Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not think that is a great idea. We need the social mix and the mixture of size and type of tenure.

9 o’clock

It is good to develop communities that cater to every demographic and allow people to stay within the area for different stages of their lives. For example, three-bedroom houses with back and front gardens suit families very well but they do not suit older people with lower maintenance needs. The latter may still want to stay in an area they call home and where they have connections.

Deputy Shortall and I met the Minister some time ago to discuss such aspects of that proposal, particularly concerning housing for older people. There has been some follow up from the Minister's office on that and I welcome the fact the Minister is taking action as well as listening.

The current housing and homelessness crisis must be addressed immediately. We cannot settle for knee-jerk solutions that will cause problems in future. We have to think long-term and consider what the decisions we make now will look like in 20, 30 or even 50 years' time. I will certainly not be around in 50 years' time, but we do not want people then to say: "What were those people thinking of; surely they realised that a more rounded approach should have been taken."

A key element of the housing approach is affordability both in terms of the purchase price and rental costs. We must start seeing long-term rental as a viable housing option that people sometimes favour. We need to have a policy for that area. In other parts of the world it is a satisfactory means of providing housing, with people moving up and down according to their housing needs at any given time in their lives.

I strongly welcome the report's recommendation calling for 10,000 housing units per year to be built. I would be happy to see even more than that. It is one thing to state this on paper, but another thing to see it on site. Over the years it has been painfully slow to deliver even modest housing developments. The scale of bigger sites has the prospect of bringing down costs. Houses built by the private sector on mixed sites that are publicly owned bring in an income that can be reinvested in social or voluntary housing for other sites.

The current crisis requires immediate action and we cannot move away from the issue of vacant units. Later this year when we get the census results we will see how they match against the 2011 census. We can all see good quality vacant housing that could be used. While it may have shifted since 2011, according to the census, every 1% increase in vacancies in Dublin city releases 5,000 units. I think it is currently at 7% or 8%. It is a viable means to deliver units in a relatively short period, but it does require some measures in order to do that.

The mortgage issue is a key element in preventing people from becoming homeless. The proposal for a moratorium on evictions is a good one, at least until some of the schemes are up and running. Meanwhile, the mortgage-to-rent scheme is not working. I have been involved with a few mortgage-to-rent schemes and it is painful to try to deal with some of them. We have managed to get a few over the line but it requires a huge investment in time, energy and effort. At the end of the day, we are often told that a very small amount of money is the determining factor in whether or not the particular proposal is successful. We should not say it will be part of the scheme if it cannot be made to work, but it has to work.

Ultimately, if we do not deal with the housing issue we will continue pumping money into knee-jerk reactions and short-term solutions. There has to be an emphasis on what the overall future goal is. The Government says it is its number one priority, but I agree with Deputy O'Dowd that it has to be the Dáil's number one priority. It must be driven all of the time. If the committee has to meet monthly or bi-monthly to keep that as a top priority that is welcome.

For the last five years, the number one issue in my constituency office has been housing and homelessness. People say they never thought this would happen to them, and they are in deep shock. They heard about this happening to other people but never imagined it happening to them and it is deeply traumatising. The cost of it is much more than a housing response because homelessness will affect families for the rest of their lives.

We support the Housing First approach for rough sleepers who require additional services to deal with addiction. We cannot deal with them on the street, however. They must have the security of a roof over their head while addiction issues are being dealt with. That particular cohort requires that kind of approach.

A critical area is how one goes about delivering such services. Project management of large sites, with the prospect of driving down costs due to the larger scale involved, has the prospect of delivering a range of different house and tenure types. That could make a significant difference to the kind of project that is delivered in future.

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