Senator Jennifer Murnane O'Connor:

That is where my concern is. I am very disappointed with the Minister's answers so far today. When we last spoke about building houses I know I said to him up in the Chamber that it was a bit like Groundhog Day. He came to Carlow last year to launch all these new projects, which we welcomed. However, some of them have not even started. Some of them have started and some are half finished. They were promised a few years ago, a bit like what Deputy Casey mentioned. We need to be careful. This is where the problem is. The figures we are given are so far out that it frightens me. Most of us here have worked in local authorities, in my case for nearly 18 years. As a former chair of the housing SPC for 15 years, I saw many of the issues that arise at local authority level.

The Minister spoke about the timescale. In 2017, only 141 houses were purchased, leased or built for social housing in Carlow. That is a very small scale. I have all the targets for 2019, 2020 and 2021. I hope they are achievable. However, this is where the system is failing. Carlow has a cap of 27,000 above which people cannot go on the housing list. We are making people homeless now. Our neighbouring county, Kilkenny, has a cap of 33,500. It is unacceptable. I have brought this to the Minister's attention. I know of people who are becoming homeless. This is where the system is failing the people because there is no joined-up thinking.

I could write the book on the housing assistance payment. I have so many cases involving the HAP. Carlow did not qualify as a rent pressure zone with maximum rent increases of 4%. As I have previously informed the Department, the monthly rent on a house in Carlow has gone from €750 to nearly €1,000. That is within a few months or a year at most. Twenty-one local authorities qualify as rent pressure zones. We are in an emergency. The Minister should give everybody the chance. When living in an area it is very hard to justify how one particular housing body can do so badly and others can get so much. That is where the system is failing.

I wish to ask about rough sleepers. My area, thank God, is not as bad as Dublin in this regard and what has been happening in Dublin is sad. What is the Minister's policy for rough sleepers? What is the policy of each local authority to say what a rough sleeper is and how they qualify? My area had a few rough sleepers and I fought a battle. I can go through the different cases with the Minister.

The Minister mentioned that he is getting figures from the 31 local authorities. Is he actually going down and talking to people in each local authority? Is he listening to us, who are on the ground and are bringing cases to the Minister and telling him truthfully what is happening in our areas? I am not knocking local authorities. However, we are coming to the Minister all the time with different figures and different cases. I am telling the Minister about the rent pressure zones and the cap, but nothing has been done.

The Minister mentioned that he was delighted that there have been 700 new staff members in local authorities in the last few months. That is welcome, but he did not mention that over the last six years, Carlow local authority has lost 120 staff members. I think the figure is between 110 and 120 staff. Why? Because we were not recruiting. There might be two or three staff members here or there, but the Minister has not mentioned that most local authorities have lost a major number of staff in the past several years. It is unfair to the local authorities. What is actually happening is that they are understaffed, and that causes major problems. What exactly are we doing about staff?

The other thing I want to ask about is the mortgage to rent pilot scheme. Can I have an update on that? I also want to ask the Minister about the roll-out of the awareness campaign on the options for families at risk of losing their homes. What are the figures on that? I do not find that it comes up too much, and I deal with housing a lot in my own area. Can I have the figures and statistics on this?

I want to ask the Minister about action 1.35 of his status report, under the first pillar. It states: "We will develop a homelessness prevention strategy for non-nationals without entitlements (Habitual Residence conditions)." I will give the Minister an example. I could provide hundreds of examples, but this is just one. There is a lady I have lived near all my life who married a non-national. She is expecting a child. We have declared her husband and we have all the paperwork in order. However, unless people actually declare, the council will not accept that they can go on as a couple. There are so many issues that are not being addressed.

What exactly are we going to do going forward? Will the Minister and his Department meet with every local authority to get the figures and the statistics? Will he meet with the committee here as well? We can sit down and give the Minister the cases that are of real concern to us. I approached the Minister at the last meeting and asked if he could do anything for me concerning the rent pressure zones. He said he could not. I was very disappointed with that. I was also very disappointed with the Department's answer when I asked it about the cap for Carlow County Council. They keep telling me they will come back to me. We are making people homeless. For example, in my own local authority, which is where I am very focused-----