job in providing heat and shelter for these priority cases. These are the people we see sleeping in the doorways. Many of them are afraid to go into a hostel. I would describe many of them as very gentle, soft human beings but they are afraid they will be mugged or robbed in some of hostel situations and they would rather sleep out in the cold and wet than be attacked or assaulted. That is something we need to deal. There are also the people with major alcohol and drugs problems.

Deputies from all parties and particularly those from the Technical Group have been inundated with people on the housing list unable to get a home. We have also seen people with tears in their eyes because they either have not got a home or they are being evicted by a landlord as they are getting the rent allowance or because they are very poor families. We need to address this very serious issue.

I accept it is important to build up our social housing stock, but we also need to consider the negative costs if we do not act on this issue. The lack of housing and homelessness are having a damaging social impact on families. I know that from my previous job when I worked as a primary school teacher in the north inner city. The children, who were living in hostels or other such accommodation and did not have a stable home, were the ones who suffered most from educational disadvantage, which was a major issue. Families were going from Billy to Jack, and to different places and different types of accommodation. How can we expect four or five-year olds to focus on whether they have their English, Irish or maths exercises completed? It was not an option.

As well as talking about dealing with the issue of houses, we have to address the negative impacts of these people who have been excluded from society and do not have a warm home. This also forms part of the educational disadvantage debate. In order to break the cycle of educational disadvantage, people need to have a warm and stable home. These children need to be able to get up every morning, have a decent breakfast and go to school. While we are talking about figures, let us talk about these young people as well. Long-term damage is being caused to thousands of young children as we speak in this debate today.

The Minister of State recently visited Darndale in my constituency regarding the building of 35 social housing units. I welcome that positive development. The cynics would say it was a small one, but it will have a major positive impact in a small community such as Darndale. As well as dealing with the open spaces where some people are being tormented by anti-social behaviour, some families will get accommodation, which is positive. I welcome that aspect. The Minister of State should note that we are not always having a go at people. If somebody does something right in any Department, I will always commend and thank him or her for it. That is part of the solution and represents a major start.

The hard-nosed statistics in terms of what is going on are frightening. In 2013, the Housing Agency published a summary document, which revealed that 89,872 households were in need of housing. Some 44% of these were single-person households; 30% comprised single persons with children; 72% sourced their income solely from social welfare payments; and 11% sourced their income solely from employment. Some statistics jump out immediately and I will develop them further later. In 62% of households the main applicant was unemployed; 52% of households had their main need categorised as "dependent on rent supplement"; and 23% of households had their main need categorised as "unsuitable accommodation due to particular circumstances". The assessment notes that "it is likely that this category is populated by households ... with a difficulty in affording private accommodation".

Given that of people in those 89,872 households 72% are on social welfare, it is immediately linked to the jobs issue. As part of the solution to the housing issue we need to focus on job creation and bring forward sensible ideas to bring these people out of welfare and back into jobs in order to help them to buy a home or rent a proper home which will bring some stability and warmth to their lives and those of their families. In 62% of households the main applicant was unemployed, which is a very important figure in dealing with this.

Some 52% of households had their main need categorised as "dependent on rent supplement". In my clinics in recent weeks I have met people who have been threatened with eviction by landlords who are refusing to accept the rent allowance, which is unacceptable in any society. Some of these people caused the economic crash with some of their mad investments and the banking crisis at the time. It is not justified for families to be tormented. Families in rented accommodation getting rent supplement or rent allowance are being told they have to move on so that the landlord can get a higher rent from other people. This must be addressed because it is blatant discrimination.

A number of homeless people have asked me to raise this issue. They asked me how many politicians in Dáil Éireann are landlords, how many of them are renting out lots of accommodation and how many are discriminating against people on rent supplement. I would guess there are a substantial number here. I want to raise that today on behalf of the people who are crying out for housing.

