Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The sooner the better. As I said, it is an unfortunate reflection on the Government that we must address this issue as we head to an election and that the Government has allowed this crisis to develop under its watch over the last five years. Five years ago, the Government was not behind the door in terms of reminding everybody that there was an over-supply of housing. The current Minister and his colleagues were not shy about pointing to the mistakes that led to that over-supply. Meanwhile, they were so intent on scoring political points they allowed a situation to develop under their watch in which a real shortage of accommodation and homes began to appear in many urban centres. Indeed, we are beginning to see that situation spread across the country.

Over the last year and a half to two years, homelessness has spread from affecting those who were traditionally on the street to affecting many families of parents and young children who have been unable to find accommodation, increasing numbers of whom find themselves in emergency accommodation. That problem has started to spread from the larger cities to towns and villages across the country. I see it in County Donegal, where the supply of housing in many towns and villages has become so tight that it is difficult for families to find accommodation within their local areas. As a result, rents are starting to increase. Unless real, constructive measures are put in place, what is happening in a chronic manner in the large cities at present will start to happen in towns and villages across the country. People will not be able to find accommodation, as many will be priced out of being able to afford the rent.

While this has developed, there has been an unacceptable refusal by the Minister to increase the rent supplement thresholds to allow families to secure or compete for accommodation. Those who have to avail of rent supplement were used as a market tool. On several occasions, the Minister for Social Protection, as well as the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, held the line that they would not increase rent supplement limits because it would lead to rent increases in the market. They indicated that retaining the current level of rent supplement, and having people suffer as result because they could not get accommodation, would somehow hold the market down. However, it meant that families depending on rent supplement and who found themselves out of their homes simply were unable to get a house they could afford. Even today, there is no move from the Government to address that issue with rent supplement. In Dublin, this has led to 677 families being in emergency or temporary accommodation across the city. The number is 744 nationally.

Since February 2012, there has been a fivefold increase in the number of families who have had to avail of emergency accommodation. When Focus Ireland set up an action team in 2012, an average of eight new families were presenting as homeless in Dublin each month. This subsequently rose to 40 families per month in 2014 and up to 70 per month during the first half of 2015. The problem has spread from Dublin to other parts of the country, particularly Limerick, Cork, Kilkenny and Waterford. Meanwhile, the response from the Government has been totally inadequate and the situation has been exacerbated.

The Minister seeks to claim that this is somehow a legacy issue. Indeed, he makes repeated misleading statements regarding how the Government's investment in housing-----

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