Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies on both sides of the House for their commonsense contributions. This is an opportunity for me to restate the Government's position on tackling the significant challenges associated with the delivery of social housing. This Government's ambitious programme of social housing delivery, Social Housing Strategy 2020, sets out clear, measurable actions to increase the supply of social housing, reform delivery arrangements and meet the housing needs of householders on the social housing list. There is flexibility to meet future demand.

Under the strategy, an investment of €4 billion to 2020 is envisaged. Almost €3 billion of this has been committed under this Government's capital plan, Building on Recovery: Infrastructure and Capital Investment 2016–2021. Funding is now approved and sites are selected for the construction of over 5,000 new social homes in the coming years. The social housing output report for 2015 outlines many of the achievements that were delivered in support of the Government's programme. Exchequer funding for social housing in 2015 was over €800 million, representing an increase of €210 million over 2014. In 2015, Exchequer funding for homelessness services was €64.77 million, representing a 32% increase on the amount provided in 2014.

Funding has been approved and sites have been selected for the construction of over 5,000 new social units. Over 1,000 properties were acquired by local authorities for social housing use in 2015. Some 420 staff were recruited by local authorities to deliver more social housing units as quickly as possible. Over 13,000 new social housing unit sets of keys were delivered in 2015. There was an 86% increase in unit delivery above the figure for 2014.

Some 2,700 vacant social housing units were brought back into use under an intensive programme of works funded by the Exchequer. Approval of the first 500 units of a new PPP, which will deliver over 1,500 units, was announced in 2015. Almost 9,000 social housing units were delivered through social housing leasing, the RAS and the HAP scheme. The latter is now operational in 18 local authority areas. NAMA delivered 2,000 units for social housing by the end of 2015.

In 2015, over €4 million in capital funding was provided to local authorities for Traveller-specific accommodation. The number sleeping rough in Dublin at the end of November 2015 had fallen by 46% since the previous year, a statistic that people choose to ignore. Under a ministerial directive, Dublin regional authorities must allocate at least 50% of tenancies to homeless and other vulnerable households. The authorities in counties Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford have been directed to allocate 30%. Details collated on the operation of the directive over a nine-month period, namely February to October, confirmed that a total of 612 local authority units had been allocated specifically to homeless households in the relevant local authority areas. I wish to express my appreciation for local authorities, approved housing bodies and the NGOs involved in the provision of homelessness services. However, there is still a long way to go. I look forward to further progress in 2016.

With the continued expansion in social housing provision under the social housing strategy for the period to 2020, over 17,000 new homes are to be delivered under a range of social housing initiatives in 2016. The HAP is to be rolled out to more local authority areas. There is to be a pilot affordable rental scheme in place for those on low incomes. We will utilise private sector investment in the construction of new social housing. We will utilise rapid housing delivery techniques as a way of improving significantly emergency accommodation. We will continue to implement the measures set out in Social Housing Strategy 2020 and Construction 2020. Choice-based letting allocations will be introduced to all local authorities. A full summary of social housing assessments will be carried out in 2016 and annually thereafter. That is a really important point because, in some cases, strategies to meet housing need were not based on good, accurate data. We were considering a programme of building houses without having really good data to underpin it.

It is worth recalling that the roots of the current set of circumstances lie in the decision of the previous Government to abandon the construction of social housing units and to depend almost exclusively on rent supplement to provide social housing. The efforts of the current Government, particularly the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Paudie Coffey, will deliver the best outcomes for those in need of State support in meeting their housing needs.

I could not finish without referring to my constituency, Carlow–Kilkenny, where €64 million has been delivered by the Government to meet housing need. That is unprecedented. It was never heard of previously across the constituency. I know it will be put to extremely good use in the housing of people who are in need of social housing. Such money was never provided by a previous Government that I can remember.

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