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

It is claimed the intent of the directive is to support the fast-tracking of the planning process in order for modular units to be put in place, yet the title of this motion is very misleading. The motion masquerades as something to do with the need to urgently increase the supply of social housing, but any fair and responsible definition of "social housing" would conclude that modular units for emergency accommodation for the homeless do not meet that definition. Modular housing comprises an ugly and messy emergency measure to provide a roof over the heads of families who have become homeless and who have to date depended on bed-and-breakfast accommodation and hotel rooms, which provide them with no access to cooking facilities or other badly needed amenities. A kitchen counter does not make a home.

If the Government wanted to increase the supply of social housing urgently, it should have fast-tracked planning for social housing five years ago. It could have taken all the money it spent on emergency accommodation over the past five years and put it into delivering social housing. Instead, it has waited and dragged its heels. It has directly hurt those in housing need and those most at risk of homelessness through cuts. It has done little else bar compiling plans and strategies to distract from its inaction, and it has kept the spin doctors at work.

It is particularly bizarre that in an area such as Ballymun, where rent supplement was banned by ministerial order, houses cannot be bought for social housing because of the social mix required on foot of the regeneration programme. The plan to spend €4.2 million on building 22 units at a cost of €191,000 each at a site in Ballymun that already has facilities in place, including roads, parks and underground services, is absolute madness when one can already buy such units in the area. We checked this and discovered there are units for sale valued at less than €120,000. These can be bought in other areas, such as Finglas and Ballyfermot, for €80,000 less than the price the Government is paying for modular housing. They are available and could be occupied almost immediately. In Hampton Wood, which is beside the site we are talking about in Ballymun, there are 30 units already available at a price that is competitive. A sum of €4.2 million would have bought them.

I welcome the acknowledgement that the new homeless families are coming from the private housing sector. Will the Government now accept the need to properly regulate the private rental market to protect against homelessness? Will it now accept that the private market has every interest in exploiting the crisis and no interest in solving it? Will it accept that its cuts to the rent supplement and other basic payments and supports exacerbated the homelessness crisis? Will it now accept the need for rent certainty and rent control? Sinn Féin recognises the need for emergency measures to provide urgently for people who are currently homeless. In the absence of preventive measures and social housing provision, the response is hopelessly inadequate. It is like treating a bullet wound with a Band-Aid, a very expensive one at that.

We are not opposed to emergency accommodation. We want it to be temporary, but it is no substitute for building or even buying houses. There is an emergency. Almost 5,000 people are homeless and there are 1,500 children in hotels and bed-and-breakfast accommodation. Around 80 new families are reporting homeless every month. The number of applicants on the housing waiting list has increased to almost 130,000. This is a crisis. We have failed to deliver on social housing. Some 200 units have been built in the past year. It is absolute madness. Most of the Government's housing policy is dependent on leasing arrangements, be it through the rent supplement, the rental accommodation scheme or the housing assistance payment. There is no building of social housing, however, and very little is planned despite the Government's plan worth €3.8 billion.

A large number of people have mortgage problems. One hundred and ten thousand mortgages are in trouble. Of these, 17,000 are in real trouble. Some 12,000 of these cases will be fought in the courts, and five thousand properties will be surrendered. What are we to do? Can we not get our hands on these properties? Can we not get our hands on the NAMA properties that are being sold off for reckless prices? We are not against temporary housing but believe there are solutions available that should be considered.

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