By the way, I want to get away from the mentality which seems to be part of the Government view about some people on welfare being scroungers or depending too much on social welfare, and some of the comments I have heard from some backbenchers have not been constructive or helpful. Let me say that the vast majority of the people I know want to pay their way and they would love to have a job and their own house, and if they are in rented accommodation, they would love to have enough to pay a proper rent. That is part of the debate. If we do not do anything about this issue of social housing and homelessness, we are going to destroy another generation. Again, I emphasise the most recent figure of 89,000 households.

I accept the point that the Government cannot do it overnight but I do not accept the criticisms from some Government backbenchers. They are in power for three years and they won the last election. They should get on with it, stop blaming Fianna Fáil for the bad weather and everything that went on in the last years, and deal with the issues.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We never blamed them for the bad weather.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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This mantra comes out every now and again, and I listened to it again last night. What I am saying is that the Government is in power for three years now. It has a chance to do something and it should do it. There are not that many people involved and it is possible to subdivide the homeless and housing crises into priority issues. We have to prioritise the people who have no homes and then assess the people who are in rented accommodation and who would love to have a stable, warm home. The Minister of State is helping those families but she is also preventing major social problems in the future.

Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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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.

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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I wish to share time with Deputy Mathews. I will take six minutes and Deputy Mathews will take four minutes. I also welcome the opportunity to contribute briefly to this debate on the supply of social housing and the Government's homelessness policy. I welcome the fact that the Minister of State is here to listen to the various contributions because, as Deputy Doyle stated, it is a cross-party issue and every Member of this House deals with multiple issues regarding the lack of supply of social housing on a weekly basis. We are all interested in trying to get this issue resolved.

There are substantial concerns regarding homelessness and the increase in the number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Dublin. There was an increase of almost 50% in the number of people sleeping rough between April 2013 and December 2013. Recent figures show that six additional people are becoming homeless in the Dublin region every day, which is worrying. In the news this morning, it was stated that 98 people were sleeping rough on streets at 3 a.m. this morning so there is a lot of work to be done here. The system is broken. It is definitely not working when 98 people have no roof over their heads. No doubt the Minister of State is working hard to resolve this issue.

We know from the homeless accommodation services that over 4,600 people presented themselves to these services last year. Worryingly, 1,958 - almost one half of the cases - were newly homeless. There are difficulties and multiple reasons, as other Deputies have said, as to why people find themselves in this stark situation. More needs to be done to tackle homelessness and to achieve the Government's very honourable goal of ensuring that long-term homelessness is eliminated by 2016.

I welcomed the decision by Dublin City Council to reverse plans to make cuts to homeless services in January. Instead, it increased supports for the homeless by €400,000 to address the increasing numbers of homeless people on the city's streets. This additional funding will ensure that more homeless people can secure permanent accommodation. We know there are insufficient resources to deal with emergency accommodation.

More affordable housing and social housing are needed to deal with these issues in the medium to long term. Another option is that landlords could reserve a portion of their housing for low-income tenants. That should be encouraged, possibly with tax relief at which the Minister for Finance could look in the budget. According to a report by Threshold, a major reason for the increase in the homeless count is the direct pressure in the private rented sector with fewer landlords accepting rent allowance. This is resulting in more people presenting themselves as homeless. The Department of Social Protection is not helping matters by decreasing the rent allowance by 28% since 2011. We know the property market in Dublin is recovering rapidly and that there is a lack of good quality housing. The fact that the rent allowance is not matching increased rents traps people into this bad cycle so, no doubt the Minister of State will be looking at this with her colleague in Government.

We know from the Daft property website that the supply has drastically reduced. For example, the number of advertised rental units in Dublin has declined from 6,700 in 2009 to under 1,500 at the end of 2013 so it is an issue of supply. When more people are looking for housing and that housing is not there, it drives up rents and creates more problems. We are looking at another property bubble, particularly in Dublin and other cities, if we do not do something to deal with the supply side of things, particularly given the large amount of land banks that surround this city. Those banks must be made available and the only way to do this is through punitive taxes on the owners to get them to free them up and build social and affordable housing.

