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

We will do that. I am conscious that this is the first opportunity we have had to go through elements and commitments in the programme for Government, but it will not be our last.

I will cover my headline items first. Implementation of the Department's commitments in the Programme for Government, Our Shared Future, is well under way across all functional areas. While it will not be possible to address all of these in the short time available, I will update the committee on a range of them under each of our main areas individually.

As we briefly touched on at our previous meeting, the pandemic has obviously had an impact in the short term on the capital building programme. It has also meant that the Department has taken on more work in the context of local government, the community call and what we have had to do to support SMEs by way of rates waivers. It has been an incredibly busy eight or nine months in the Department.

As I outlined to the members of the select committee earlier - I will repeat it for the benefit of the joint committee - in 2021, almost €3.1 billion is being allocated to housing programmes, an increase of almost €508 million on the 2020 Estimate. A further €117 million capital that was carried over from 2020 is being allocated to the housing programme, bringing the total housing provision in 2021 to €3.3 billion. This is a historically significant capital budget for housing.

Our number one priority is the focus on driving down homelessness and ensuring that people have a permanent, secure place to live. A critical focus of activity this year will be on preventing homelessness in the first instance, something which does not get as much coverage as reducing the number of individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Since I was appointed Minister, I established a homelessness task force in the Department and I work regularly with the NGO sector and our partners on that to see what we need to do to help reduce homelessness. The year-on-year position to February shows a reduction in the number of individuals who are homeless of just under 2,000, approximately 18.8%. This has been particularly noticeable in the context of families. There has been a reduction of 675 in the number of homeless families. From a total of 1,610 recorded in February 2020, that represents a reduction of 42%, which is significant. We will not be complacent about it but progress is being made because of the work that people are doing and because we are investing in prioritising this.

It is envisaged that in excess of 6,000 adults will exit homelessness into tenancies this year, with 3,000 adults prevented from entering emergency accommodation by establishment of those tenancies. An allocation of €218 million, an increase of €22 million on 2020, is being made available for the continued provision of homeless services. We do need to do that. Some commentators have criticised increasing provision in homeless funding but that needs to happen. We need to ensure that local authorities can provide the emergency accommodation and other services to households and ensure that they are supported, as they should be, to exit homelessness into tenancies as quickly as possible and to exit into permanent accommodation which we were able to do quite successfully through our voids programme last year.

A key objective for me is the development and delivery of a new housing strategy, Housing for All, with affordable housing at its core. To deliver on commitments in the programme for Government in respect of affordable housing, my Department published the general scheme of the affordable housing Bill in January. The committee has concluded pre-legislative scrutiny and I thank members for their input. Fundamentally, the scheme involves three really important provisions: an affordable purchase scheme for local authorities; an affordable purchase shared equity scheme on private lands; and a new cost rental scheme. While we have prioritised the first two, I believe in home ownership, as does the Government. We believe it is an honest and just aspiration for people and we believe the State should support it and do so by affordable housing. A whole generation is not being represented and feels as though they have been left behind, the generation rent. We want to provide solutions for those people. We have done this in a short time with the affordable housing Bill which I will bring to Cabinet in coming weeks and then to the Dáil. There is also the cost rental scheme initiative. Funding was only provided last October for that and we will provide 440 tenancies within the first year. Some have been quite critical that it is not enough, and it is not enough but it is a start and a significant one. It is a new form of housing tenure in this country. They will be spread in the Dublin, Kildare and Cork regions initially. I expect it to expand further next year. They are being delivered in partnership with approved housing bodies. It is really significant. They will have a minimum of 25% below market rent, secure tenancies for working people who earn above the social housing limits.

Other housing policy initiatives include a review of the Part V provision. I intend to increase it from 10% social to encompass an additional 10% affordable. Local authorities may decide that some of that may be affordable rental or purchase. It is another avenue to be able to deliver affordable homes more rapidly. We will deliver an additional 390 cost rental units this year. We have put in place controls to allow each local authority to increase its discretionary funding from €2 million to €6 million for social housing projects. I had spoken of the need to give more autonomy and responsibility to the local authorities when I was a member of the previous committee. We have increased the single-stage approval process and again encourage local authorities to continue to use the sum. The larger local authorities have sought for further increase to the fund and I am open to looking at that.

In addition, the Department is continuing to work with the Housing Agency in regard to its acquisition fund, which seeks to purchase vacant stock from financial institutions that can aid the delivery of social housing, and how that fund might operate in the light of changing market circumstances. I am also conducting a detailed review of the mortgage to rent scheme to see how it can be strengthened and potentially expanded. Mortgage to rent is a solution for many individuals and families who find themselves in difficulty with systemic mortgage arrears. We need to work on that further. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, will speak on Traveller accommodation and housing for older people and those with disabilities.

We continue to support the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, as evidenced by the sanction for 42 additional staff in 2019 and 2020 and additional €2 million in current funding for 2021. The increase in staff provided to the RTB is designed to ensure that the new legislative provisions introduced in 2019 and 2020 are fully and forcefully implemented, that protections for tenants can be provided and that inspections can take place. The Department continues to liaise with the RTB on ways to strengthen its capacity as an independent and strong regulator for landlords and tenants.

My Department is working with the Department of Health on the commitment to reform the fair deal scheme to incentivise the use of some vacant properties.

The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Butler, will be bringing a Bill to the House shortly on that. Following engagement between our Departments last year it was agreed to take steps to establish the required evidence base, including data gathering and analysis, to find out what the true level of vacant homes is due to the fair deal scheme. Estimates are that it is between 8,000 and 10,000. This is significant. If we could bring a portion of those back into use it would be very welcome.

The Government has committed to examine the issue of defective housing, which has affected so many people. Having regard to the recommendations of this committee's report, Safe as Houses?, I have established a working group. Its first meeting took place in March 2021. I am encouraging that group, which is made up of stakeholders and chaired by Mr. Seamus Neely, to work and provide the Government and me with options on how we can help householders and homeowners who have been affected by defective housing. We are also continuing with our pyrite remediation scheme and the defective concrete blocks grant scheme.

On the delivery of public housing and social homes, it is crucially important to get our social housing stock up and increase it significantly. In our capital provision, we provided for 12,750 new public homes in 2021. Delivery will be somewhat affected by the pandemic but we are still retaining that target. When we have the quarter 1 figures we will see how badly the pandemic has affected delivery of social housing. Some 9,500 of those homes will be new builds, 2,450 will be on the leasing side, and there will be a small number of acquisitions. We need to allow local authorities to have that discretion to purchase homes where we believe it is appropriate such as for larger homes and adapted homes for people with special needs. Each local authority in the State has been set with its own specific target on build, acquire and lease. The real focus of this Government is the new build piece and building up our social housing stock. We need to do that because we need to be able to tackle effectively the social housing waiting lists. We have seen a 9.6% reduction in housing waiting lists, thankfully, but there are still far too many people waiting for far too long for social homes. This remains an absolutely clear priority for us, and it will form a central part of the Government's new housing plan, housing for all, to be published in the summer of this year.

I will briefly turn to water-----