Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are those who are rough sleepers in this city. I listened to a very effective and very efficient official this morning speaking about what is happening in this city and the efforts that have been made, which are proving to be very successful, to deal with that particular problem even though the population of those who are rough sleepers has changed over the past period. There is the progress has been made clearly with more than 700 families now being put into what were voided units, or units that had to be reconstructed, renovated and made habitable. We have had the changes in the housing assistance programme, which provides a degree of certainty and a further option for those tenants who are under pressure from landlords. We have the figure of €4 billion on the table for the period between now and 2020, objectives and targets have been set for every local authority, and chief executives have been called together by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and told to get on with their jobs, which is to provide these houses for which the taxpayer is providing money. There are the other issues in respect of the private housing sector. Clearly, with every new facility that comes into the country with direct investment or expansion of employment, there is a need for further accommodation, and this is stalled effectively because of the situation that applied either because of a shortage of access to equity, the planning situation or the building regulations. These are all matters that are the source of discussion between the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Minister for Health and the Minister for Finance.

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and his officials have done an extraordinary amount of work in the areas that I have mentioned. I hope the discussions taking place between the two Ministers can conclude this week with an agreement on effective responses for the short term, as well as for the medium to long term, which will ensure the viability of housing supply. This is the critical fault in all of this. If one does not have the supply of houses, one has extra pressure on existing accommodation units.

I referred yesterday to the decision to provide modular housing units. The first tenders for those are now being put in place. A small number, over 20, will be provided by Christmas. It is a challenging situation. I hope the discussions taking place will conclude this week, so we can move on and deal with the issues that will allow for accommodation to be provided for individuals and families with children and give them an opportunity to have proper comfortable accommodation with a longer term view for the future.

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