Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Late last year I raised the housing issue in my constituency with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Noel Ahern and his brother and colleague, the Taoiseach. I stated that both should hang their heads in shame at the publication of the Dublin north central area B, Malahide and Howth housing district statistics. While a large number of families are awaiting housing on Dublin's northside, few houses have been provided under the social and affordable housing programme. The Minister of State appeared rather put out by my comments but the fact is that those figures are a shocking indictment of this Government's record on housing. These figures were revealed at a time of record housing production, some 80,000 housing units were completed last year and 77,000 in 2004. More than 20,000 units were built in my constituency.

I represent many constituents who have been on the housing lists for more than ten years with no hope of accommodation in the last year of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government. The housing list figures released to my colleague Councillor Anne Carter at the end of last year showed that almost 3,000 families were on the social and affordable housing lists for the north central area alone, including the Donaghmede, Artane and Clontarf city council wards. This is approximately 5% of housing applicants in Ireland. There are 1,569 families and individuals on the housing list, including 229 families on the priority list. The number of north central households on the housing transfer list was 871. There were an additional 124 families and individuals on the area B homeless list. The number of applicants for the city council area B affordable housing list is now considerably more than 400. The number of city council housing vacancies for area B is derisory by comparison. In 2003 only 157 vacancies became available for letting and there were only 116 vacancies for households on the transfer list. In 2004 and 2005 available vacancies decreased. This year, the Department has provided funding for only 100 older homes for tenants.

It is extraordinary that thousands of families remain on the housing lists of Dublin North-East and other similar regions when nearly 250,000 houses and apartments have been built since mid-2003. The Taoiseach, the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, outgoing city manager, John Fitzgerald, and outgoing county manager, John Tierney, who is the incoming city manager, have failed lamentably in a key objective of any reasonably caring Government, namely the provision of a home for every family and citizen.

All housing policy seems to be directed at facilitating developers and investors rather than the urgent needs of thousands of ordinary citizens. Fingal County housing manager, Mr. Alan Carthy, seems to be solving the lack of accommodation for social and affordable housing by simply removing longstanding housing applicants from the list. I have encountered at least six such cases in recent months and have referred a number of them to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The personal suffering of many individuals and families on the homeless, housing and affordable lists is evident to public representatives every weekend. The distress of the applicants removed from the list is palpable. Families are distraught as they go from house to house as private rented tenants supported by rent supplements living at the whim of greedy landlords. Mothers, fathers and children trying to exist in hopelessly overcrowded accommodation, often with elderly parents with serious medical conditions, are living anxious lives as the long years on the housing list pass slowly by.

Individual men and women, often in their 40s and 50s, who have become homeless are desperately trying to survive in bed and breakfast accommodation or hostel accommodation. They may, as evidenced by some cases I met last weekend, be living on the streets. This is the legacy of the Government of the third richest country on the planet and its ineffectual, inefficient housing policies.

Last month the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, announced additional funding of €100 million for social and affordable housing. Nevertheless, it is clear that the Government will miss its modest social housing targets despite the extra funding. Under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 35,000 social and affordable homes were to be completed by the end of this year but on current trends the number of completions will fall well short of this target. My colleague Deputy Gilmore has stated that the Government is spending more money but delivering fewer houses. This is because of the Government's failure to deal with skyrocketing house prices over the past decade.

None of the 10,000 affordable houses to be delivered under the Sustaining Progress agreement has been delivered. Part V of the Planning and Development Act, which came into operation in 2001, should have delivered 30,000 homes by now. Only 2,000 have been delivered due to this Government's collapse in front of its developer friends when it changed the legislation concerning Part V. The target under the National Development Plan 2000-2006 for the voluntary housing sector was 4,000 units but so far the sector has only been permitted to provide 1,400 units a year. More than 44,000 families remain on local authority housing lists and perhaps another 100,000 citizens and their families are completely priced out of the affordable and general housing market. I urge dramatic action on housing, starting in my constituency, which is a microcosm of urban Ireland.

I wish the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister of State a restful and happy holiday, even though we are not on holiday for most of that time. I wish the same to our valiant staff on another late evening.

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