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

I thank the Senator. With regard to homelessness and the difficulties facing individuals, there are a number of different layers. I said that I had an engagement with the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, and we have raised it with the inter-agency group that I had set up in 2017. It has also been raised at a special meeting we have with the Taoiseach and the relevant Ministers about the issue of arrears, payments, and people who are at risk of having to enter into emergency accommodation or to present as homeless because they are not able to meet the bills. We ask if there is a further intervention we can make that would help much earlier in the timeline to keep that person in his or her home. That work is progressing. It is an important part that sometimes gets missed. Of course we focus on people who present as homeless and on those who enter into emergency accommodation, but there is a cohort behind that who are in difficulty today and whose rent is building up. They are not paying it and later they will find themselves in that line unless we can step in. The Minister, Deputy Doherty, and I are looking at that.

I have spoken already about the threshold review so will not go back over that. We have changed the qualifying criteria for rent pressure zones to exclude the greater Dublin area, GDA, and that will have an impact in those areas outside the GDA.

I will give the committee an update on the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme. A total of €92 million was drawn down to the end of 2018 and €145 million was drawn down to the end of April this year. The local authorities continue to accept, process and approve Rebuilding Ireland home loans because we have told them that the funding they need will be made available for those approvals they have given. That discussion on funding is almost complete. The Housing Finance Agency has an outstanding facility so there is no issue with it being able to secure the funding once I have the next figure for it. The approvals and drawdowns are not contingent on this money, and it is not even contingent upon us going to the local authority and saying the money is there. They have already been told to do what they are doing.

The Senator spoke of the co-housing model There are a lot of concepts in the mix currently, one of which is the Danish model referred to by the Senator. There is also a German model that is not too different from it. We are progressing our own pilot project that will be similar but not exactly the same. I am trying to tie together the final pieces of it. In making a deal, the key aspect is the delivery of the land. It is not about the willingness of people to engage in building such homes and it is not a design problem because these models exist elsewhere and they look really great. It is about seeing what exactly we can deliver on the land, servicing the sites and so on, with the funding we have. There is a piece of work happening in that regard. I acknowledge that the Senator had mentioned the Danish model previously. We are looking at it.