Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 March 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government

Quarterly Progress Report Strategy for Rented Sector: Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (Resumed)

2:00 pm

Photo of Dessie EllisDessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have some concerns about the public private partnerships, PPPs. My party has done a fair amount of research on this and Deputy Ó Broin alluded to some of the problems. On the long-term value for money, it is debatable whether that is a good road to take.

I have to be a little parochial in this case. I support social housing but 71 units are planned for Scribblestown, which is an area that does not have a single bus service. There are no community facilities, not even a shop. It is a very isolated area. We cannot pick a site on the basis that, say, Dublin City Council indicates that it has a site when proper research has not been done and there is no interaction with the communities regarding the site. The argument being put forward by people in this case, whether the Department likes it or not, is that we all support a mix of social, affordable and private housing and now the intention is to build only social housing on a site. That may work in some areas but it is having a very bad effect in others. The people in that area are up in arms and it will be very difficult to deal with the issue locally, and local politicians will struggle to deal with it.

Much remains to be done on the refurbishment policy and in terms of how quickly units are being dealt with. I know there has been a bigger turnaround but it needs to improve, and there should be more investment.

In terms of the rapid build housing, I have experience of the 22 units that were built to a very high standard in Ballymun. It is very good housing, and I have not had reports of any problems with them. Forty rapid build houses are being built in St. Helena's in Finglas. We were told they would be turned over rapidly. The build started in 2016 and regardless of what the witnesses say, I have spoken to the people on the ground and at the current rate at which they are being built, realistically, people will not be living in those homes until September or October. The project has taken a year and three months. We could have done them another way. However, they are of the highest standard and I have no problem in that regard.

We need to be delivering more quickly. We call them rapid-build units but they are not rapid-build. The way in which the Government introduced Part V and cut back on the amount of social housing we were able to get was a disaster. That policy should be reviewed and we should be going back to the drawing board. We also introduced a rule that one social housing unit had to built for every nine units, whereas previously it was one in five. The Government cut back on social housing in every way under Part V.

There is more scope to be looking at NAMA in terms of how it is delivering. There are an awful lot of properties under the control of NAMA and it is getting funding from many of them through leasing arrangements or otherwise. That money is slowly trickling back as NAMA is supporting some projects. We need to accelerate this. NAMA has a big fund that could be utilised in a major way. I would have preferred if the State had taken control in the first instance or if the local authorities were given control of the portfolio that NAMA got its hands on. Be that as it may, we cannot allow NAMA to sell those properties off in blocks. That is an area in which we could accelerate the whole issue of social housing.

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