Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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First, I take the opportunity to warmly congratulate the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, on his appointment as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and to wish him well. Today, I appeal to him to take all steps necessary to urgently address the severe housing crisis, in this city and in the country, being experienced by more than 100,000 of our fellow citizens and to take dramatic and urgent action. I have made those appeals to the then Minister of State in the housing area, the new Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, and also, on many occasions in this House, to the Taoiseach.

We have got to the place we are in now because of the almost complete abandonment of the social housing programme by mainly Fianna Fáil-led governments from the late 1980s onwards, the shift in policy towards relying on the private sector and the ongoing mortgage arrears crisis. We need to take account of all of these reasons in devising medium-term and longer-term solutions, but we need an urgent emergency programme and I hope that is something the Minister would address, even while the Dáil is not in session, over the coming weeks.

The statement of Government priorities included a section devoted to the aim of improving housing availability and affordability. I note the review by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan of a section 227 review of NAMA. Unfortunately, NAMA has provided a minuscule number of houses for the local authorities of this country since it was established. What immediate action will the Minister take to address the almost 200 families with over 300 children tonight living in emergency accommodation in this city? All of us have incredible and terrible stories of the suffering of those who are homeless, who are in poor rented accommodation or who are threatened with the ending of their tenancies. We all could probably spend the rest of today up to 9 o'clock recounting some of these horror stories.

A key common factor in them all is the mistreatment of children. Earlier we debated Government institutions, but it is a shocking indictment of the Government, of the State and of this Parliament how children are being treated in families, either when they are homeless or when they face eviction from private tenancies because of the escalation of rents. I hope the Minister will address it.

What action will the Minister take in regard to the rough sleepers in the streets, of whom there was a record number of 177 on the streets of Dublin a few days ago? In my area of Dublin Bay North, Dublin North-Central, housing area B, there are well over 4,000 families and individuals on the housing list and on the homeless list.

The Minister's predecessor promised to give us between 4,000 and 6,000 new homes this year. Few of those have been delivered and almost none have been delivered in Dublin Bay North or in the Dublin North-Central area. Indeed, without counting the other 40 constituencies, the needs of which also must be addressed, we could use all of them. There have been almost no new builds in Dublin Bay North. There were 28 units in the Bunratty area and 35 new homes are to come forward by 2016 in Darndale. We have been promised new funding in Fingal county as well, but this also has been a minuscule response. In particular, I would ask the Minister to look at my area as to whether the significant expansion that was planned for the north fringe of Dublin city, from the sea across to Finglas, is something that he could address and establish as a strategic development zone in accordance with the promises that have been made for the Dublin docklands area.

The rental accommodation scheme, as the Minister will be aware from his own experience, has collapsed. Many families are in the process of being made homeless by landlords exiting the scheme because they can get, as they perceive, higher rents elsewhere.

The four Dublin local authorities have come together proposing a number of important steps to remotely address this crisis in the four Dublin counties. They seek, in particular, more funding and leadership from the Minister. The moment to act is now. There is a housing emergency and the Minister should declare it. He should take action on it. According to the last assessment, there are 90,000 families involved. The Minister should bring to an end the suffering, uncertainty and terror these families, in particular, the children, face in these circumstances. I urge the Minister to take action.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Broughan for his good wishes. I appreciate them.

Deputy Broughan may have heard it before but I personally am determined to deal with this issue for many of the reasons he stated. It has been re-prioritised by Government. It is a top priority. I will give all the hours I can to try and deal with this issue because it is wrong that we have such a housing situation in this country. Given the history, particularly over the past 15 to 20 years, it is quite a phenomenon.

Last year, a national assessment of the need for social housing support was carried out. The results of the assessment, which were published in December 2013, show that, nationally, as at 7 May 2013, just under 90,000 households had qualified for social housing support with housing authorities throughout the country.

The Dublin region accounted for approximately a third of this figure, indicating that there clearly continues to be a high demand for social housing in these local authority areas which needs to be addressed.

Every Government since the founding of the State has been asked to increase provision of social housing. The significant numbers referred to represent unprecedented challenges on the budgetary front. There is no single solution and it will not be done overnight. We are, however, moving in the right direction, while continuing to protect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged as best as possible. It is, and continues to be, my Department's objective to maximise the delivery of social housing using all of the resources available.

