Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee members. I am joined this morning by three of my colleagues from the Department, Ms Marguerite Ryan, Mr. Eamonn Waters and Mr. Patrick O'Sullivan. I will quickly run through the opening statement I have circulated. I will be happy to answer any questions.

It is just over a month since I had the opportunity to meet with the committee to discuss the 2020 Estimate for my Department in its totality. I thank the committee members for their engagement on that occasion and for facilitating this meeting at very short notice. I will keep these remarks short and focus on the €432 million of additional funding to be added to the overall provision for my Department.

The Estimate I put before the committee in October detailed my Department's budget for 2020. This totalled some €5.036 billion. I will now outline the changes contained in the Supplementary Estimate before the committee today. An additional €300 million is to be allocated to the Local Government Fund; Irish Water is to receive an extra €44 million in capital expenditure and €28 million in current expenditure; and an additional €60 million in current expenditure will be allocated to addressing homelessness. This additional expenditure comes to a total of €432 million, which brings the Department's ceiling to €5.468 billion, just over €3.078 billion in current spending and €2.390 billion on the capital side.

Reducing homelessness continues to be my absolute priority and I know it is a priority of all the members of this committee. In October I provided the committee with an overview of funding and activity of the housing programmes in 2020. My Department is continuing all programmes at pace. My own homelessness task force meets on a regular basis with NGOs and our delivery partners in that sector. Our priorities are to ensure that the greatest possible number of new homes can be provided to households across all delivery streams this year; to maximise the output of additional resources allocated under the July stimulus, which particularly focused on the voids programme we covered in detail at our last meeting; to continue the wide range of grant schemes where possible and safe; to ensure that new supply pipelines are developed in parallel; and to maintain support for teams continuing off-site activity to the highest possible degree.

We are deploying capital and current funding to all these critical areas. Looking back at the 2020 budget in comparison to today's Supplementary Estimate, I note that we will be spending an extra €100 million on homeless services this year, and rightly so. That shows the absolute priority that the Government, my Department and I have afforded to this issue. We will not be found wanting next year either. As sought, today's Supplementary Estimate includes €60 million under the homelessness subhead. This will increase the provision for 2020 to a total of €256 million. As I mentioned, the original budget allocation for homelessness accommodation and related services was €166 million. This increase represents just under €100 million in additional expenditure.

Significant additional costs have been incurred during the year due to Covid-19. This expenditure was undertaken to ensure the safety of individuals and households accessing emergency homeless accommodation. This additional funding will ensure that these vital services remain in place for the remainder of this year. This additional funding will also ensure that enhanced services remain available, particularly intensive outreach services and increased capacity for rough sleepers as we face the winter period. It will enable a continued focus on preventing homelessness in the first instance while also ensuring that pathways out of homelessness and into permanent accommodation are secured as quickly as possible for those individuals and families in emergency accommodation. It will support the operation of family hubs and other supported facilities for single individuals. We will also continue with the call for housing, an initiative I put in place in July which purchases properties on an exceptional basis, specifically focused on the homeless community and particularly on singles. The number of single people who are homeless and the lack of appropriate accommodation for them remain as challenges for this State.

Good progress has been made to date. Many people are being prevented from entering homelessness and exit numbers are improving. It is important that we build on this work and provide the necessary resources for it to continue. We have done so in budget 2021 with significant additional funding next year for homeless services and, in particular, €3.3 billion on the housing side to provide more public housing than has ever been delivered in the history of the State. It is entirely appropriate that supplementary funding now be provided for the homelessness budget in 2020.

Water services is an important issue. More than €1.2 billion has been voted, involving slightly less than €600 million on the current side and €635 million on capital. This is a priority for me on the basis that Irish Water suffered from reduced investment between 2019 and 2021 and that is something we need to reverse. In July, the Government brought forward an additional €43 million in capital stimulus, providing €30 million for Irish Water’s leakage reduction programme and €13 million for capital maintenance work. Much of that work is under way and nearing completion. An additional €44 million was announced as part of budget 2021. This targets investment in a number of key areas and will lead to investment that sustains and generates employment. It will involve work across all 26 counties, accelerate the delivery of essential major infrastructure and future-proof the network for growth.

I am bringing before the committee an additional €28 million in current expenditure. This arises from an income shortfall of approximately €50 million from non-domestic customers in 2020 due to Covid-related impacts on businesses. That €28 million is provided for in the Supplementary Estimates being dealt with today. The capital and current supplementary requirement for Irish Water is to ensure the continued underpinning of the overall investment in water and waste water services as planned for under Project Ireland 2040.

On the Local Government Fund, I have proposed the significant amount of €300 million to deal with the extension of the rates waiver for a further three months. The Government has been committed to supporting the SME sector. This additional funding means a total allocation in respect of the rates waiver of €900 million, which has been welcomed by businesses and employers across the country. We needed to ensure that the hole created in this important funding for local government was filled. In total, 100% of that €900 million will go back into the local government sector.

My Department is currently working with local authority representatives to ascertain the scale of other Covid-related income losses and expenditure. It is expected that flexibility within the €900 million allocation will be sufficient to cover rates losses and to partially cover the loss of non-rates income and the cost to local authorities of responding to the pandemic. We have had detailed discussions with the chief executives and local authorities. The package I am bringing to the committee has been welcomed by them. It will ensure there is no deficit in local government funding this year and shows good cause into next year, when we will have access to the Covid contingency fund if required. Local government is important to us. We have seen the incredible work that has been done by local government staff all over the country. One clear example of that is the community call programme. The local authorities have incurred significant additional work and expenditure in ensuring citizens can go about their daily lives as safely as possible during the pandemic. I take this opportunity to commend the local authorities on the work they have done. It is a priority for me to confirm this funding as a matter of urgency in order that local authorities can move on and agree their 2021 budgets. Many of them will start their budgetary meetings next week. I think Laois County Council is the only one to have held its budget meeting.

I thank the Chairman and members for facilitating this meeting at very short notice. It clearly feeds into the budgetary process for our colleagues in local government. I have kept my remarks as brief as possible and tried to cover as much as I can in that short time. I am happy to take any questions and answer them as well as I can. If there is any issue on which I and my officials cannot answer in detail today, I commit to members that we will take notes of same and respond directly to the Deputy on it.