The following motion was moved by Deputy Dessie Ellis on Tuesday, 23 September 2014:That Dáil Éireann:notes that: - the State is in the midst of the most severe housing crisis in its history, due mostly to a drastic shortage of social housing; - 89,872 households, representing well in excess of 100,000 men, women and children are currently on local authority housing waiting lists, a rise of 30% in just five years; — approximately 74,000 households are in receipt of rent supplement at a cost of €344 million in subsidy for private landlords, more than a third of whom are in Dublin; — 2013 saw a decrease of 36% in the construction of new housing; — the latest reports from both the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, and Daft show private residential rents in Dublin have risen by 26% since the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition took office in 2011 and that this trend is continuing; — homelessness services are reporting unprecedented need with rough sleep numbers in Dublin trebling last year, resulting in 139 people sleeping on the city's streets during harsh winter conditions with many more forced to live in emergency or temporary accommodation; — more than €1 billion has been cut from the housing budget since 2008; — City council inspections have found that the vast majority of rental properties in inner city Dublin do not meet minimum standards for human habitation; — the Government has failed to deliver less than a quarter of promised National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, housing after three years in office; — the Government is also currently failing in its stated policy objective to end long-term homelessness by 2016; and — the rental accommodation scheme has failed to deliver adequate numbers of homes and to protect those it has housed from eviction; recognises: — the great work done by many voluntary and co-operative organisations across the State to provide housing where the State has failed or refused to do so; — the vital role played by homeless agencies and charities in providing for people experiencing homelessness and lobbying for policies to end homelessness; — that the Government has failed to prioritise the housing of citizens in need and are repeating the failed policies of its Government predecessors; and — in solving the social housing crisis and ending long-term homelessness it is essential that the quality of homes provided are built to the highest standards - being warm, spacious and secure; concludes that: — the solution to the housing crisis needs to become a political priority for this Government which is underpinned by credible Government initiatives to build and deliver more social housing; — alternative funding models must be used to allow local authorities to build new homes as and where needed; — NAMA must be given a deadline for delivery of promised housing and this process should be overseen by the Joint Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht; — soaring rent rates need to be tackled; and — the Government has a responsibility and duty to prioritise housing in the remainder of this Dáil term; and calls on the Government to: — introduce legislative change to allow for the initial use of €1 billion from the Strategic Investment Fund to deliver at least 6,600 additional social housing units over the next two years; — ensure that all new housing provided, whether for emergency accommodation or for long-term housing, meets the standards as laid down in regulations and efficiently provides warmth, space and other essential utilities required of a modern home; — further prioritise local authority construction as a method of providing homes for those who need them; — take urgent action regarding spiralling rents by implementing a system of rent control that guarantees a fair rate of return for landlords that is linked to both the consumer price index and the quality of the property; — enable local authorities to establish independent housing trusts allowing them to source financing independent of the national debt in order to build and maintain new social housing; — ensure that recipients of Housing Assistance Payment will not be removed from housing waiting lists; — amend equality legislation to disallow the practice of landlords discriminating against recipients of rent supplement and immediately reform the operation of the scheme to ensure recipients seeking rental properties are not unnecessarily disadvantaged; — broaden access to the mortgage-to-rent scheme; — commit to ring-fencing funding for housing and homelessness services for the lifetime of this Government; — introduce a deposit retention scheme under the supervision of the PRTB; and — set a date for a referendum on the Constitutional Convention's recommendation that Bunreacht na hÉireann should include a right to housing cognisable by the courts. Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "acknowledges that the economic downturn and contraction in construction activity since 2008 have created significant difficulties for many communities and individuals across Ireland; recognises the high priority which the Government has assigned to housing and homelessness issues, particularly in the Housing Policy Statement of 2011, the Homelessness Policy Statement of 2013 and most recently in the Statement of Government Priorities 2014 - 2016 published in July of this year; notes that:— current house completions data (5,824 units completed by end July 2014) show that nationally there is a 32 per cent increase in output over the first seven months when compared to equivalent figures in 2013 (4,405 units completed) and that new Dublin house completions over the first seven months of the year are up 150 per cent on equivalent figures for 2013, increasing from 678 units to 1,693 units; — by using the outturn to date, it is currently estimated that between 10,000 and 11,000 units will be completed in 2014, representing an annual increase of approximately 25 per cent; — the 89,872 households on social housing waiting lists, as recorded by the statutory Summary of Social Housing Assessments as at May 2013, represents a reduction of 9 per cent on the 2011 assessment total of 98,318; and — within the funding constraints of recent years, the Government has responded in a variety of ways to meet emerging housing needs, including through the expansion of more flexible revenue-based