The shortage of social housing is a legacy issue. Like my colleagues in this House, I am inundated week in, week out with housing queries. There are people in my constituency who have been on the housing waiting list for more than ten years. The severe shortage of social housing is very worrying. People are being put into hotels and bed-and-breakfasts as an interim measure, which is very expensive and costs extra money. This should not be the case. I thank the Minister of State for visiting Darndale in my constituency to introduce that news about 35 new units, which is very welcome in the area. There is much work to be done here and no doubt the Minister of State will continue to work hard with her colleagues in Government to ensure that the supply of housing comes on stream for people who need it badly.

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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I do not want to go over the individual details comprising social housing and homelessness in four minutes. It is distressful that 90,000 families are on long waiting lists for up to ten years and that 190,000 mortgage holders are in deep arrears and horrible negative equity. I am appealing to the Economic Management Council, the Cabinet, the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance to join up all the dots. There has been a failure to do that during the past three years.

I have been pressing hard for them to look at the overview, the provisioning in the banks and banks' capital cushion positions. The banks do not have enough. If they had enough, they would be writing down the mortgage debt to the collectible amounts equating to the embedded equity in houses. There is a very simple rule of thumb that anybody with experience knows to apply. If the rent for a house in Dublin, where the demand is supposed to be creeping up, is €2,000 per month, that adds up to €24,000 per year. The capitalised value of that at a yield of 7% is €360,000. If the house goes above that price in a market transaction, it is moving away from the sensible, anchor, economic value. Looked at another way, if the house is owner-occupied, the income in it is €65,000 per year and if one multiplies that figure by three, it is €190,000.

They are the anchor magnetic fields or poles that should be applied.

We were supposed to have had a banking inquiry and that is important because the prudential rules of fractional reserving and maintenance of proper balance sheets by the banks depends on the knowledge and capability of bank boards to maintain such fractional reserving, namely, to allow only the loans that they create over a period of time to represent about 90% of customer deposits taken in. If they start using other funds like, for instance, shorter-term senior secured bonds and build up their balance sheets, they create a credit bubble. It is a mathematical fact that if banks start increasing their loans beyond 100% of deposits taken in, infinite credit is created on the back of new financial instruments. If they do that, they create an asset price bubble and when that bubble collapses, as it is bound to do, people are left like beached whales. They have huge loans that were advanced to them, which they put into the asset bubble but the assets have gone away. The banks now have the audacity and temerity to insist on trying to collect all of the loans they advanced with money they got from senior secured bonds and other sources, which were all redeemed in full. A case in point is Bank of Ireland which had €61 billion of senior secured bonds in 2008, almost all of which were repaid in full. I am not going to even get into the Anglo Irish Bank example. How was that done? It was done through temporary advances from the ECB and the Central Bank of Ireland. That is how they got out but the customers of the banks, approximately 190,000 families, plus the 90,000 on the social housing waiting lists - 280,000 in total or four full Croke Parks - are distressed by debt and distressed by having no house. We should be saying this to the troika. They went away thinking we had turned corners and that there were green shoots. They were not told about the reality that the losses of the banking sector, totalling around €100 billion, have been heaped onto the citizens of Ireland in two ways, through national debt and banking debt. That is wrong. It is simply wrong.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael)
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The Women's Aid refuge in Dundalk is to close its doors with effect from 27 June 2014. On Monday last I received an e-mail from Lisa Marmion, the director of the refuge, which stated that the refuge was closing. The problem is funding. The refuge is to receive only €20,000 to run its operations. The Housing Authority is responsible for its budget. Ms Marmion said that the refuge can be run for as little as €50,000, meaning there is a shortfall of €30,000. Refuge costs include heating, lighting, bedding and so forth. Tusla, the Child and Family Agency, took over some areas of responsibility previously in the remit of the HSE, including care costs.

