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

I welcome the Minister, who is my constituency colleague. He started by saying progress has been slower than we would have liked and we would all agree with that. He also said the crisis in housing is not the same Limerick as it is nationally. I agree, but there is a crisis in Limerick, where there are 5,000 people on the social housing list. We could probably multiply that number by five to get the number of people who are looking for housing. We probably need 1,000 social housing units to solve most of the problems.

The Government social housing strategy 2020 provides for €3.8 billion over the next six years, but I do not believe that is enough. Based on that strategy, the outgoing Government would need to deliver 80% of the 100,000 houses needed through the private sector. I doubt anybody on this committee believes that strategy will succeed.

We often hear that we are restricted in what we can spend by EU fiscal laws. Perhaps the Minister can clarify that by answering the following questions. Ireland has the youngest population in Europe and is expected to be the fastest growing population over the next 30 years. Despite this, we have the second lowest level of public capital expenditure in the Union. Given that there is the possibility to push for greater flexibility at European level on EU fiscal rules to support long-term investment programmes, has the Government asked for additional leeway to allow us to invest sufficiently in housing? If it has not done so to date, why not? Will it consider doing so?

The scale of the housing crisis was highlighted yesterday at the launch of the Mercy Law Resource Centre's paper on policy. The centre pointed out there has been a 43% increase in homelessness from 2014 to 2015, with 3,930 homeless adults and 1,181 children in emergency accommodation. It highlights the urgent need for investment. Does the Minister think it is wise to progress with cuts to the USC with this problem facing us?

My second concern is the issue of mortgages. While there is a crisis in regard to mortgages currently, this is only going to get worse. At a recent meeting of the committee, Conor Skehan, chairman of the Housing Agency, said:

This is a nettle that must be grasped by the incoming Government. The arrears will peak, so to speak. The numbers are enormous and they will dwarf all other matters we are discussing, such as emergency accommodation and other things. It is uncomfortable; the bullet will have to be bitten - whatever clichés one wants to use. We urge the committee to get the Government to give its highest priority to addressing this issue. It will not go away. As we get closer to negative equity going away, we will see banks tempted to realise their assets. We must act urgently and the committee must use its voice to make this urgent issue known to Government.

This is an issue we are dealing with daily in our constituency offices.

We know many buy-to-let units are in serious problems and that sales have forced many tenants from those properties. What action is the Government going to take on buy-to-let and other mortgages in distress? In particular, what action is it going to take to regulate vulture funds? How does the Minister propose to amend the code of practice on mortgage arrears and will the Minister meet with colleagues in the Department of Justice and Equality and come up with a cross-departmental report to address the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act, which people refer to as the "eviction Act", effectively an insolvency service which clearly contributes to families losing their homes.

The third issue I want to raise concerns NAMA. When NAMA was established, its terms of reference included a social clause. I do not believe that has been delivered either. While Mr. Eugene Cummins from the County and City Management Association stated that NAMA delivered 2,000 social housing units by the end of last year, I understand that only 1,400 were delivered. The Minister also gave a figure of 2,000 this morning but he might have been talking about the period up to yesterday or whatever. That might be clarified. I believe that only 1,400 were delivered and that there are still no tenants in some of them.

The Minister, Deputy Kelly, said that the outgoing Government was not in favour of rent certainty and claimed that the Department of Finance opposed it. Would the Minister, Deputy Noonan, consider legislation to create a compulsory code of conduct for banks and funds selling buy-to-let properties that are rented? The code of conduct should give sitting tenants an extended notice-to-quit period of up to 12 months and also first option on becoming tenants if the property is bought by a new landlord. There is also a need for legislative change in respect of the mortgage-to-rent scheme in order to make it easy for local authorities and housing associations to keep people in family homes that are facing repossession by banks and property funds. Would the Minister consider that?