funding and delivery mechanisms including leasing and the Rental Accommodation Scheme;recognises that, with the more limited resources available, the main focus in terms of housing supports provided by Government must be on meeting the most acute needs of those unable to provide for their accommodation from their own resources; welcomes the total €647 million housing allocation for 2014 which will result in an investment across a range of programmes and will support the delivery of over 6,000 units this year; welcomes the provision of a €30 million funding stream to bring vacant and boarded up local authority units back into use, which will provide some 1,960 homes for families on housing lists; recognises the Government’s enactment of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, which provides a legislative basis for the new Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), which will be of significant benefit to long-term recipients of Rent Supplement; further notes:— the Government’s commitment that HAP recipients will have access to other social housing supports offered by local authorities through the transfer system; — that in February 2014 the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government broadened the Mortgage-to-Rent Scheme to provide for local authority borrowers which aims to ensure that local authority homeowners in mortgage distress can remain in their home; and — that the Department continues to work closely and successfully with the National Asset Management Agency, the Housing Agency, local authorities and approved housing bodies in relation to the delivery of social housing;recognises the voluntary and cooperative organisations’ ongoing work in providing social housing using funding sources under the various Government schemes; welcomes the Government’s commitment to end long-term homelessness by 2016; supports the adoption of a housing-led approach to tackling homelessness, which involves access to permanent housing combined with appropriate ongoing support, as a core aspect of the Government’s Homelessness Policy Statement; welcomes the ring-fencing of Government funding for homeless services in Budgets 2013 and 2014, in support of the discharge by local authorities of their statutory role in the provision of accommodation for homeless persons; supports the Implementation Plan on the State’s Response to Homelessness which will deliver 2,700 units for homeless households by end 2016; notes that the official Dublin rough sleeper count identified 127 individuals sleeping rough on a given night last April – a decrease on the figure of 139 recorded for November 2013; acknowledges that a regional ‘Housing First’ service will commence shortly in the Dublin region which will have a focus on delivering new tenancies for homeless people with a history of rough sleeping and high level needs; recognises that the private rented sector is an important element of the housing market, with approximately one in five households now renting their home in the private sector; recognises that resolution of the housing supply situation is a key element in restoring stability to the rental market; acknowledges that the growing evidence of increasing rents, particularly in Dublin, is a cause for concern but notes that, on average, rents in Dublin are still 12.7 per cent lower than they were at their peak in the fourth quarter of 2007, while rents nationally are almost 19 per cent lower than their peak in 2007; notes that the study commissioned by the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) on rent stability in the sector will be presented to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in the coming days; recognises that the introduction of any rent stability measures will require careful consideration by Government; agrees that the overriding objective is to achieve stability and sustainability in the market for the benefit of tenants, landlords and society as a whole; notes that the Government will be introducing legislative provisions for a Deposit Protection Scheme, to be operated by the PRTB, at Seanad Committee Stage of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2012, which will eliminate the practice of landlords illegally withholding deposits and contribute to the ongoing regulation and development of the rental market; welcomes Dublin City Council’s ongoing inspection programme for rental properties which is proving to be very effective in targeting non-compliant properties, enforcing minimum standards legislation and bringing properties into compliance to the benefit of over 3,000 tenants since March 2012; acknowledges the complex issues of law involved in preventing discrimination by landlords against recipients of Rent Supplement but welcomes that options, including that of legal remedy, to address the practice of discrimination in such instances are currently being explored by the relevant Departments in consultation with the Attorney General; acknowledges that there are, approximately, 74,000 rent supplement recipients, for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014; and welcomes the Government’s commitment to:— address the challenges in the property and construction sectors, including developing an overall strategic approach to housing supply through the implementation of the actions in Construction 2020 – A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector; — ensure that all new housing provided, whether for emergency accommodation or for long-term housing, will meet the requirements laid down in the Building Regulations and best practice as set out in the Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities guidelines to support the delivery of quality homes which will fully meet the needs of occupants; — develop and publish in the coming weeks a Social Housing Strategy which will set out a series of actions to address the supply of social housing over the next five years; and — identify and facilitate the most appropriate models to maximise supply, management and maintenance of social housing in the longer term in order to deliver the key social housing objective of providing both for those households who cannot afford to house themselves and those who struggle to afford housing in the private market." - (Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government).

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