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

I welcome the Minister and wish him well in his job. There has been a huge amount of work done over the last year or two in terms of putting plans together by everyone, including this committee, the local authorities, the different Departments and all of the different homelessness and housing agencies. This plan that set up the different pillars, 1 to 5, is by and large a good plan in terms of focusing efforts. However, one of the big problems is that when things are not working one has to ask what the cause of them is. It is clear that there are many areas in which things are not working. The main issue is the delivery of social housing. Why are we not delivering enough social housing, never mind affordable housing, which the Government has not even considered. It has constantly talked about affordable leasing but it has never talked about affordable housing. Affordability is one of the areas the Government really needs to look at. To give an example, the Ó Cualann Cohousing Alliance in Ballymun is delivering five houses from between €140,000 and €150,000 in the next week or two. It says that it is capable of delivering a lot more. It is looking for more contracts to fulfil. Therefore, it has an agreement with the construction company it is working with and it is prepared to do more. There is a model we can work with and have a look at.

There are areas in which we are failing to deliver. I will outline some of them and I hope the Minister will take some of them on board. The first area in which we are getting hammered is due to the ideology the market is set to. We rely on the markets and we are told we are to leave it to them and not interfere with them. We rely on the private markets.

We also do not want to upset the construction industry because the prices are as they are on the market. We now have houses that are priced at least €300,000 and upwards in areas where there is no way such prices are sustainable. We must get to grips with the situation because it is absolutely unsustainable, totally over the top and totally driven by greed and the same applies to the rental market. Who in their right might can handle paying high rents? Realistically, we can talk about the HAP scheme and rental supplements but these rents are way beyond control and something must be done. My own thinking on this, and we have suggested it many times, is that we should have a State-run company that is run by local authorities to build and direct the building of social and affordable housing. It would be one way to stop the markets from running away and prevent people making massive profits. I know that a State-run company goes against many people's ideology but I ask the new Minister to seriously consider the idea.

I will give another example of where we have allowed things to get out of hand. NAMA and the banks are selling off large portfolios and individual places left, right and centre. Such a situation should never have been allowed happen. We could have brought in legislation to control that practice instead of allowing them the option. Originally NAMA was given a certain role but it one that could have easily been changed.

We have not delivered on the public private partnerships, PPPs. We have ran into all sorts of problems to deliver PPPs and we will face even more problems. Another area is the financial contribution. In my own area alone people have been asked to give up larger accommodation for senior citizens because we need greater housing concentration. If we take what has happened in my area then how many units can the initiative deliver across the city? A huge number.

We also have not delivered on the mortgage-to-rent scheme. We have talked about the initiative many times. In terms of the amount of mortgage-to-rents and properties that have kept people in their homes, it does not make sense that we have not delivered the scheme. I have suggested some areas for the Minister to consider. I hope he will assess whether the initiatives are possible.

Talk of a housing supply frustrates me more than anything else. In every area that I can think of we built schemes with shops at the bottom of them but, unfortunately, they have all been left lying idle. It has never made sense to me why they have been left sitting idle for ten or 15 years. It seems the Government would rather let these places remain empty and unused instead of converting them into accommodation. I do not understand that mindset. I urge the Minister to do something about the problem. Commercial units are lying idle in Ballymun, Finglas and everywhere one looks. The other day I was in Sallins and I saw that the place was littered with boarded up premises. The situation will not change unless something is done. We have talked about small towns and the number of shops that are closed. Many of the complexes were built in the past few years and a couple of hundred, literally, were built in Finglas. I urge the Minister to do something about the matter.

I get very frustrated now because I remember when the idea to introduce rapid build houses was first mooted. At the time I was the Sinn Féin spokesperson on housing and I said I would consider the whole idea but the newspapers went ballistic at the prospect of people living in containers. I was the first person to say I would consider rapid build and I got lashed out of it for saying so. I do not have a problem with hubs if we put in proper, decent accommodation that is well controlled and properly dealt with. Crucially, we cannot afford to allow rapid build units to become long-term accommodation. We must be in a position to move people on. That is the only way I can see rapid builds working. We must be honest with ourselves about the waiting list. We still have 90,000 applications or thereabouts on the housing waiting list. We have not moved an inch. In fact, the waiting list has increased a bit due to a greater number of homeless people and a greater number of people waiting for a house. Things are not working. Can we change tack? Can the Government consider some of my ideas? Will the Minister consider incorporating some of my ideas? We want to improve the situation as best we can. Without doubt, everything takes time but we cannot afford to wait any longer. We need to move and act quickly.