Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will start with the homelessness figures. If there is any lesson has been learned today, it is not to go out in public without the accurate information. Maybe the Minister went a little too far in adjusting the March figures. I wish to focus on the homelessness figures and the use of both hotels and supported accommodation. Although the previous Minister promised that nobody would be living in hotels by the end of June 2017, since that time we have seen a 21% increase in the use of hotels for accommodation for homeless families. At the same time, we are seeing a 17% increase in the use of supported accommodation for families. While I know that huge efforts are being made to try to tackle this, we are simply not dealing with the issue, or not getting on top of it, because it continues to escalate month on month.

In regard to the rapid-build programme for families currently in emergency accommodation, the Rebuilding Ireland programme committed to delivering 1,500 rapid build houses by the end of the fourth quarter of 2018. We all know that at the end of 2017, only 208 had been delivered. The recent report on Rebuilding Ireland is only promising to deliver another 637 by the end of 2019. What is the delay? What is going to happen to the shortfall of the houses that were promised, which is probably another 700, and are we still moving people directly from emergency accommodation into these houses? Is that policy staying in place?

I refer also to the social housing construction programme. I am not going to make an issue of it, but regrettably the figures for the fourth quarter of 2017 are still not available in Excel or text format. They are still only available in portable document format, PDF. One cannot sort anything out in PDF.

I am going to use the third quarter figures that I have. The 59 week process was mentioned. How many of the 504 projects in the fourth quarter are taken beyond the 59 week process that we are trying to achieve? I have a number of project at stage 1 in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. I think I have 40 programmes to deliver 685 houses still at stage 1, the capital appraisal process. May I have an update on the programmes?

The Minister has committed to buying houses in areas outside of high demand, and has set a target of 900 houses. Who makes the decision as to what is a high demand area and following on from that is it the decision of the local authority to decide where the houses are bought?

I will make a brief comment on short-term letting as it does have an effect on housing. What is the position on the proposed legislation on short-term letting platforms? The committee did an excellent report on it and my party has introduced a Bill and we are still awaiting a detailed report.

There is a significant concern in the approved housing bodies sector in respect of the recent EUROSTAT decision that their funding is now on balance sheet. Will the Minister provide an update on that? What is the process moving forward?

Last night the Minister made a statement in the Dáil giving figures for the number of houses built in County Wicklow. However, I have the Department's statistics for the number of houses built by Wicklow County Council over successive years and it is as follows: 79, 91, 68, 158, 30, 120, 176, 140, 16, 08, 0 and 08. Will the Minister correct the record of the Dáil in respect of his statement last night?