Women's Aid in Dundalk provides a range of services to women and their children who have experienced violence in the context of an intimate relationship. It operates in the community voluntary sector and its work involves human rights, justice, sexual violence, accommodation, housing and homelessness. Last year 293 requests for shelter at Dundalk Women's Aid refuge had to be refused. This represented an increase of more than 30% in the number the refuge could not facilitate. Domestic violence is not a thing of the past. With the increase in drug and alcohol abuse, we cannot close our eyes to this.

I have arranged to meet Lisa Marmion this Friday. I have also spoken to Joe Mc Guinness, chairman of the regional management group of the north east homeless forum, who is willing to meet Women's Aid representatives. Can the Minister of State give me an undertaking to save the Women's Aid refuge in Dundalk? This facility has been the backbone in terms of meeting refuge demand in the north east for years. The services provided by the facility are of immense benefit and are, unfortunately, in great demand. Dundalk and the north east need this facility. I ask the Minister of State to re-evaluate any decision she has made about the aforementioned facility. I ask that her Department works with me to save this invaluable refuge. Can I count on the Minister of State and her Department to work with me and Lisa Marmion from the refuge to explore every possible avenue in order to save this great service?

On social housing, I welcome the 5,000 new social housing units that will be provided in 2014 through investment in leasing, the Rental Accommodation Scheme, RAS, the completion of the existing capital programmes, mortgage to rent arrangements and the continued transfer of NAMA units. The additional €15 million investment that will bring more than 500 long-term vacant local authority housing units back into use is also welcome.

In Dundalk there are as many as 50 properties in just two estates that have fallen into disrepair. I would like to see the local authority given additional powers so that it can take over these houses and turn them into much-needed homes for those on the housing waiting list. Dundalk Town Council is investigating the possibility of acquiring a number of derelict houses in the town. It then hopes to engage the voluntary housing bodies in the development of the sites for new homes. As well as creating much-needed social housing, this would also improve the appearance of the area and help to cut down on anti-social behaviour.

Many absentee landlords in Dundalk and other parts of the country are allowing their properties to become rat-infested hovels that are threatening the estates in which they are situated. Many of these landlords, who are based across the Border, have effectively abandoned their houses in Dundalk. Constituents who are on the housing list in Dundalk have come to my office and told me that houses in their area are vacant and have asked if they could move into them. I then discovered that the local authority does not own these properties at all. They are owned by private landlords, many of whom are not registered and will not rent the properties to people in receipt of rent allowance. The properties are left vacant and are not maintained. Rubbish is left lying around and many are infested with rats.

One in five households are now in the private rental sector. A lot of marriages and partnerships break up but if a person's name is on the deeds of a property, that person is not entitled to apply for social housing or rent allowance. This is leaving some people homeless and I ask the Minister of State to examine this issue and to help such people to get their lives back on track.

I welcome the new two-year capital investment in housing for people with disabilities, the elderly and homeless people which will see €35 million invested this year and next. I also welcome the €30 million investment in improving the energy efficiency of local authority homes which will reduce the energy bills of thousands of families and support green energy jobs.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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I wish to thank the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, for coming to Galway last week to visit the COPE premises in Foster Street where it is hoped to establish a new domestic violence refuge. The refuge that COPE operates on the Waterside at Wood Quay was severely damaged by fire and at any one time it can only host a maximum of five families fleeing a lack of safety in their home environment, including violence and other domestic abuse. COPE has been seeking another facility for a long time in order to offer an improved service to more families because the service is under pressure due to capacity constraints.

The Sisters of Mercy who used to operate the Magdalen laundry at the site in Foster Street have handed over that former convent building to COPE. It will be a wonderful recognition of the hurt that was caused for that premises to be used for the liberation of women fleeing terrible domestic violence, instead of for the incarceration of women as in the past. Such women need an opportunity to escape to a suitable refuge. The convent site is in the centre of Galway, just minutes from Eyre Square, yet it is still secluded with the wonderful secure setting behind a wall and with green grass around it. It is an ideal environment. I thank the Minister of State for coming to visit the site last week. Whatever options she may have within the capital budget, I urge her to examine that project. We have a wonderful potential in Galway to offer a proper, dignified service for these vulnerable people by making that vision for a safe women's refuge in Galway city centre a reality.

