Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have three questions. Since the Government took office, the level of homelessness among adults and children has increased by 61%. At a time when the Government is claiming that more money is being spent on social housing than at any other time in the history of the State, the level of homelessness has increased by 61%. Since the Minister was appointed to this portfolio, it has increased by 25%. It has increased by 10% in the past 12 months. Notwithstanding everything the Minister has just said, on this key indicator, the problem is continuing to get worse. Is it not time to accept that Rebuilding Ireland, as set out, is failing in dealing with homelessness? If the Minister does not start to do things differently, for example, by putting some new interventions and investments on the table, the problem will continue to get worse.

My second question is related to the cost rental and affordable purchase schemes. Essentially, the serviced sites fund has been in place since the original €25 million was announced in October 2017. A year and a half has passed and no new homes have been delivered. If I understand the Minister correctly, he is saying no affordable homes will be delivered under the scheme next year. He has referred to 2020. Will he confirm the position in that respect? The cost rental scheme has been Government policy since 2014, when the former Minister, Deputy Kelly, introduced the social housing 2020 plan. It was detailed in Rebuilding Ireland. I think the pilot scheme was meant to be brought forward at the end of 2016 or in early 2017. Will the Minister confirm that even though this has been Government policy for five years, no cost rental units will be delivered this year? The issue of pricing is really important in that context. If the price is 80% of market rent, whenever we get to see the cost rental scheme, it will not be affordable. There is no point telling people that it might be affordable for them within five or ten years of being in cost rental housing. Other European countries find ways to ensure the entry rents for cost rental housing are at genuinely affordable levels. In Dublin it would have to be somewhere between €700 and €800 a month. The only way to do this is to extend the loan repayment period. Will the Minister give us a guarantee that the entry rents on Enniskerry Road, in St. Michael's Estate, Ballymun or the Cork city projects, to mention some examples, will be affordable at that point? If they are not, they will not address the problem.

My final question is related to the overall output of public and private housing. According to a useful table on page 30 of Rebuilding Ireland which sets out the expected or projected total output of public and private housing, it was expected that just under 14,000 homes would be built in 2016 and just over 18,000 in 2017. The figures included in the graph for 2018 and 2019 were 22,000 and 25,000, respectively. The Government is approximately 13,000 homes behind the targets set out in the table. Does it expect to make up the 31% shortfall in the final three years of the plan, or has it revised its targets downwards? A 31% shortfall is very significant in the context of the overall level of housing need.