Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment the Minister on his new position. I know he will do lots of work for us because we are counting on him.

I had massive concerns when I read in the paper this morning that homelessness targets in Rebuilding Ireland are not being met. As previous speakers said, I am not surprised. Many of the issues previous speakers mentioned have been raised over the past number of months. Sometimes I feel they are not being listened to. We all know Dublin has a crisis. It is great we are working with Dublin and trying to sort it. Rural Ireland also has a crisis, although perhaps not to the same degree. We have massive issues. Rural areas are forgotten. I say this all the time. If one reads the reports that came in yesterday and the Minister's response, one will see the statistics are on Dublin. I have no issues with that, but I have concerns that no other counties in Ireland are being mentioned apart from Dublin. It is unfair. Nothing can be accurate until there is some sort of information on other parts of the country. We are getting figures but I do not think they add up.

Another concern, which I have brought up on several occasions, is to do with women's refuges. I am told they are the responsibility of a different Department. Nobody is taking responsibility. I have massive issues with this. Every county in Ireland should have a women's refuge because women and children are at risk of homelessness. There is none in Carlow and Kilkenny and Waterford are full. It is the Minister's duty to have a refuge in every county where there is a population as big as Carlow county, which is over 50,000. We have no women's refuge. We cannot get people to Kilkenny or Waterford. In 2017, there is no need for this. Every time I bring it up with different Departments I am told it is the responsibility of another Department. It is a housing need so perhaps the Minister can look at it.

In terms of the hub, I am not sure what impact it will have on Dublin. In rural areas such as Carlow, I do not know if the hub will be a solution. We have buildings that could be bought cheaply. I have said it here on several occasions. We now have a market in which housing and buildings are quite reasonably priced and could be bought more cheaply than renting them. My other issue is renting. We have spoken about the HAP scheme here before. I have massive concerns about it. It changed from the rent allowance scheme to the HAP scheme but landlords do not want to accept HAP. It is a massive concern particularly in rural areas. There needs to be legislation or something from the Department to say that if one is on the local authority housing list and qualifies for HAP, they should be put on the HAP scheme if they go looking for a rented house and have a good record. It is not happening and that is why the homelessness crisis is getting worse. The scheme has changed from the rent allowance scheme. It is quite good because under the scheme people are allowed to work a certain number of hours. All of that is taken into consideration, which I appreciate because it gives people an incentive if they want to work.

However, getting people to take the HAP is the biggest issue. They are then coming in to the local authorities and presenting as homeless. It must then be asked what is the criteria for homelessness. As far as I can see, every local authority is saying that this is homelessness and that is not homelessness. What is homelessness? What are the criteria? Every local authority needs to have in writing the criteria for homelessness. That is crucial. I have so many issues with this and I cannot understand how the Department is not doing something about it. If the Deputy compares Carlow to Portlaoise or Kilkenny in our neighbouring counties, the limit is €27,500 to qualify to get on the local authority housing list in Carlow but in a lot of other places it is €30,000 and over. If one is €20 or €30 over that limit, one cannot get on that local authority housing list. One then goes for a mortgage but does not qualify for it. One actually does not fit in anywhere. Where are those people then? They become homeless.

It is the common sense approach that is not being followed. It is as though the Department is making all these rules and regulations but they are not adding up because people are not qualifying for them. There is no common sense and no one saying that this is what is happening or that this case or that case needs to be looked at. I know the last time I brought it up with the different Departments, they said to go back to the local authorities. Who is over the local authorities? Who is actually able to sit down with local authorities? It is like what Deputy Cowen said - I had better give him his proper title - about staffing. Who is responsible for it? Is there staffing there? After dealing with people that come into my clinics, I have come in here for the last few months to meet the Minister and the heads of the Department and bring up issues, but I feel that I am going back down to the clinic to say that I am highlighting them but not getting an answer. It is the same with the local authorities. In our own local authority, we have many boarded up houses. Why is there not money to buy them? One could buy a house more cheaply than to give the rent allowance of €800 or €900 every month to a HAP tenant. The local authority could actually buy it cheaper in the long term. Then there are people who come into my clinic to say to me that there are three houses boarded up in an estate and to ask why they are not being developed. There needs to be a programme put in place.

Carlow is not as dear as the Dublin area and I can understand that the Minister has to look at the hub to try to get people off the housing list there and into emergency accommodation. However, in rural Ireland, the houses are that bit cheaper. They could be bought cheaper than the HAP. I cannot understand why the Department is not doing that. I have said before that I have major issues with the dezoned lands that the local authorities own. Years ago when I was on a local authority, the Department gave the initiative that all the land inside the county was to be dezoned. Now local authorities need to look at building on local authority land that is dezoned.

A few months ago, the Department contacted all local authorities requesting what the build was going forward for each local authority. Two years ago, we were promised 26 houses near my own home place. I am still waiting on them. There were six houses that were meant to be built for people with disabilities. The plans and all had gone through. They were in the council offices for the last year but there is not even a word of them being built. We have co-op housing that has provided some houses near to where I live. There are four houses sitting idle for the last few months. I met the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, twice and asked him if he would please allocate the four houses that are ready. I am still waiting. I cannot understand it. I am going to the Department myself now. For a long time I was going back to the local authorities and they would come back to me. I am now going to the Department myself. I find that I am getting the same answers. Could common sense not prevail, particularly in rural Ireland where we have boarded-up houses that we would buy and build cheaper than the cost of paying out the HAP scheme? The HAP scheme is fine in the short term but it is a very expensive scheme for the country on a long-term scale. If the local authorities invested, it would be cheaper in the long run.

There are issues there that we need to work on. I brought up something else yesterday when we talked about homelessness in the short term. There are families that might have a room or might be able to help their family on a short-term basis and there could be an initiative given to them. At the moment, a local authority tenant paying rent of €90 and trying to help the family that is homeless the rent can be increased to €150 per week, with no other help coming in. Such tenants are just getting by. Could there be some small incentive for families that maybe have a room in their house in order to help their family on a short-term basis so that they are not in a bed and breakfast or hotel, because that is not good for the family or the children? There needs to be an incentive for families to help themselves if they can. That needs to be looked at.

I repeat what the previous speaker said. Common sense needs to prevail here. It is not happening. All of the money that we are told we have is not coming through to local authorities. That is a fact. If the Department was going down to local authorities, we would not be waiting that length of time to get houses built or waiting on reports on houses that need to be done. It seems to be happening in all local authorities. Somebody needs to take action on this and there needs to be accountability. Unless we start stepping up to the mark, the homelessness crisis will only get worse. It will not get any better.