Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Members for their contributions on this very important topic. I assure them that I share the passion that many of them have exhibited over the past two nights about the provision of adequate and affordable housing. My colleagues and I are determined to work to improve the position for everybody in need of housing, be it private or social. We must be honest and the current position is a consequence of the property bubble and bust, so it is another legacy to be dealt with. It is very obvious that the construction sector has been underperforming for a number of years, because in any normalised sector it should contribute approximately 12% of GDP and has only contributed 6% recently. We must address that. There are positive indicators that the sector is recovering and we need to see it return to more sustainable levels.

There has been a perfect storm with housing and we can examine the reasons for that. We have not allowed local authorities to build social housing in direct build schemes for many years in this country. The housing model implemented and adopted for the past couple of decades depended on the Part V dividend from private housing estates but then the crash came.

With no houses being built, there was no Part V dividend so we were left with a severe shortage and deficit in the provision of social housing. Also, in regard to the private housing sector, as Deputies said, many builders went bust, banking institutions struggled and credit and access to finance has been a problem. There are consequences in regard to mortgage arrears and repossessions. It leaves us with a perfect storm which needs to be addressed and the Government now has a plan and a strategy to address it. We will be doing all in our power to ensure that we develop these strategies as quickly as possible.

My Department's housing land availability survey estimates that there is in excess of 25,000 ha of undeveloped residential zoned land nationally, which equates to a capacity for more than 500,000 new homes in the country. In Dublin, for example, the housing supply and co-ordination task force found that 12,785 houses and 7,900 apartments currently have planning permission. That equates to a three year supply, with permissions infrastructurally unconstrained. The infrastructure and the services are there and there is planning permission on the sites but they have not started. Overall, the capacity of land available is considered to be sufficient to meet the housing requirements nationally for in excess of the next ten years.

The issue now at hand is how we get to build on these sites. The challenge for the Government is to translate this latent capacity into supply in order to meet the demands of home-seekers and to make construction viable once again. Most of the difficulties currently being encountered can be addressed by increasing the supply of properties available to buy, to rent and to be provided by local authorities and the approved housing bodies. The Government recognises that the whole of government approach, working in close co-operation with all of the key stakeholders, such as local authorities, approved housing bodies, the financial institutions and, indeed, the developers, is the way to tackle the challenge of increasing the supply of houses.

The implementation of Construction 2020 forms the basis for a properly functioning and sustainable construction sector. It provides for a strategic approach to the provision of housing based on a real and measured demand and addresses the full range of relevant issues, including the planning process, financing, access to mortgage finance and developing the construction workforce, as some Deputies outlined. The Government is committed to removing any barriers from the system in order to support increased supply of housing of all types. This will, in turn, reduce the pressure on house price growth and will help home-buyers to acquire a family home in their community of choice and at a reasonable cost.

Measures to increase supply will also impact positively on the private rented sector. Historically, the private rented sector has been characterised by small-scale landlords, often accidental landlords, and attracting large-scale investment in professionally managed residential property - for example, using the real estate investment trusts, REITs, and other options for long-term investment - has an important role to play in helping to deliver a more professional and high-quality sustainable sector.

We also need to get back to the direct building of social housing and this is an absolute priority for the Government, as evidenced by the additional €2.2 billion in funding announced for social housing in budget 2015 and the publication of the recent social housing strategy 2020 in November 2014. Deputy Sean Fleming and others tried to give the impression that the delivery of houses will not happen until 2020 but the news for Deputy Fleming and others is that there is movement and we will start to see delivery on this in the next few weeks and months.

Importantly, the strategy restores the State to a central role in the provision of social housing after many years where this obligation had essentially been parked. The strategy builds on the provisions contained in budget 2015 and sets out clear and measurable actions and targets to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of all households on the housing list.

One approach alone will not resolve this; it must be a multifaceted approach. We need to see an earlier and more efficient turnaround of voids to be brought back into beneficial use by local authorities. As I said, we will see more direct building by local authorities. We want to see an enhanced role for the approved housing bodies, in partnership with local authorities and with private investment funds. To clarify, the Government is currently considering a new tenant purchase scheme and I hope to announce a positive outcome in that regard.

The key objective of the strategy is to deal comprehensively with the housing list. Improving the supply of social housing will ease the pressure on the private market, both rented and new build. The total targeted provision of more than 110,000 social housing units, through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and 75,000 social housing solutions through the housing assistance payment and rental accommodation scheme, will meet the needs of the 90,000 households on the housing waiting list in full by 2020, with flexibility to meet potential future demand.

I have much more to say and there will be further engagement on this important issue. However, we will see positive progress in regard to the social housing strategy in the coming weeks and months, which Deputies will welcome.

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