Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If there had been a favourable generic amendment to the Constitution on the area in question, I believe it would have it made easier.

On Deputy Coppinger’s question on the target of 35,000 new housing units, 22,300 units will be built or acquired, 50:50 through capital funding through local authorities and through the European Investment Bank, EIB. On top of that, 11,000 units will come through pure leasing and 2,300 through restoring voids, with which we have been incredibly successful. We had to ramp up our building. Whatever anyone says about building houses, they take two to three years to build, except rapid-build housing which we should discuss later.

I did not lay the foundations for any of the houses now being built - I do not mean that literally - and they were commenced by my predecessors. There are 5,000 houses in the process of being built across the country. It takes time to churn it up. Those houses that have been closed off in the past year or so came about because of what was done three years ago.

If we were to produce a large volume of houses immediately in this year, they should have been planned three years ago. The simple fact is we did not have the money for it. We need a continuous pipeline of social housing. I have set out through the social housing strategy how to achieve a pipeline where in excess of 10,000 houses can be built every year. That is where the rebalancing happens but it will not happen overnight. I accept that the number of houses being built is small but the facts are the facts. This year, hundreds of houses will be built in many cases because of work that was done preceding my time in the Department. The year after that, thousands will be built, and the year after that it will be near the figure I want, which is 10,000 houses. That is the way it has to work. We need to discuss rapid building as that is an important sector.

We have spoken about building houses and I agree with some points but in many cases, the local authorities simply buy or, working with the approved housing bodies, lease a property because it is cheaper. Some people have questioned the way in which houses in Ballymun have been put up and we can talk about that. I am fine about it. People are asking why houses are not just bought because that would be cheaper. We are doing that as well on top of everything to create more housing.

The Deputy referred to the capital budget and is right that it is lower than it was in 2008. By 2008, we had seen a decade of the housing capital budget being ramped up because of a significant boom period in the State. The simple fact is we have just emerged from the worst ever economic crisis. In 2014, the capital budget was €299 million; in 2015 it is €430 million; and in 2016 it is €528 million. That is a fairly significant increase by any percentage year-on-year in our current position. In the total budget of the Department for this area, there has been a significant increase. It is now up to €933 million from €583 million in 2014, which is not that long ago.

I will address an issue relating to waiting lists. We have had much discussion in this country about how many people are waiting for social housing and what is the true figure. We have the 2013 figure and the figure given by others when they calculate statistics from local authorities, etc. The housing agency used to do this figure every three years and 2013 was the last time figures were produced. I have now insisted on and initiated a process where it is done every single year because we need that data and what we are really addressing. Analysis in that period has demonstrated that the figure for people seeking social housing and the numbers bandied about simply do not add up. Analysis has been made in which the figures for local authorities is totted up but that does not take into account that some people are on social housing lists for a number of years but do not need it any more. In some cases, people are on housing lists but there is no requirement or they are on the list for other reasons.

There are people, certainly in Dublin, who are on multiple lists or are being double-counted and there are also other issues. That is not to play down the fact that we still have huge figures. This is important information.

Cork city did an analysis of choice-based letting - I want to talk about this later on - which I think should be rolled out across the country. It found there was a 25% drop in the number of people requiring social housing. Once choice-based letting, whereby the properties are put out there, became available, it was found that 40% of the people who were on the original list were not even active. They were not actively looking. It is important that we engage that information.

On ramping up local authority building, which a couple of representatives mentioned, it did take time. I gave co-operation. More than 450 staff have been put into local authorities. I got co-operation from the majority of local authorities, but I was disappointed that some of the recruitment still has not happened. Local authorities got out of social housing and now they have got back into it. They need the personnel to do that, but they have the capacity to do it.

In respect of the percentages of local authority housing, I believe they are quite ambitious. Anyone who looks at them can see the volume of funding that has been allocated to each local authority. I will pick at random. Cork County Council has €80 million up to the end of 2017, Cork City Council has €124 million, Dublin City Council alone has €292 million, and South Dublin County Council has €73 million. If we go down to the likes of Kilkenny, the county council got €43 million. Even a smaller county like Carlow has in excess of €20 million. There is a considerable amount of funding available for local authorities up until the end of next year. Overall, when we look at the total targets in Dublin, it comes to 30% of the total. I will break down the figures if the Deputy wants: 3,347 units in the Dublin City Council area, 1,376 in Fingal, 681 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and 1,445 in South Dublin, which makes a total of 6,849.

I have met the representatives of Tyrrelstown. I am quite circumspect about getting into details on this because there are negotiations and discussions going on to which I am privy and I do not want to influence that. I have spoken about the issue with the sale of houses and the article in the Constitution, but in general there are options available to the tenants, working through the local authorities, and I have made sure at a local authority level that they will be facilitated in any way possible. I want to point out one fact that is not widely known. We have to be quite careful because a higher than average percentage of people who are involved in various schemes for purchasing their local authority houses, etc., are now in arrears. We have to be very careful about that.

I agree with Deputy Canney's remarks on the area of land management. He asked me what my recommendations would be and I thank him for asking that. I will do that at the end. I have more than two, by the way. We need better land management. It is a critical issue and it needs to be more co-ordinated. My colleague has maps in respect of the volume of sites and zonings available across Dublin. There are 27,000 houses with planning permission in Dublin. There are also another 20,000 with very little that has to be done. They will probably get planning because the services are there. That is 50,000 houses that can be made available pretty quickly. That raises certain issues. We must find ways in which actively to develop such land.

In respect of the Deputy's question on costs, 38% of the cost of building a house goes to the State. The big one is VAT. There is obviously Part V, which I think I have addressed in a fair way, and the issue of development contributions.

I agree with the Deputy that there is no point in reducing the VAT to zero if that does not get passed on to the house buyer. One must have a process by which one can ensure that happens. In other words, one must have conditions built in, which we did recently with regard to developments in Dublin and Cork, whereby we kept the prices below €300,000 and €250,000. The sale price of a house or apartment must be at a certain level before a developer qualifies for such an exemption. That is what I would recommend. We must map and zone that all over the country so that if a developer is building a house or apartment and wants to avail of a special VAT rate, he or she must, with no underhand stuff, sell the property for a certain amount, depending on the location. That amount should be set at a national level. That would be my recommendation in that regard.

The last question the Deputy asked related to estates. Significant progress has been made in this area. In 2015 approximately 5,000 voids were remediated while in 2016 we have provided funding for a further 1,600. A lot of work has been done in the area of unfinished estates but a perennial issue in this regard is the taking in charge of estates. One of the last items signed off by the Government before the general election was a five-year plan for a fund and a process for the taking in charge of all estates in this country. Estates were put into various categories. Some estates only have minor issues to be resolved relating to kerbs, lighting and so forth but others have much more serious issues with their water and waste systems, for example. A fund has been put in place to deal with all of these matters.

Virtually all of the changes concerning rental space have been put in place and the regulations the Deputy asked about will be signed on Tuesday.