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

One of the greatest failures of Government and society has been the housing crisis. People have a right to a home, a right to shelter for themselves and their children. It is a terrible indictment of society as a whole that people are living and sleeping on the streets, in cars, on sofas, or in any nook and cranny they can find. That includes hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation, but in the summer time they cannot even get those. It is shameful that in this centenary year of 1916, in June 2016 we had 2,177 children in emergency homeless accommodation with their families. A total of 4,262 people were counted in accommodation providing shelter for people who are homeless or were identified as sleeping rough on census night 2016, and that is only in Dublin.

There are still people dying on the streets two years on from the death of Jonathan Corrie. One could ask what the Government has done. There is no sense of urgency from the Government. The longer the inaction goes on, the bigger the problem becomes. A total of 90 new families a month go on to the homeless list. In the three months since the Government has been in office that amounts to approximately 180 families. Unfortunately, homelessness is the most obvious expression of the crisis. One could ask how many families are sleeping in a friend's or family's front room; how many people are on the edge of homelessness, in mortgage arrears, and wondering and worrying when they will be turfed out of their homes. What kind of society are we living in? The cost of living is creating a class of people that cannot survive even when they are working. We have high rents, increasing costs of child care, insurance hikes and increases in bin charges, property tax and water charges. This country under Fine Gael is a country for rich people. We need a change of attitude and a sense of urgency. That is why we cannot rely on the private sector. The only answer is the establishment of a strategic planning national housing corporation which would be involved in all elements of policy, design and the planning process for future housing needs. That would plan house building in a proper manner and speed up the planning process. We must build more social houses, as that in itself would help to reduce rental prices and provide for hard-pressed families.

We need a social housing stock across the country of at least 200,000 houses. The only way to achieve that in the required timeframe is for a State body to direct and drive the process. Currently, there are only approximately 138,000 such houses across the entire country and we must increase that by at least 50,000 to 60,000. If we do not, we will still be here in 10 years’ time talking about the same issue.

The Minister has the report of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness, all 157 pages. Having heard all the experts, relevant bodies, service providers, politicians, voluntary housing bodies and local authorities, as well as victims of homelessness, it is time to deliver and for the Minister to spell out what he plans to do. He keeps telling us that money is not a problem, yet we hear about the fiscal rules and the Stability and Growth Pact. It is time to talk about this emergency crisis, which is what we have. If legislation is required to tackle the issue, we must deal with that. Funding streams have been identified by the committee and so that should not be an issue.

It is disappointing to hear the Minister has problems with Part V housing. Serious damage was done by the reduction in housing provision under Part V. The Minister should re-examine the issue as the provision of 10% of social housing from each housing development that takes place is not enough. Compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, must also be examined because there are many houses lying idle across the city. In my area there are hundreds of houses that could be considered in that regard. One cannot even approach Dublin City Council as it will not address the issue. Some of the houses have been lying idle for ten years. Gardens are overgrown and houses are in a terrible state but they are left empty. That is not good enough. The Minister must act in a serious manner. We cannot wait for another report in another couple of years. That would not be good enough.

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