Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, the Secretary General of the Department, Mr. David Walsh and Ms Mary Hurley. I acknowledge and congratulate Mr. David Walsh on his appointment as chairman of An Bord Pleanála. We will miss him but I hope he will not forget everything we have said to him during the past two years. I look forward to engaging with An Bord Pleanála. I would add there has been slippage on its part in terms of Rebuilding Ireland. We still have no i-planning system in this country despite my having a circular from the now Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, that this would happen within three to four months of that strategy. A great announcement in Rebuilding Ireland was that we were going to embrace technology. I am not asking the Minister to take notes to respond, and that is not out of rudeness on my part, but I want to use my time in the form of a monologue, for want of a better word, because w will have many opportunities to talk and he will have many opportunities to come to both Houses of the Oireachtas and we can engage in that way. We need to examine planning in terms of An Bord Pleanála because commitments were given about engaging in a process, particularly regarding fast-track planning, student accommodation and a range of matters, but that contract with and commitments to the citizens have not been fulfilled. I happen to live in Dublin but I would not want to be living down in west Cork and trying to engage with An Bord Pleanála or to go into look at bad etchings and drawings in planning authorities before I prepared some submission to the board. In any event, I wish Mr. David Walsh well in that job.

I acknowledge the strong and robust account the Minister gave of himself in the Dáil during the week. It was impressive. I took the time to look at the coverage of it and to listen to it. He is very capable of defending himself and he did it in a professional and robust way and I have no doubt about his personal commitment to housing and addressing homelessness. I acknowledge that and I like to be positive. As I was coming into this meeting, it struck me that I am not a member of the Minister's party or any political party, I am Independent. That does not mean I am against Government or Government policy, or against anybody. I am against something when I believe it is wrong and I advocate and support something that I believe is right. That is the way I motivate myself in my personal, political and business life. I acknowledge the Minister gave a good and strong account of himself; he demonstrated his knowledge of this brief and that must be respected.

We have 10,000 people living in emergency accommodation despite all our best efforts, promises about hotels and emergency accommodation in hubs, some of which are very good and some of which are not great, and I have been to many of them. We also have 3,600 children who are homeless. That is the factual position. Many figures are bandied about regarding the number of households on social housing. Today the nearest figure we can be precise about is approximately 85,000 householders. I have spoken to a number of non-governmental organisations today and I acknowledge the great work they are doing. Let us not get caught up in the semantics of the numbers because we are talking about homes and people's lives. I use this opportunity, on behalf of us all, to acknowledge the great work of Focus Ireland and many of the non-governmental organisations and the many positives developments that are happening. There are many positives in terms of the people who have been lifted of the streets, given housing and other forms of holistic support, which are important. The day of the blame game is over with respect to who is for and who is against a measure, who did not do wrong and the numbers.

I welcome the Minister's announcement regarding the Central Statistics Office, CSO. I suggested that to him last year in this very room and told him we needed somebody independent to validate our figures and somebody took exception to that idea. They thought I was having a pop at them. I am not having a pop at anyone. We need to validate our housing figures and to stand over them. That is important. We have 85,000 householders on our official social housing waiting list. I do my own statistics across the 31 local authorities with key councillors with whom I have built relationships.

Also, I acknowledge we had representatives of four councils here last night and I was very impressed by them. They had various views on the issue. The point that emerged from last night's meeting is that they are sick of being blamed and I am sick of people blaming the Minister and vice versa. Therefore, we need accountability. If the Minister is brave enough to have another one of his great housing forums or meetings, he should have the next one with us. Furthermore, I do not believe he is tapping into the resources around this table. We have a wide experience in local government. Everyone here has been involved in local government. I read a note about the Land Development Agency that I received after the event. I speak to media journalists who report on this specialist category of housing, planning and local government who regularly contact me to tell me they have been tipped off and briefed about matters - that is the truth, let us call a spade a spade - about which we, the members, have not been told. We had to request this after the event. I see people surrounding the Minister at various gigs and openings in regard to policy and I ask myself why are they there. I am not convinced he or his Department is tapping into the enormous skills, expertise and talent around this table, and that is a challenge. I ask him to reflect on that and to use us and have dialogue with us. I do not want to be hounding anyone in his Department and I do not want anyone hounding me, but I believe we can have a constructive exchange and be in a partnership in this respect.

I wish to touch on three or four issues. From statistics I received today, I note 70,000 borrowers are in mortgage arrears with 30 being more than five years in arrears. We have a crisis across the whole spectrum in terms of mortgages, rent and affordability to purchase and to rent. I want to put a few points to the Minister and he might not be able to fill me in on some of the detail because I am aware from having been in communication with him that some of it is sensitive. There are 158 acres in Thornton Hall. It is a scandal. Either the Government does something with it and puts it to use, or we should consider alternatives. I do not know if the Government has considered moving an Army barracks or some other facility in Dublin to Thornton Hall. I visited it, saw the services on that site and it should be used.I will leave it at that. I do not want to engage on it because there are sensitives around these issues and I like to be responsible. What is happening with Shanganagh Castle? I have heard that the council is frustrated by the Minister's Department and I have heard from his Department that the council is not providing the data. That is a big issue and it has the potential to create many homes. I will not go on about the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. The Minister knows the story there. I would ask him to engage with the local authority. He should not undermine local democracy but support and work with those in it to get things done.

I have been reliably told by independent experts and people who validate this area that there are 3,008 ha of State owned lands, of which I have seen some maps, across the country which are serviced and ready to go. We need to know about them. We need to do a full inventory of the lands in State ownership and to have housing built on them or we need to develop imaginative partnerships. I do not have a problem with partnerships. We just want homes built. We have a crisis. It is deeply dividing people and society. We talk about reclaiming the city and members of the Garda have advised me that they believe there will be more of these events. People are angry. We must understand they are angry and we must empathise and sympathise with them but, more important, we have to stop the platitudes and get on and deliver something.

The Minister's status report is good and I acknowledge a good deal of work has gone into it. I am not too sure of the format for going forward because the Minister has achieved a lot of things. Sr. Stanislaus Kennedy said at a conference I attended last week that we are worse off in many ways in terms of the figures than we were when we started the Rebuilding Ireland programme. I do not want to get into the figures but we need solutions and to work together.

A recent report from National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, on its 2017 accounts includes an attachment setting out a note on the social housing status to the end of March 2018, which I will make available. It states that 2,474 social housing units have been delivered, providing approximately 8,000 homes.

The more alarming fact is that we are told that NAMA offered 6,984 residential properties for social housing purposes, but demand has been confirmed by the local authorities for a mere 2,717 of them. There are likely to be complexities around that - nothing is ever simple - but we must remember who the owners of NAMA are and who is responsible for it. I know that it is a separate vehicle, that the Minister cannot interfere, and what the standard responses are. However, we owe it to the ordinary punter, the ordinary man and woman who work and pay their taxes, and those who do not work because they cannot get a job for whatever reason - and I make no judgment about them - that we use the assets of NAMA to help us out in this housing crisis. We owe it to the public, the taxpayer and this country.

I thank the Minister for indulging me and allowing me to have my say. I am not being rude and I want to hear what the Minister has to say; I am not doubting his commitment. I know there are blockages and that the Minister is also frustrated, as are his officials. I want to acknowledge their work. We have to be patient, but we are all in an understandable hurry to resolve this crisis. I have to leave because I have to attend at the Oireachtas audit committee, which has a very long and interesting agenda today, and I want to play my part there as well. I am not leaving due to rudeness, but there are some points the Minister might reflect on. Perhaps we can have ongoing dialogue on them.