Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 29 March 2018
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2018
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
10:00 am
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
I would contend that at the very least, we are seeing some improvement in some areas. Rough sleeping is certainly down. The initial count indicates that rough sleeping is down significantly from the last count. I think people will have seen to a certain extent with their own eyes over the past couple of months that rough sleeping is down. We know from the RTB figures that the increase in rents is starting to slow but certainly I have no argument with the Deputy and I will not contend that homelessness is not getting worse. That is evident. There are more families in emergency accommodation than there were before and the number is continuing to rise. I would not take any one month's figures as a trend but certainly the trend has been in the wrong direction over the past couple of months.
We should be talking about solutions here and lots of people want us to focus on solutions, not on the politics of it. The Deputy mentioned land hoarding, which is certainly part of the picture. It is definitely part of the problem. We brought in the derelict sites tax or levy, whatever one wants to call it. This will take effect from 2019. We have announced the establishment of Home Building Finance Ireland, which will be funded from this year. ISIF already provides finance to building so it is not as if it is not being done already. It is but Home Building Finance Ireland will provide more of that. As part of Project Ireland 2040, we have made a commitment to establish a State development land agency - essentially a State developer - that will be able to acquire and develop land. This is one of the things that will form part of the solution. We must bear in mind that even if there is land hoarding, building is also taking place as well but this building is generally not residential. It is commercial property, student accommodation and things like hotels. It is not residential so even in the context of land hoarding, that development is happening but not in residential and not in sufficient numbers.
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