John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I thank the Minister and colleagues who contributed to this debate, both today and last week. In particular, I thank the members of the committee - I did acknowledge them last week - who, over an eight or nine week period, put in considerable effort to produce this report, and all of the various groups and witnesses who attended the committee for their recommendations and the evidence presented. We did not come up with this. The report and the recommendations were based on evidence that we gathered at the committee meetings.

I was pleased to hear, last week and today, that both the Minister of State, Deputy English, and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, are prepared to consider the recommendations in this. Those are the recommendations, not of me or my colleagues but of representatives from this House of all parties and none, and those recommendations are strongly evidence based.

In particular, I compliment the Minister of State and the Minister on bringing forward the date of the action plan. It was noted with some concern when the committee was launching its report that there was a drift on the date and it underpins the urgency, both we as Members and the Government must give this issue.

The Minister of State correctly made reference to the fact that it will be a rolling programme. I acknowledge one of the first moves the Government made in terms of increasing the rates of rent allowance and HAP. Both were out of date by a number of years and the Minister has made a significant improvement in that regard. I agree with those who say it will not increase the supply of housing but what it will do is provide people who are dependant on those State supports with an equal and fair chance in the housing market which they did not have.

Various arrangements were being made where people were paying cash top-ups which they could not afford to pay and so forth. By bringing these payments up to the level they are at now, people who are dependent on them have a fair and reasonable chance, and I want to acknowledge that.

Deputy Boyd Barrett highlighted that rents in some parts of Dublin are higher than the cap. We, as a committee, acknowledged that and said that the rental allowance and housing assistance payments should meet the market value. Instead of having only two regions for all of Dublin - a Fingal area and a non-Fingal area - it is probably necessary in some parts of the country to have more regions and the bands should be broken up in that respect.

I will not repeat everything that has been said but having glanced at the Central Statistics Office figures published today, it would be remiss of me not to mention that nationally, there are more than a quarter of a million vacant premises even though tonight people will be sleeping on the streets in every major city. We have people inappropriately accommodated. They are sleeping in hostels, in hotels and so forth where they go in the evening as they have no permanent homes To be precise, 36,732 of those vacant premises are in Dublin. If only 1% or 2% of those became available, it would start to have an impact on the people lives, particularly in the Dublin area but also across the country.

Our report makes some clear recommendations based on our discussions with the Housing Agency. One recommendation is that an analysis should be undertaken, on a local authority area by area basis, of what properties are available, and why they are available and that a mixture of incentives, be they tax incentives or grants, should be introduced to fast-track bringing some of these back into habitable use. Some of those vacant properties could be brought back into use quicker than it would be possible to construct some new builds. Whatever incentives the Government might introduce should be short term and front-loaded and while a construction programme is under way, vacant properties in high demand areas should be renovated and brought back into use and that should be dealt with as a matter of some urgency.

The Minister's housing action plan will also be published. I want to reiterate two of the major findings in our report. We set a target but I would point out that the number of social houses in the country, between local authorities and approved housing bodies, is approximately 9% of the total housing stock, which is low by European standards. We stand by the recommendation that it should be increased by approximately 50,000 and the Minister of State will have his own figures from the housing plan. That figure was based on the stock level and how we might go about increasing it in terms of new builds and acquisitions. We also believe it is important that there is some sort of national housing procurement agency to drive the housing programme over a number of years. In particular, if the State has to fund housing developments in different ways with off-balance sheet methods of funding, it is important there would be a procurement agency to work in tandem with local authorities and approved housing bodies to ensure that funding models are put in place and that they are not seen as a hindrance. In that regard, it should be noted that there will have to be different types of housing. It is not all about social housing and private builds. There is a cohort of people who cannot afford either and the rental market and so forth have to be opened up. We, as a committee, see a huge potential for the League of Credit Unions and the likes of pension funds to invest in some of those and some of them could be off-balance sheet transactions. There are many opportunities here which need to be considered with a degree of urgency.

The Minister's housing action plan will be published next week. I do not want to comment on leaks from it because that is unfair. As the Minister of State said, what has come out is an earlier draft of it. I reiterate the comments of some of my colleagues and I hope that the Government Whip will do likewise at the Business Committee. The time allocated for such a large report on such a defining issue is grossly inadequate. Approximately two hours is the provisional time allocation for its consideration. I know the Minister of State does not have the full say over it but I appeal to him, his party and those in government to look at the business again next week, as we are trying to do, to ensure this plan gets the scrutiny and the support it will require over many years. It will be launched next week but the Minister of State needs to garner support from all sides of the House to ensure that this programme can be delivered effectively.

This is not about another box-ticking exercise. There are people tonight who will be sleeping on sheets of cardboard in sleeping bags and they are within a 100 yd. of this House. There are people making their way from the part of the city in which I live where they have collected their children or visited their parents and who are now staying in hotels and hostels in Dublin city. People are dependent on the actions that we will implement on the back of this report. We have to show sincerity and support for it. I hope the report does not disappoint us. We are pinning a lot on it. There is a huge housing deficit which is causing untold hardship for many people and they are not the people we always see. We can see a person who is a rough-sleeper or a person going into a hostel but right across the suburbs of this city in particular, there are many houses accommodating multiple family units. That is the real scale of the problem with which we are dealing.

I hope the housing plan the Minister will bring to the House next week will afford us an opportunity to have a proper and real debate. I hope I am in a position to stand up here next Tuesday, if I am given speaking time, to support it. Like any good plan, when it is published, the Minister and the Minister of State need to establish a monitoring team or committee, or some mechanism around it, to ensure that it is driven and that the goals and targets set are achieved. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, said on the last occasion he was here that there were so many people that night homeless in hostels, bed and breakfast accommodation and hotels and that we would be able to see that number come down over time. We want to see it come down month by month. Over the past few years, the number has gone up month by month. There needs to be a mechanism in place so that the Oireachtas can monitor the progress and implementation of this housing plan and where it hits obstacles, roadblocks or does not achieve what is intended, solutions are found.

It is a defining moment for the Government. Many issues were raised with candidates during the general election campaign as well as with every Member who was elected following it but the most defining issue raised on the doorsteps was that of housing and that is the reason a housing committee was established.

I wish the Minister of State well. I hope this plan is as strong on the recommendations we have in our report and that it matches them or goes further. I hope it receives the support of the House and, more importantly, I hope it is implemented effectively and speedily, with particular attention to the short-term actions that could be taken to address the needs of those who are most in need, those sleeping rough and those in emergency accommodation. Again, I wish the Minister of State well and I look forward to contributing to the debate next week.

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