I also thank the Minister of State for visiting with me one of the only builders currently constructing houses in Galway. They are building at Leargán in Knocknacarra. It is a shocking and worrying development when the third largest city - or the fourth largest because Limerick sometimes argues that it is bigger-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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It is.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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It is a difficulty that in a city the size of Galway, with so many people moving there for job possibilities, only one company is building any housing.

Galway is unique in that it was not one of those places which created excess housing. A report from the Minister of State's Department shows that Galway was one of the more prudent, cautious and well managed cities in terms of its expansion and development. The irony is that after the difficult and horrific collapse of the construction sector, Galway is suffering particularly badly because it did not splurge the last time. We have very minimal capacity. On foot of a very moderate upturn in the economy, huge pressure has been put on house prices. In some areas of Galway the price of a three-bedroom, semi-detached house has gone from €170,000 or €180,000 to €220,000 or €230,000 in the space of a year to 18 months. It is a huge increase. It has reintroduced a worry among people that if they are not in the market now, they will be priced out of it. While it is a market, it is fundamentally a question of people's lives. Those who are participating in the market are people who want a home and to plant seeds for the future. We see the same irrationality - perhaps rationality in the circumstances - that persisted in the boom times that if one does not get one's foot on the ladder, one will be priced out. Compounded with a lack of supply where only one company is building any houses, that thinking is creating a perfect storm in Galway housing.

All of that feeds its way into every other sector of housing policy. On foot of the shortage of accommodation, people who are unable to buy are having to remain in the rented sector. When they stay in the rented sector, it means demand increases. Rental prices for family homes and apartments of all kinds in Galway have increased rapidly and dramatically. That puts pressure on people who are working and whose wages are not rising at the same rate and on people on low incomes who are barely holding on. A greater proportion of people's incomes is being spent on rent. There is then a further impact on people in subsidised rented accommodation who are in receipt of rent supplement. The caps on the Department of Social Protection's allowances for families for whom social housing is unavailable is not high enough. We are seeing people having to hand out backhanders and top-ups. In many cases, people have been put to the limit financially and have had to leave their accommodation and search with difficulty and often impossibility for alternative accommodation. On foot of the economic situation there is a great deal of unemployment and difficulties with finances. People are reeling from debt. As a result, social housing lists in Galway have gone from approximately 2,500 when I was a councillor on Galway City Council in 2008-09 to approximately 6,000 now. It is a further issue that is in the mix. The only way to describe it is as a perfect storm in housing in Galway. It will get a great deal worse in the very short term unless we do something concrete quickly to alleviate matters.

I will not pretend the Minister of State has billions in a suitcase which she can release into Galway to start building.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I wish I had.

Derek Nolan (Galway West, Labour)
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We must at least start redirecting Government policy in that direction, however. I thank the Minister of State very much for her insistence in the Department that we return to the principle of building. For a long time, the principle was knocked by the Department as something it did not want to do. We wanted to subsidise landlords. We wanted to rent properties and have local authorities foot the bill while long-term value was added. At least now we have funding, some of which will come to Galway to start building houses. It is the right approach. We need much more of it. We need social housing to help those people whose lives are in many ways on hold. It is not until people get roofs over their heads that they settle and build connections and integrate with their children in their neighbourhoods. That is when we see community cohesiveness, not when people try to set up lives in temporary accommodation. While there is perhaps an element of exaggeration in it, someone once told me that staying in rented accommodation for such a long time made them feel almost like being homeless. It was to stay in someone else's home and not to have a home of one's own. It is something we see in the private-rented market among people who cannot buy and in the social housing system among those who have been waiting for a house for so long.

