Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their contributions to the debate. I commend all those who help and support the homeless. Volunteers who deliver meals, hot drinks, clothes and other supports have bailed out this Government, as well as the previous one, by their duty.

It is clear from the Minister's amendment and his response to our Private Member's Bill that he and his Government colleagues are failing to recognise the extent and depth of this crisis. He talks about this crisis using the language of the business world, with an emphasis on Ireland's competitiveness. A more humane approach in his analysis is needed, however, given the extent to which homelessness affects the lives of so many people - men, women and particularly children.

The Minister has conceded that this crisis is a humanitarian one, yet there was little of that sentiment in his response to the opening debate on this motion yesterday evening. He has listened as speaker after speaker called on him to take action in elevating the status of this situation to what is fundamentally needed, which is the declaration of an emergency. In the Minister's speech on this debate yesterday evening there was a complete absence of any reference to our proposal to liaise with the European Commission in declaring an emergency. Over three years ago, the Government announced that it would end homelessness by 2016 but the Minister has failed in this and the Government has repeatedly failed to tackle the crisis.

When Jonathan Corrie died last Christmas, the Minister pulled together housing bodies, local authority CEOs, charity groups and politicians for an emergency meeting from which he emerged claiming to have worked out an effective response to the crisis. In this he has failed miserably, however. It is also true that far from ending the crisis, the number of people sleeping rough on the streets nightly has doubled to 130 since Jonathan Corrie's death - a stark reality compounded by the death of another homeless person near Leinster House last week.

I wish to point to the Minister's current allocation of €493 million so far this year to local authorities and housing bodies to construct just 2,900 units. This level of provision is totally inadequate and is far from ambitious. It is clear that given only an average of 400 social housing units have been delivered annually for the last three years, the Minister's entire strategy hinges on the private sector delivering further rental and leasing agreements, with a transition to HAP.

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The voluntary housing bodies are delivering more due to their ability to borrow from the Housing Finance Agency in addition to other financial institutions. This tells us that the plan the Minister announced a year ago for a six-year programme with investment of €3.8 billion in total - €2.5 billion for the first three years and €1.3 billion for the remaining three - is not delivering. The first year of the programme is already over and there is little evidence to support claims of any great success in social housing provision. Our Bill proposes the renewal of the financial contribution scheme for senior citizens, which would provide a significant contribution to be retained and ring-fenced for future social housing. I call on the Minister to reinstate this scheme.

We acknowledge benefits around elements of the Urban Regeneration Bill introduced earlier this year, particularly around ending get-out clauses for developers. However, we call on the Government to restore the original 20% for social and affordable housing under Part V in order to bring the position here into line with other European countries. We see this as an appeasement of the Minister's Fine Gael colleagues and developers in general. Local authority senior management seems have limited its remit to the operation of social housing lists and in general terms, moving away from the issue of social housing delivery itself. Does the Minister believe that the ideological persuasions of some chief executives and senior management could have an influence on this shift of focus? Does he see them as a block or hindrance to the delivery of social housing? If so, what will he do?

Regarding the role of NAMA, we welcome the conversion of office, retail and former residential property space into accommodation but this process needs to be accelerated. We call on the Government to introduce emergency legislation to change the function of NAMA to maximise social gain through the transfer of NAMA properties to local authorities. This would take the function of NAMA beyond the provision of a social dividend and solidify its role in the State's development of social housing, which will benefit the taxpayer in the long term.

There are several factors feeding into this crisis, as the Minister stated yesterday evening. The staggering increase in homelessness is a result of uncontrolled rent levels, predominantly in large urban centres. Not only are those people on rent supplement and RAS at severe risk of homelessness but those with jobs are absolutely squeezed and forced to live in substandard conditions as they cannot afford ever increasing rents. I welcome any acknowledgement on the Minister's part that rents must be regulated. However, given that the country has slipped into a state of emergency, I call on him to take immediate action to introduce rent control and security of tenure, as this Bill proposes.

The mortgage to rent scheme has delivered just over 100 units throughout the country, an appalling return on a scheme that has the potential to be maximised, ensuring people remain in their homes. In addition, considering the current rates of mortgage arrears, mortgage to rent, in conjunction with an urgent cap on mortgage interest rates, could be implemented by the Government to help address the difficult situation facing people in mortgage distress.

We believe that every citizen of this country has a right to adequate provision of housing to ensure a quality of life for all our people. We call on the Government to support our solutions to this crisis and to recognise the degree to which this crisis has pervaded our society. With that in mind, we call on the Minister and all Deputies in this House to support our Private Members' motion. We reject any attempts to water down or amend what is a very important Private Members' motion with massive repercussions for our people and their rights.

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