It is clear that the present and foreseeable economic context in which we must address social housing need is such that innovative, indeed challenging, solutions must be found which will harness new funding streams. Under action 8 of Construction 2020 - A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector, a social housing strategy will be published by the third quarter of 2014. My intention is the social housing strategy will be both challenging and innovative, as well as providing the basis for an enhanced approach to social housing provision. It will contain clear measurable actions that will be taken to increase the supply of social housing and, most importantly, reduce the number of people on waiting lists.

The core objectives of the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, were to reform the approach towards providing accommodation in the private rented sector for long-term dependants under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme while contributing to the attainment of better value for money for the State in the provision of long-term accommodation options. Those objectives are as relevant today as they were when the scheme commenced in late 2004. While times have changed in the area of housing, particularly in the provision of social housing, little has changed in so far as RAS is concerned.

Far from collapsing, the scheme remains one of the principal mechanisms available to local authorities to provide suitable quality accommodation for those in need of housing. Up to the end of May 2014, almost 49,500 households had been transferred by local authorities from rent supplement and housed directly under RAS and other social housing options. RAS has and continues to be a successful programme which has achieved considerable output levels to date and delivered quality housing to a large number of households. The figures speak for themselves.

That said it needs to be borne in mind that it is difficult to achieve any large-scale delivery as many of the transfers are done on a case-by-case basis with individual property owners. One of the reasons the social housing leasing initiative was introduced was to facilitate an approach which would allow delivery on a larger scale and leasing continues to represent an essential element of supply within social housing supports generally. Furthermore, the introduction of the housing assistance payment, HAP, this year will provide a further additional form of housing support to meet the challenges presented in addressing overall housing need. The relevant legislation for HAP has just completed its journey through the Houses and will be enacted in the coming days.

An administrative pilot for HAP is already under way in Limerick City and County Council. With the legislation to be enacted next week, the scheme will then roll out to a further six local authorities identified. As for overall supply, the recent injection of €46 million for social housing, on top of the original housing budget of more than €500 million, I now expect the final output across all social housing programmes for 2014 to be approximately 6,000 new housing units.

Every avenue to deliver social housing will be explored. This morning I met the County and City Management Association, CCMA, expressing how urgent this issue is and that they co-operate and work closely with the Department in tackling it. I am going through all the various funding mechanisms available in detail. I will continue to work on delivering a strategy which we hope we can all get behind after the summer.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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I am glad the Minister has met the county managers. Will he meet at an early date with the 31 directors of housing in all local authorities to explain to them the targets he has in mind? I know there are issues around getting funding off the Government’s balance sheet and that some decision was taken on this at the first new Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Will any building programmes be financed through the European Investment Bank, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, pension funds or the private market? Will there be legislation in this regard? Will there be the development of cost-rental models, as proposed in a recent National Economic and Social Council report? What progress does the Minister hope to present to the Dáil when it resumes after the recess?

The Taoiseach advised the House this week that the heads of a Bill had been approved by Cabinet for approved housing bodies. The former housing Minister, Deputy Jan O’Sullivan, was asked to bring forward legislation in this area urgently. What is the timeline for this?

There is still uncertainty about HAP, a key element of the recently passed housing Bill. People in RAS and in private rented accommodation are concerned there is no security of tenure. We are back to the days of our predecessors in the national movement in the 1870s. Will the Minister take responsibility for this issue and address it?

The Minister will also have read the section 227 review of the National Asset Management Agency. By the end of 2013, 596 social housing units were delivered by the agency, while this year 500 residential units are due to be delivered. This is nowhere near enough to cope with the 100,000 families requiring social housing in areas such as east Galway, south Dublin, north Dublin and Tipperary. It is a dismal response from NAMA. What will the Minister do to get NAMA to deliver on socioeconomic objectives which are clearly laid out in the NAMA legislation? Will the Minister examine the models in other European countries which have strong social housing programmes to start to claw back the horrible housing situation that has developed over the past 20 years?

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I commend the Deputy on his passion for this issue which he has raised on many occasions before. We will continue to deliver social housing units from all available sources. I am acutely aware of the difficulties caused by rising rents and the problems of sourcing suitable accommodation, particularly in Dublin, but also in other urban areas and large towns. I am looking at all finance options. NAMA released its report today on social housing provision and it has made a commitment to deliver in this area, a commitment it has not made before. I will set very defined objectives and strategies. I will have discussions with the CCMA and local authority housing managers. I want to see their plans in place by September when we publish the social housing strategy. I do not want to see time delays with issues such as planning. I also want to know if there are any blockages in delivery that are outside of their powers but on which I can work. I am going through every avenue across the Government on sourcing extra funding for social housing programmes. I will deal with the other questions the Deputy raised off site here.