Many of the families who come to see me have been waiting 12 years for social housing in Galway. It is not the exception, it is the rule. When people come to my constituency office and tell me they have been on the housing list for four, five and six years, all I can tell them is that it is a list system, that housing is provided on a first-come, first-served basis and that there are those who have been waiting for six years longer. We must start working on those issues now. There are things we could do straight away if the political will was there. While I understand that the Minister of State cannot force every political party in the Dáil to agree a policy position, we must begin investigating and arriving at proposals for the short term on rent controls. It would be one way to alleviate the pressure on those who are living in private rented accommodation. It would stop the pressure coming on those in receipt of rent supplement from landlords who can act on a whim when someone comes to the door with an extra €100 or €200 a month for a house.

We must decide once and for all as a country what the place of housing and the home is in Government policy. Is it a commodity to be left purely to the market? That was the position previously and it damaged us greatly. Should we have complete State control whereby all housing is social housing? There is no appetite for that on any side of the House. If we do not have that, we must decide what people should have to pay for a home over the course of their lives. If they cannot afford it, we must look at the State's options. When we decide that, we can build a policy. I worry sometimes that in a knee-jerk reaction to get building going again, we will simply reignite what happened before rather than put in place something different. Rather than to have a "buy, buy, buy" model, we should have a model which acknowledges that some want to buy, some want to rent in the long term and some want to rent for the short term. We need a different housing policy from the one we had before. The previous model has left us with a legacy of misery. We must do something to alleviate the problem right now and in the long term replace it with something completely different.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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We have a chronic crisis in every virtually aspect of housing in the State. There is a catastrophic failure by the Fine Gael-Labour Party Government, building on the failure of Fianna Fáil and the Green Party before them, to resolve the desperate need for homes. Incredibly, 90,000 families or individuals are on local authority waiting queues nationally. It springs from the crazed property bubble which inflated over ten years to 2008 when developers, big bankers and bondholders were given free rein to profiteer mercilessly at the expense of young working people in the housing market. The price of a home accelerated in a ten-year period to 2006 by the equivalent each year of the average industrial wage. Inevitably, it has left an entire generation in negative equity and shackled in dreadful situations involving unsustainable mortgages, distress and suffering.

Following on from the previous Government, the response of the Government has been that the instigators of the crisis - the profiteers and speculators - have been bailed out and our people left homeless or struggling hard to try and keep their homes. The root of the crisis was the building of homes for profiteering by major construction companies, bankers and speculators.

A home, the basic right to shelter, is a human right. It is reprehensible that people in need of a home should be at the mercy of the capitalist profiteers in the same way as it is reprehensible that people who are sick should be subject to the profiteers in the health industry. The political establishment and the media, with all that was going on in the property bubble, legislated for it and cheer led the developers and the speculators. They were lionised by the political establishment and the media which pretends to be scandalised about what happened. What happened then and now is that the capitalist cycle and boom and bust is allowed to dictate and the neoliberal agenda, which has intensified for the past 10 to 20 years, means that the thinking is all about privatisation. The so-called private market is supposed to fulfil our housing needs with the consequence is appalling suffering by individuals and families. Every public representative knows and experiences that. In my own area we have had horrific cases. Gwen Connell, a very brave single mother with three children, was faced with homelessness when her rent was increased by €400 per month. Gerard Tier with his partner and two young children were forced to go from hotel to hotel under the so-called homeless programme and, bravely, had to go public to try to get some measure of justice and urgent action from the Government.

Emergency action is needed. Rent controls to stop the increasing rents is essential. It is incredible that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, who made her career on the backs of the working class people and the poor of Mulhuddard and Dublin West at a certain occasion, should stand over a situation where single mothers with children are told to go to their landlord and negotiate the rent downwards, in a market where the rents are shooting up because of the lack of homes. That is shameful.

