Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his deliberations. As he has said, and as many of us have said in the Dáil since it reconvened, the housing crisis and homelessness crisis or emergency is the greatest issue facing Government, the country and society. It was high on Fianna Fáil's agenda when we sought to facilitate an arrangement to allow Fine Gael to lead Government based on the numbers it had with a view to producing a new housing strategy. I acknowledge the foresight of the Dáil in putting together an all-party housing committee on an emergency basis. I acknowledge the work it did under the chairmanship of Deputy John Curran and the way in which it sought to meet and consult all the stakeholders in the sectors in the housing area, those who are greatly affected by homelessness and all those who help and assist them. The work of that committee has fed into a process which allowed the Government to make a wholesome response and bring forward a strategy that has the potential to address this issue, in the full knowledge that other strategies were not that successful. There are aspects of this strategy that appear fine and good and have potential. However, we must be mindful of the fact that in November 2014 we heard a lot of this also. Unfortunately, much of what was promised then has not materialised.

It is against that background that I will read into the record a paragraph from page 44 of the strategy which was published today. It talks about increasing and accelerating the delivery of social housing:

The Social Housing Strategy 2020, published in November 2014, committed to providing 35,600 new social housing units between 2015 and 2020, at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of around €3.8 billion. Local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies are delivering these units through a variety of new-build and acquisition mechanisms as well as through leasing arrangements and tackling vacant stock [an exaggeration]. Given the scale of the current pressures in terms of delivery, more direct intervention is required to expand and accelerate overall social housing supply, particularly in the short term.

Under this Action Plan, targeted social housing supply is being increased to 47,000 units over the period 2016 to 2021 (at which stage some 10,000 units will be delivered on an annual basis). This will be achieved with Exchequer support of €5.35 billion, with the following delivery profile as set out in [the following graph].

What jumps out from this paragraph is that the figures indicate an increase of 12,000 housing units on the last plan, much of which has not been delivered and many of which were lease units rather than new build units. That equates to a little more than 2,500 new housing units per year in addition to the previous plan that was in place. The committee recommended 10,000 new units per annum.

It might be described as ambitious but there were many priorities within the content of the recommendations that offered opportunities to meet that demand for housing. We have to provide houses or units for people to live in.

Apart from all that, I acknowledge that there is an increase of €2 billion over five years which has to be welcomed. I acknowledge there is an appendix with timelines attached and I heard the Taoiseach today call them "timebombs". They will be timebombs if they are not adhered to, and we in opposition, like anybody else in opposition, will seek to hold the Government to account for that. We will have a watching brief to ensure that what is in the plan will be implemented.

I will be brief about what is not contained and why I think the plan is incomplete. I am seeking to be constructive. I have the same rights and representative responsibility and role to effect change for my constituents, for the country and for society. While there is an aspirational commitment in respect of the rental sector and first-time buyers, much of what the Minister hopes to enact will, I expect, be contained in the budget such as rewarding landlords for improving the quality of tenure over time for families. The all-party committee made sound recommendations on that to be taken on board.

I am surprised and disappointed there is not a firm commitment to student accommodation. There is a commitment to review student accommodation and report back in quarter two next year, this time next year. Many of us know there is a crisis in respect of student accommodation. Students are competing with families for accommodation in cities and near colleges. That is not right or appropriate. I had hoped a vehicle would be put in place to allow colleges access funds to build units and provide them as soon as possible. That process should have been commenced much sooner than the commitment in this plan.

In respect of mortgage arrears and mortgage distress, we would like to see firm legislative proposals to allow mortgage-to-rent solutions be imposed by courts rather than considered by courts where there was a bank veto for too long.

The housing delivery office has potential but does not go far enough. A housing procurement agency or housing authority is needed to drive development and change and to build houses. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority did a job. It might have wound up in an unfortunate manner but the job it was asked to do was to develop the docklands and it did so. A housing authority's job is to build houses and this has the potential to build houses, but the way in which the Minister seeks to fund it off-balance sheet is very limited from what I have seen without getting into greater detail. The Minister says it has the potential to deliver 5,000 units over five years. I would have expected it had the potential to deliver many multiples of that. It has the potential to draw down funding from a wide range of sources, including the credit unions who want to get involved, to help and gain a return for their funds, rather than have them in the pillar banks with no return where they contribute to profits piggybacked on people who are paying 2% over and above the European average. We do not want them to be associated with that. We want them associated with providing a vehicle whereby a massive amount of funding can be given to provide the massive number of units needed.

People want homes and houses, irrespective of where they come from. We can provide a vehicle whereby they can be leased for 50 or 100 years, if necessary, to get over the EUROSTAT issue the Minister mentioned that he fears. This could provide adequate resources, funds, contracts and joint ventures in order that local authorities can appease and settle those who are on their waiting lists, approved housing bodies can play their role, colleges can build units and the private sector can borrow from that fund at competitive rates because they are not competitive now. I accept the mixed tenure commitment will seek to help those who have a good education and good jobs and cannot even start to rent, let alone own a home. They have to be accommodated and I expect they will be.

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