Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Barry for his questions. He is right that under my watch as Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of people living in emergency housing has increased. It is my responsibility to put in place every support I can to prevent people from ending up homeless or in emergency accommodation and to try to remove people from such accommodation as quickly as possible but also in a sustainable way. This involves taking action across a number of areas as we rebuild the housing sector, not in the way it was previously but in a way such that it will not break again. We also face other challenges such as immigration, people coming home and landlords leaving the private rental sector. For as long as they continue to leave it people will continue to present to homeless services. I hope we will be able to keep them from moving into emergency accommodation.

A lot of the work the Deputy is doing could make things more difficult in keeping landlords in the private rental sector and getting more of them into it. According to the local authorities, over the course of 2018 the number of families in emergency accommodation stabilised. Thankfully, the increases in 2018 were not as large as in the previous two years. It was due to the local authorities building more homes, the increases in the numbers of HAP tenancies, the rent pressure zones and the new homes being provided more generally. Rebuilding Ireland is enabling all of these things to happen, but we still have a huge amount of work to do. Under section 34 of the new rent Bill we will extend the notice to quit period significantly, strengthen rent pressure zones and provide for the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, to commence independent inspections to ensure landlords are not abusing RPZs and provide a substantial definition of renovation such that people will know exactly what the case is and there will no longer be so-called reno-victions. We are hoping to bring forward new actions in the area of social protection to deal with such matters as rent arrears and justice for families trapped in emergency accommodation, including those with complex needs, to enable them to exit emergency accommodation and receive the proper long-term health and care services they need. We also hope to have additional prevention officers. As I mentioned, 15 new resource staff have been hired in Dublin. These are all of the good things that are happening across the area between our partners in the NGOs, the local authorities and my Department. We are doing everything we can to continue to enable people to exit from emergency accommodation and prevent them from entering it.

To answer the Deputy's second question about the Rebuilding Ireland home loan scheme, I am genuinely surprised by how the matter was reported yesterday. The scheme is not closed.

Funding has not run out and I have been very clear on how this has been progressing. In January I notified that we had reached about 50% drawdown on the find and we remain at about that level. In February, I notified the Dáil that we would require further tranches to continue the fund and I was in discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on that. Last week on 26 February, I repeated that statement of 5 February and indicated that local authorities had used up their allocations in certain areas, that ten had received their extra allocations and that discussions for 2019 were are ongoing. Here we are today just a few days later at the committee, having also discussed it yesterday in the Dáil. I have put all this in the public domain as has become apparent.

Just to be clear on this, people can still apply for a Rebuilding Ireland home loan; funding is still available. We are almost at our limit but we are not at the limit in terms of the amount approved and what might be drawn down because there is a difference between the two. It needs to be constantly monitored as the local authorities are doing because they administer the loan in co-operation with the Housing Agency. That is why I am in early discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. While we are only at approximately 50% drawdown, based on the amount that has been approved, we are potentially almost at a drawdown limit if that continues through into the rest of the year.

We have been engaging with the local authorities that have reached their limit. Some got additional allocations in 2018. We are watching the rate of drawdown. Applications to those local authorities can continue. The reality is that the scheme will need more funding to be made available and that is what I am discussing with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I repeat that the scheme is not closed, funding has not run out and applications can continue.