We need an urgent programme of social homes. There is a shameful dereliction of duty by the Government in that it is building virtually no social homes. The Library and Research Service has furnished us with the statistics which show that 363 social houses were built in 2012, 486 in 2011, in addition to some co-operative and other housing. Let me contrast those statistics with past periods. The Minister of State's ears should burn with shame and embarrassment when she hears the following. In 1970 we built 3,767 local authority homes. Let me labour the point. In 1971, we built 4,789; in 1972, 5,902; in 1973, 6,072; in 1974, 6,746 social homes; in 1975, 8,794; and in 1976, 7,263. In that seven year period more than 43,000 social homes were built and that was not a time of capitalist boom. There was the oil crisis and other problems of the always weak Irish capitalism but it was prior to the neoliberal drive when Thatcher and Reagan, and then their imitators all over the world, including in the Irish Government, had yet to come on stream. That is a shameful remonstration with this Government.

Any homes in the possession of NAMA, receivers, and developers in unsold estates should be taken immediately into public ownership and made available but an emergency programme of house construction is needed. The construction industry is not investing because it is not profitable for it to do so. The major construction companies, with the banks and the financiers, should be nationalised and a programme of major home construction to meet the needs of the people should be put in place. Tens of thousands of construction workers, those who are devastated as a result of the crisis, languishing in unemployment, would have their skills utilised and would be back at work and contributing to the economy. This would help economic recovery. That is the type of radical action that is needed. Ministers come in and moan about the situation and expect the capitalist market to resolve the issue-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Does the Deputy want us to nationalise their debt as well, as was done with the banks?

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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-----and then go for progressive taxation. We have shown again and again how a few extra percentage points on the corporate profits on the super-wealthy in the State would yield billions in terms of extra taxation and put that into the construction of the homes we need.

Tá géarchéim uafásach ann maidir le cúrsaí tithíochta sa tír seo - géarchéim náireach í agus teip thubaisteach ar thaobh an Rialtais é, le 90,000 duine nó clann ar na liostaí feithimh ag lorg tithíochta i láthair na huaire. Is teip uafásach í seo ar thaobh Fhine Gael agus ar thaobh Pháirtí an Lucht Oibre.

Má bhíonn muid ag brath i gcónaí ar na boic mhóra sa tionscal tógála chun tithe a chur ar fáil dár ndaoine, ní tharlóidh sé. Dá bhrí sin, caithfear céimeanna radacacha a chur chun cinn. Caithfear smacht a chur ar chíosanna agus caithfear an-chuid infheistíocht a chur isteach i dtionscail phoiblí maidir le tithe a thógáil, d'fhonn na mílte teach agus níos mó, a thógáil dár ndaoine atá ag fulaingt i láthair na huaire. Is céimeanna agus polasaithe radacacha atá ag teastáil, seachas a bheith ag brath ar an tionscal caipitlíoch agus ar an margadh príobháideach, rud nach dtarlóidh.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank all those who contributed to the debate which has been wide-ranging across the political spectrum. Deputy Derek Nolan described it as a perfect storm. We are in a position where we have the overhang of the collapse of the economy where the construction industry is not meeting the demand for public and private housing. Our capital budget was slashed and we could do nothing for about for three years because we were signed up to it, but we have come out of that period now and I have announced a mainstream capital construction programme which I intend to ramp up as soon as I get the money to do so.

I welcome the support of colleagues across the political spectrum. I welcome particularly the support of my Labour Party colleagues. Our sub-committee on housing, of which Deputy Ann Phelan is a member, produced a report which was discussed at our parliamentary party meeting yesterday. We do want to construct more housing. In terms of what Deputy Joe Higgins has said, I am not a neoliberal and never will be and I did not agree with taking on the debts of the banks. I hope the Deputy is not suggesting that as a nation we also take on the debts of the developers, because I certainly would not support that idea, if that is what he means by nationalising construction. The Government will publish a construction policy programme within the next couple of weeks. We have to get construction under way again.

Given that my time is short, I wish to focus particularly on the issue of social housing. First, there is the issue of getting construction under way again.

A serious problem has arisen because no social housing was provided during the boom and waiting lists continued to grow. I intend to knock on every door to get funding to recommence construction of social housing. I also do not want to see lying vacant in this State any house that can be used as a home. To this end, the provision of €15 million to address the voids programme will be announced shortly. I intend to meet the directors of service for housing to ensure no house is left vacant, no perfectly good kitchen and so on is thrown out and the best practice of some local authorities, in terms of turning around vacant houses as soon as possible, is applied across all local authorities.

