Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys. I welcome the investment made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, in social housing. It is the largest investment in the history of the State and amounts to €3.8 billion. It is likely to produce in the region of 100,000 units of accommodation in the next five to six years. Ironically, that is the exact number that was produced in one year alone, 2006, the last great boom year of the Celtic tiger. The houses that were built then were not suitable for accommodation because of their locations and the incentives that were given. There were holiday homes, etc., all over the country. Housing was largely private and there was almost no social housing. Despite the bumper number of houses built, which was roughly the same as the number built in the same year in England, with its population of 56 million, Ireland, with its population of 4.5 million, was actually building the same number of social houses before the crash as after it. We now have waiting lists, a severe housing crisis, a problem with people sleeping rough on the streets and homelessness. The problem is particularly bad in my constituency, to the extent that a new group, Inner City Helping Homeless, has been established to deal with homeless people and rough sleepers in the area.

What the Minister is doing is extremely welcome but in the short term there is a need for accommodation. In Gardiner Street Upper in my constituency, 99 units of accommodation, built at a cost to the taxpayer of €17 million, have been lying idle since July, or almost six months. They are lying idle because of an unseemly row between Dublin City Council and the Catholic Housing Aid Society. Dublin City Council insists on the differential rent so it will be reasonable for its tenants, who will be taking up 75% of the accommodation. The Catholic Housing Aid Society insists on what it calls an economic rent.

This means that there must be a deposit of €500 to €600 presented first and then the rent will be between €500 and €700 per month, which is well in excess of social housing anywhere. We have reached a stage where there is no progress being made on either side.

Tenants who left their accommodation in 2006 at the height of the boom were told by the Catholic Housing Aid Society that they would be back within two to three years, and eight years later they are still not back. Even though some of them have been allocated the places in the housing they are moving into, there is no sign that they will move in before Christmas.

Six months down the road, new bright warm accommodation developed to the best standards is ready and lying idle. If tenants moved into that, it would create vacancies elsewhere which would be enormously beneficial to those in overcrowded homes in the present housing crisis.

I call on the Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Humphreys, and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, to ensure that the State investment of €17 million is secured and those for whom it was intended get that accommodation before Christmas. Let that be the Christmas present they get. There is no reason they should not move in.

The Archbishop of Dublin, on the other side, should be putting pressure on the Catholic Housing Aid Society to ensure that it does not continue to make those demands. The Catholic Housing Aid Society made the same demands when the funding was being made available from the Government and it had an unseemly wrangle with the Government as it was not satisfied with the funding. Now they are having this with the tenants and it is the poor tenants who are losing out in the long term.

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