Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming and welcome his statement that the needs assessment will be carried out across all councils but I would have a concern to ensure that it is done accurately. In 2013, when it was carried out in my city of Limerick, 1,690 people disappeared off the list. I believe many of those still had a housing need and that it was not done properly. I would be concerned that if we do a needs assessment, it is done accurately and that we ensure those who are on the list are contacted. I do not believe it was done properly in Limerick. Some people allegedly got one letter, but I believe some people did not get the letter. To this day, we are still dealing with people who believe they are on the housing list who are not on it. I, therefore, am concerned that if we do it that we do it exactly right. It is important that we have a correct list and that we can look at solutions which deal with the number that is actually on the list.

The Minister mentioned the procurement process, as have many other Deputies. I have a concern about it and why it cannot be speeded up. Will the Minister explain some ways in which we could do it faster? On the rapid build houses project in Ballymun, why can we not just change the process quickly to deliver houses more quickly? The Minister stated there were objections to a number of applications and Deputy Daly dealt with that matter very well. There have been objections, but there were also a number of projects and I will mention Limerick again in this regard. We have a regeneration project but, seven years into it, no houses have been delivered in St. Mary's Park or in the Ballinacurra Weston area. There would be no objection to any plans for those areas. We could have built houses and put people into them years ago. We reviewed the project in 2014, as the Minister knows, but we still have not built a significant number of houses in most of those regeneration areas.

There are about 50 houses built in the Moyross area but we have knocked approximately 300 houses there. The project has not delivered what it was supposed to deliver.

The Minister said the Department housing strategy up to 2020 was the largest social housing investment in the history of the State. I was interested in that comment when I read it. The Minister repeated his statement in the Dáil on a number of occasions. Will the Minister detail the capital spend per year over the six years of the strategy and what will be spent year-on-year? Will the Minister compare that with the capital spent in the six years prior to the strategy being implemented? He might even go back to 2007 or 2008, etc.

Let us consider some of the projects the Department has undertaken. There is one in my area, although I have no wish to be harping on about Limerick all the time. One project was supposed to deliver 11 houses in what was called the Shelbourne Square area of Limerick. Some private developer popped in and bought it before we could. It was a NAMA-type property. Do we know of any others throughout the State were that has happened? Are there projects on this list which will not be built or delivered for us? In this case there were 11 units in Limerick. Will they be replaced by another 11 units or something similar? Is that happening to other local authorities throughout the State?

We have a deep concern because the Department's housing strategy was reliant on delivering up to 80% private rented properties. Again, we saw figures for Limerick yesterday and there were five one-bedroom apartments available. The rent sought was between €600 and €750 for one-bedroom apartments in Limerick. Given a rent supplement of €375 for a single person, that is not really going to work.

I have a concern about some of the projects. Obviously we want to get them delivered as fast as we can. However, in Hospital, County Limerick, we are building 20 units at a cost of €185,000 each. That figure comes from dividing 20 into the money that has been allocated for the project. However, it is possible to buy a house in Hospital at the moment for €75,000. A number of houses are available in that area for €75,000, some €100,000 cheaper than the cost of the houses in the capital project. The Minister said himself that these figures do not add up. Is there provision under this review whereby if we were going to build something and the money has been allocated then we can simply buy available houses? We can deliver the housing far quicker that way. Obviously, if we can build houses, it is far better because we are putting people back to work as well.

Another issue was raised and there is some confusion about it. The credit unions have been in touch with all Deputies. They have sent their housing policy in to us along with offers of moneys that we could access. Can the Minister update us on what contacts we have had with the credit unions?