Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. The Minister might think the meeting is getting a bit tetchy. This is the most significant crisis in the country. One would expect a full Press Gallery to be present when the Minister is present to answer to the housing committee. Unfortunately the issue blows hot and cold in the media. It is sexy for one or two weeks then it goes off the boil again.

Some people here sat on a special housing and homeless committee which met when the Members of the Dáil were all on their holidays last summer because the Government had not been formed. It brought out a raft of proposals. I cannot think of one proposal that has actually been implemented. I would be happy to be corrected on that, but even things like transport for homeless families from hotels have not been addressed. While we were doing that, the Government was working on its own Rebuilding Ireland, which was a parallel process.

There is a mantra that HAP is working, but people cannot find HAP houses. That is the problem. Nobody can find them. There is no point in citing a certain number of families because the point is that landlords are not willing to avail of it. Why would they when they get more money elsewhere. The failure to stop homelessness is down to the failure to stop evictions. If no Government is willing to introduce measures to stop evictions, the problem will get worse. It will reach 10,000 very soon. It is obvious that we need a movement for housing in this country like we had with the water charges, where massive pressure is put on the establishment to build on the massive scale that is needed.

On the local authority proposals, I do not want to be parochial but I have said before that the area I am in, which is also the Taoiseach's constituency, is a massive homeless blackspot. The figures speak for themselves. There is only one piece of council-owned land left in Blanchardstown that is zoned for housing, which is incredible, but we will be bringing a proposal, as the Solidarity councillors did, on how that can be developed. The local authority managers have been taking too long to do it. I live in that area and I know it well. There are 30 hectares there. Up to 1,200 housing units could be built there, with a park and other facilities. It could be done with a mixture of social and affordable houses, be it 60-40 or 50-50, with the mortgage income accruing back to the local authority. It will all be costed. The Minister says that homelessness is not a funding issue or that money is not a problem. He has just said that no local authority has ever been turned down for a project on the basis of funding. There would be a requirement for funding here, but the Minister would resolve much of the homeless problem in Dublin if he did that.