Contrary to what Deputy Troy had to say, 30% of the 2,000 units have been transferred from NAMA. A letter received today from NAMA will speed up that process. We need to bring those NAMA units into use. As regards the unfinished estates, funding to bring more of these back into use, although most are located in the wrong places, will be announced shortly. On the voluntary housing bodies, on which people have differing views, the State will provide only 25% of the funding under the capital advance leasing facility, CALF, scheme. The voluntary housing bodies will have to get the remainder of the funding elsewhere.

Many interesting and useful suggestions were made, one of which was that the credit unions be utilised as a source of funding in terms of construction. That is a positive suggestion. With regard to the European Investment Bank, a request has been made to it for €100 million to bring 2,000 flats back into use, 1,500 of which are located in Dublin. We hope a decision in this regard will be made by mid-2014. With regard to the local authority loans scheme, I have asked that the decision in this regard be reviewed. I suspect we have gone conservative in the wrong way. There are many non-performing local authority loans but these are in respect of houses that are in negative equity. I am of the view that there are people on low incomes who should qualify for local authority loans to purchases houses. I will have this matter reviewed.

A number of specific proposals from across the board warrant consideration, including the allocation of houses to tenants and having tenants refurbish them rather than waiting until they have been refurbished to allocate them. It was also suggested that the financial contribution scheme be restored and the rural resettlement scheme be revived. The issue of private rent control was raised by a number of members. I am in favour of taking another look at this and have said so publicly. Another suggestion that warrants examination is that a database of rogue developers be developed.

A couple of specific points were made in relation to refuges, in particular the Dundalk refuge mentioned by Deputy Fitzpatrick. I will examine the matter. Funding in the homelessness area was not cut this year. The amount provided in this regard this year for each of the regions is the same as that provided last year. As such, the north east should have received the same level of funding from Government. I will follow up on Deputy Fitzpatrick's statement that funding for the Dundalk refuge has been cut. I do not want to see any refuge closing, including the COPE refuge mentioned by Deputy Nolan.

A number of other issues were raised which will be examined. I am determined that we will address this crisis. I acknowledge there is a serious problem in the social housing area which has been built up over the years. It is one we must try to address with limited public funding. Consideration is also being given to what can be done off balance sheet. We are still required to meet our fiscal targets regardless of whether we like it and so we must operate within that constraint. As I stated, I want every house that can be lived in as a home to be utilised. I want to ensure there is proper control within the private rented sector, which is the purpose of the Private Residential Tenancies Board. There are other issues with regard to private tenants that must be addressed.

The housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, has been rolled out in my constituency and will be rolled out in six other local authority areas this year and, eventually, across the board. It will replace the long-term rent supplement and eliminate some of the poverty traps. I hope it will also flush out landlords who are demanding top-ups, which is an issue raised by a number of Members. This scheme will be gradually rolled out across the board and will, I believe, be an improvement for people in that situation.

This is not an area on which I have a monopoly of wisdom, although like other members of this House who were councillors prior to becoming Deputies, including Deputy Wallace, who has just recounted his hands-on experience, I have a great deal of experience in this area. We must use all the methods available to us to ensure every family has a home, which, as rightly said by many speakers, is their right. Houses should not be items of speculation for developers, builders or anyone else. Houses are for families to live in. We must ensure every available house is an appropriate home for a family and that we get the construction of private and social and affordable housing going again. Currently, not enough houses are being constructed to meet ongoing demand. We need to address this. This is the reason the Government is addressing construction and will publish a policy in relation to access to finance for construction, access to finance for people who want to purchase a home and access to public money that can be used for the construction of social houses. We will also have to find other ways of raising money for the construction of houses in order that we can address this issue which is of serious concern to everyone in this Chamber.