Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

First, I take the opportunity to warmly congratulate the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, on his appointment as Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and to wish him well. Today, I appeal to him to take all steps necessary to urgently address the severe housing crisis, in this city and in the country, being experienced by more than 100,000 of our fellow citizens and to take dramatic and urgent action. I have made those appeals to the then Minister of State in the housing area, the new Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, and also, on many occasions in this House, to the Taoiseach.

We have got to the place we are in now because of the almost complete abandonment of the social housing programme by mainly Fianna Fáil-led governments from the late 1980s onwards, the shift in policy towards relying on the private sector and the ongoing mortgage arrears crisis. We need to take account of all of these reasons in devising medium-term and longer-term solutions, but we need an urgent emergency programme and I hope that is something the Minister would address, even while the Dáil is not in session, over the coming weeks.

The statement of Government priorities included a section devoted to the aim of improving housing availability and affordability. I note the review by the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan of a section 227 review of NAMA. Unfortunately, NAMA has provided a minuscule number of houses for the local authorities of this country since it was established. What immediate action will the Minister take to address the almost 200 families with over 300 children tonight living in emergency accommodation in this city? All of us have incredible and terrible stories of the suffering of those who are homeless, who are in poor rented accommodation or who are threatened with the ending of their tenancies. We all could probably spend the rest of today up to 9 o'clock recounting some of these horror stories.

A key common factor in them all is the mistreatment of children. Earlier we debated Government institutions, but it is a shocking indictment of the Government, of the State and of this Parliament how children are being treated in families, either when they are homeless or when they face eviction from private tenancies because of the escalation of rents. I hope the Minister will address it.

What action will the Minister take in regard to the rough sleepers in the streets, of whom there was a record number of 177 on the streets of Dublin a few days ago? In my area of Dublin Bay North, Dublin North-Central, housing area B, there are well over 4,000 families and individuals on the housing list and on the homeless list.

The Minister's predecessor promised to give us between 4,000 and 6,000 new homes this year. Few of those have been delivered and almost none have been delivered in Dublin Bay North or in the Dublin North-Central area. Indeed, without counting the other 40 constituencies, the needs of which also must be addressed, we could use all of them. There have been almost no new builds in Dublin Bay North. There were 28 units in the Bunratty area and 35 new homes are to come forward by 2016 in Darndale. We have been promised new funding in Fingal county as well, but this also has been a minuscule response. In particular, I would ask the Minister to look at my area as to whether the significant expansion that was planned for the north fringe of Dublin city, from the sea across to Finglas, is something that he could address and establish as a strategic development zone in accordance with the promises that have been made for the Dublin docklands area.

The rental accommodation scheme, as the Minister will be aware from his own experience, has collapsed. Many families are in the process of being made homeless by landlords exiting the scheme because they can get, as they perceive, higher rents elsewhere.

The four Dublin local authorities have come together proposing a number of important steps to remotely address this crisis in the four Dublin counties. They seek, in particular, more funding and leadership from the Minister. The moment to act is now. There is a housing emergency and the Minister should declare it. He should take action on it. According to the last assessment, there are 90,000 families involved. The Minister should bring to an end the suffering, uncertainty and terror these families, in particular, the children, face in these circumstances. I urge the Minister to take action.

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