Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. I welcome Mr. Cathal Morgan, director of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, Mr. Pat Doyle of the Peter McVerry Trust and Bob Jordan of Threshold who are in the Visitors Gallery. Councillor Dermot Lacey from Dublin City Council was also present earlier.

I would like to make a correction to the amendment, which relates to the shocking 200% increase in rough sleeping that was apparently confirmed by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive.

My understanding was that the increase in rough sleeping was 50%. The number of people presenting to homeless services has doubled. I think that is a drafting error.

The debate has been helpful and I hope the Minister of State has found it so. I will not be quite so kind as the Minister of State about the performance of the 11 year Fianna Fáil Government. In 2004 there were 48,314 people on the housing waiting list. In 2011 that number had doubled to almost 98,000 people. In 2006, a total of 93,000 properties were built and between 2006 and 2007 Professor John FitzGerald indicated that there were 200,000 vacant units in the country. That is a damning indictment of what happened during the Celtic tiger years and it should not be forgotten. The reason we are talking about the macro-economic difficulties of housing supply, rising rents and rising prices is entirely due to that fact and there is no getting away from it.

I reiterate that we must understand that the increase in the numbers presenting as homeless today is a result of macro-economic issues, supply, demand and rising rents. In the early 1990s there was a significant increase in rents in urban Dublin which rapidly spread to other urban areas. Rents increased by between 80% and 100% in a short period. Very soon after that there was significant pressure on the supply of housing in the country as a whole so we should not take any comfort from the fact that it is perceived as a Dublin problem because it is far from that. It is an emerging urban Irish problem which will spread quickly. We need to be very aware of that. We also need to be aware that this Government does not have the options available to previous Irish Governments from the 1950s to the 1970s that were able to spend a significant sum of money generating large housing projects, which had the benefit of dealing with significant housing shortages and stimulating the economy.

We are in a very difficult situation when it comes to dealing with this housing crisis. That is why I wanted this to be a blue skies debate rather than narking about what this Government is or is not doing. I would prefer to see us with 6,000 units per annum at the cost of €1 billion, which will be the cost, rather than 600 units because eventually we will face a serious problem. The report by the National Economic and Social Council, NESC, suggested that at least 30% of people in this country will need assistance with housing. We will require approximately 15% of all housing in the country to be in some form of social ownership. Currently, 6% of our housing stock is in social ownership. There is no immediate solution to this problem. With no disrespect, I have not heard a single good idea today. I have heard positive contributions from some Fianna Fáil Members but nothing from Sinn Féin that suggests where the answers to this crisis will come from. I suspect we will return to this issue in the years to come. The Minister of State has made a couple of positive points.

Before I conclude I wish to address some of the snide comments made by Senator Ó Domhnaill about my supposedly self-congratulatory motion. I welcomed the Government’s ring-fencing of funding for homeless services in budgets 2013 and 2014. I am proud of that and do not think that is self-congratulatory. It is a fact. I welcomed the adoption of the housing-led approach to tackling homelessness which involves giving people a permanent housing option. I am very proud of that. For too long emergency provision has been a long-term option. If the Senator does not believe me he should go to some of the hostels in Dublin and see the people who have been living there for 12 and 15 years. I am proud of the Government’s approach. I am also very proud that we have adopted a deposit protection scheme, which was not mentioned here today but loss of deposits has been a significant factor in leading people into homelessness. I am very proud of the housing assistance payment, which will lead to a very positive and different approach to dealing with housing, particularly for those who are unemployed and stuck in the social welfare trap. I am very proud that we are returning to mainstream local authority housing provision. It has taken several years, not because the Labour Party in government has not been willing but because it has not been able and that was not our fault.