Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee members who came to the Department last week. I hope they found it useful. We are trying to ensure everybody has access to all the information they need on the action plan which will be a feature of the lifetime of this Government. The more people who know the detail of what we propose, costing, numbers and timescales for different targets, the better for everybody.

I thank the committee for inviting me here today to address it on the cross-Government action plan for housing and homelessness, Rebuilding Ireland, and look forward to our discussion. The informal meeting last week was very useful. I hope we can continue that level of engagement within the formal committee setting.

I would like first to introduce the officials accompanying me here today: Mr. John McCarthy, Secretary General; Mr. David Walsh, assistant secretary for planning, housing market policy and land management division; Ms Mary Hurley, assistant secretary in charge of the housing programme delivery division, which is very important in the context of this plan; Mr. Brian Kennedy, principal officer for homelessness and housing inclusion supports; Ms Nina Murray, principal officer for housing assistance payment and current programmes; Mr. Terry Sheridan, principal officer in charge of planning policy and very much behind the complexity of the new legislation; and Mr. Barry Quinlan, principal officer over housing market policy and land management.

This afternoon I want to take the opportunity to outline the Government's approach to housing under Rebuilding Ireland, which I believe marks the commencement of a new partnership approach with key stakeholders to deliver the required actions and solutions to address the housing crisis. The Government's approach to housing, and mine, can be summarised as follows. We developed Rebuilding Ireland through a meaningful consultation which adds real value to the overall policy. We are absolutely focused on delivery through measurable and time-bound actions. We want to deliver outcomes for all households the State can help. We need to help, either directly or indirectly, to put a roof over people's heads, help them live in attractive sustainable communities and, of course, put infrastructure around those who need support while finding a home for themselves.

Importantly, the report of the special Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness has helped to inform the final action plan. This process added to our understanding of the housing system and it is my intention that a consultation will remain a cornerstone of Rebuilding Ireland throughout its implementation. In this regard, I am visiting local authorities around the country in a series of events targeting implementation of Rebuilding Ireland on the ground. Local authorities are a hugely important part of delivery, particularly of the social housing build programme. Next stop is Waterford tomorrow, where, hopefully, we will be able to focus on housing, although we will have to wait and see.

This committee has a key role to play in terms of the implementation and monitoring of Rebuilding Ireland, not least in terms of the legislative requirements needed to make key elements of the plan come to fruition. My hope is that we can come to an agreement as to how we effectively manage the pre-legislative scrutiny stage in order to get priority legislation debated through the normal stages in the Houses and passed without any unnecessary delay. I am sure everybody in this committee room wants to avoid any recurrence of what happened in Tyrellstown, for example. Likewise, we all want to strengthen the RTB. However, we need to put legislation in place as a matter of urgency to ensure a number of these early actions happen. Without stifling the deliberative process, I sincerely believe we can streamline how we do business, the result of which can only have a positive impact for citizens. I look forward to hearing the views of committee members today and their ongoing and future co-operation in fast-tracking, from a legislative point of view, the various stages we need to go through, while at the same time giving serious and robust consideration to all proposals.

As we all know, we are currently facing a national housing crisis. Since 2009, persistent under-supply, especially in Dublin, has meant the housing supply deficit is currently likely to exceed 50,000 homes. Given that we built just over 12,500 units last year, the first step is to move from current levels towards accepted long-term demand requirements of at least 25,000 housing units per annumas quickly as possible. That is the target in the plan. To be honest, I believe we need to go well beyond that - up to 35,000 units - to keep pace with a growing population and a growing economy. What has concerned me most in developing this plan is the knock-on impact caused by a growing supply gap. The effects are felt by both buyers and renters and affect the most vulnerable in society the hardest.

Of course, promoting housing growth has advantages beyond the obvious social and economic benefits. Almost 137,000 people are employed in the construction sector, an 8.7% increase year on year. While this part of our economic activity had diminished in recent years, we are thankfully now seeing this trend turning around. I am also confident that those who had to emigrate will be encouraged home once we get building on the scale envisaged under this plan, whether that is social housing or private housing.

In drafting Rebuilding Ireland, we analysed each element of housing and came up with key actions to help repair what is broken or not recovering at the pace it needs to. It was through this analysis that we arrived at five key pillars to try to bring clarity to the multitude of different actions that needed to be taken. The first pillar, which I also think reflects the priority, addresses homelessness, the second is accelerating social housing delivery, the third is building more homes for the wider housing market, the fourth is improving the rental sector, which needs quite a lot more work between now and the end of the year, and the fifth is making the best use of houses that are vacant. There are some 260,000 vacant housing units across the country, 60,000 of which are holiday homes, which leaves 200,000 other units. Many are in parts of the country where there is not a strong demand for homes but there are certainly thousands in parts of the country that have huge housing demand, in particular Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and other urban centres. The plan sets ambitious targets to deal comprehensively with homelessness, double the annual level of residential construction to 25,000 homes, deliver 47,000 units of social housing with an investment of €5.35 billion, make the best use of the existing stock and create the right conditions for a much more vibrant and responsive rental sector.

I have a long speaking note to read but I suspect members may wish to ask questions and get under the skin of some of the issues. My speaking note deals with each pillar, one after the other. I am in the hands of the committee. We can take it pillar by pillar. One of the things I would like to deal with, if members agree, is the legislation we are hoping to introduce in the next couple of weeks. Without that legislation, we cannot do some of the fundamental things we are looking to do. I mentioned this last week when we were discussing this issue. It would be very helpful to me, for lots of reasons, if we could agree to progress the legislation. There are only six actions that are being progressed but if the committee insists on a formal pre-legislative scrutiny stage, that will add about six weeks to the overall enactment process for the legislation. Hopefully, by giving people very full briefings in regard to the legislation, we can effectively have an informal pre-legislative scrutiny process. I will certainly give members everything I have once I have it cleared at Cabinet. Hopefully, we can then deal with it through the various stages. I will happily accept amendments on Committee Stage and Report Stage if they make sense. However, I believe there is an urgency with this legislation if we want to get the construction sector moving at a pace that I think is possible if we enact a lot of things at the same time in parallel. I mentioned this last week and I would like to take time at a later stage to address this particular issue. However, I am sure members will want to go through the pillars first.