Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for acknowledging what is happening and the good work the Department is doing with local authorities. More money has been spent this year on housing than any previous Government spent in a single year. There were more new homes built last year than have been built in any year in the last decade. I have had the privilege in my job to meet families who have exited emergency accommodation, whether a hotel, a hub or a hotel hub, into a home. One can see the benefit of the work that all of us across the Houses are doing to help people out of emergency accommodation, either in supporting Government proposals or in bringing forward their own. Having been in Donegal, Mayo, Carlow and Kilkenny, in recent weeks I have had the chance to cut ribbons and hand over keys. This reinforces the importance of what we are doing as a Government. It also reinforces the importance of a stable Government to be able to do these things. We have this and it is important that we use it to our advantage to continue the drive. It also reinforces successes in housing, where we have successes, and continue to seek additional supports where needed to help people, particularly in relation to emergency accommodation.

There were several questions about HAP which are all related. Deputy Darragh O'Brien asked about the number of HAP tenancies last year and the breakdown between HAP and social housing stock. Some 8,400 homes came through social housing and the rest came through HAP and-or RAS, the RAS number being smaller than that of HAP. One of the important things that we see, and this bring us back to Deputy Barry's questions, is that in 2018 and 2017 the same number of houses were supported through HAP. The increase in supports came through an increase in stock. We anticipate that this year new HAP tenancies will be fewer than last year because we will provide 10,000 new homes into the social housing stock. In 2021, more households will be housed in social housing stock than in HAP-supported tenancies. We are rebalancing and that is important.

A social housing home is a social housing home, whether it is built on local authority land, delivered by a housing body on local authority land or on the housing body's land or on private land, if it is social housing stock. One in four new builds last year was for social housing. That will continue again this year at a level of one in four or one in five, which is huge. I do not have any ideological objection to what we do. I will use every resource available to increase the stock of social housing. That is appropriate. I will not let ideology stand in my way. That comes back to the Deputy's point. If we did not have HAP, where would these people go until the homes are built?

That is why we have HAP and why it is such an important resource. A detailed report on HAP providing information on what is happening nationally and in each local authority area was sent to the committee. I am not sure if Deputy O'Dowd has had a chance to go through it. It contains a couple of graphics illustrating this issue which are helpful in terms of planning-----