Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Why is it only in 2017, according to the first box in the sheet, that the Cabinet will look to acquire 1,600 vacant units? Why not do this now? Is there a reason?

I am glad progress has been made on support for people in homelessness at present. I proposed at the housing committee that there be supports such as transport for people, but I would argue that a free bus pass is not enough. According to a survey, 40% of homeless people in Dublin are from the constituency of Dublin West, and I would well believe it because I am snowed under with this issue. There are no hotels in Dublin West so people are put into far-flung areas and must take two buses. Why does the Department not examine the idea of providing a bus to collect children and bring them to school, rather than leaving mothers to try to bring four children to different places across the city in rush-hour traffic? This should be considered. It is obvious.

Another issue is food. The Minister spoke about nutrition plans, but there is no way anybody can avail of proper nutrition while living in emergency accommodation because they cannot afford it. Good food costs money. Many children I see in my constituency who have been homeless for a year are suffering real obesity because of the crap their parents are forced to feed them. They cannot afford to eat in the hotel. They are not allowed to eat in the hotel because those running the hotel do not want them to be seen. The Minister must give allowances for food. He cannot expect people to keep children healthy. We will have serious health issues arising from this.

The Minister spoke about putting pregnant women in particular locations. I am sure he is not speaking about a Magdalen laundry. Pregnant women have specific needs. They should be able to access clean water and not have to buy it in the hotel for €5 a bottle. Any supports are welcome. Will the Minister expand on this?

Domestic violence is a big driver of homelessness. We all know families stay in their homes and women stay in danger because of the homeless situation. People are stuck in refuges and cannot move out of them and are blocking spaces for other women. What specifically is the Minister planning? He mentioned that he had something.

With regard to prevention and ending homelessness, we need to put a bandage on the haemorrhage. We need to stop more people from being made homeless, but a mortgage-to-rent scheme will add little because most of the people becoming homeless are renting. They do not have a mortgage. They are losing their rented accommodation. By far the biggest reason is rent increases. The Department is now recognising this reality and is increasing rent allowance limits. It was turning a blind eye to what technically was fraud because the only people being defrauded were the poor families themselves with the under-the-counter payments they had to give landlords. Many people not on social welfare are also struggling to pay rent. The Minister spoke about the Tyrrelstown amendment, but the biggest driver of homelessness is landlords coming to tenants and stating they must sell the property and that the tenants must leave. We all know this. It is so obvious and simple. The Minister spoke about a balance of rights. As I said at the previous meeting, there is no balance of rights here. A landlord does not have an equal right to sell a property at will and evict a family onto the street. It is not an equal right. Could the State not try to acquire these houses if the landlords really are selling them? We could introduce a law to outlaw the sale of property except under a range of circumstances.

The range of circumstances could include that a landlord - I am speaking in this regard about a landlord of a single or small number of properties rather than of the vulture-type landlord - would have to prove that he or she would endure severe hardship if he or she could not sell the property, for example, as part of a settlement in the context of, say, family breakdown and so on. The landlord could also be required to offer purchase of the house to the State such that the State could then maintain the tenant in situ.I do not believe half of the number of landlords who claim that they are selling their houses are actually doing so. What they are actually doing is displacing tenants so that they can get higher rents. We should call their bluff. We should also allow reluctant landlords to move on if they really do want to sell and in that regard put in place a State scheme to purchase those houses thereby keeping people in housing.

The only solution is to build more social housing where it is needed. I am not sure if we will get to the issue of social housing today. I do not like the cliché, "social housing provision is not rocket science", but it is not. There are concentrations of homelessness across Ireland. Ireland is a small country. It is not a massive country like China such that there is a need for a great deal of planning. The homelessness issue in Ireland should be easy to resolve. We know where are the homeless black-spots. They are in Dublin, Cork, Kildare, the commuter belt areas and, sporadically, in other locations. Surely most of the 47,000 social houses need to be in areas where they are most needed. The problem is that this is not what is happening. The Minister said he has met with many of the local authorities. Has he met Fingal County Council? Homelessness is a huge issue in Dublin. A key area in this regard is Fingal, yet there is no plan to build social housing in the Dublin 15 area, except for ten units to be provided by a housing agency. That is disgraceful. The crisis is growing and nothing is being done to address it. It is akin to a Stalinist plan: abolishing the barriers to planning permission and getting the houses built even though this will doing nothing to address the issue of homelessness because most of the houses that will be made available will be private housing that will be unaffordable. I am more interested in social housing provision being progressed and in a real plan being put in place to target that provision in areas where it is most needed.