Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I might let them in if they turn up.

I thank everyone for his or her contribution today and yesterday and in the couple of months since the Government was formed. There is lot of good work going on in the housing sector and there had been a lot of discussion about homelessness, even before the general election. It became a major issue which focused people's minds. The quality of the debate is very clear and people genuinely wants to solve the problem. There are various ideas about what we should do, but people want the crisis to be solved and those who are homeless to have a home. They want to end homelessness and the provision of emergency accommodation in hotels and bed and breakfast establishments.

The action plan is an attempt to bring forward a version of everybody's approach. There is something in it for everybody to buy into and support. The idea behind an action plan is that it is an evolving document. If something is wrong, we will give up on it and take it out, but we will try it anyway and constantly add new ideas. The document, Rebuilding Ireland, has been well received in the media and elsewhere. People want to push it even harder and ask for more, which I understand. We would like to do more if we had the money and resources. People might say we only have €100 million, but there was a fight to get that amount because every other Department wants resources too. I was in two Departments previously and they both wanted some of the money that was available. When there is some fiscal space, it is hard to compete for it. It is an achievement that an extra €2.2 billion has been allocated to housing. Spending hundreds of millions of euro extra next year is not an option, but another €100 million in capital has been allocated, a 40% increase. We want to build on that figure and in the following year the increase will be over 100%. If we had more money, we would spend it, but the plan is a fair attempt to start us in the right direction by building capacity with local authorities and other agencies, as well as in the private sector in order that it can build houses again. It is an ambitious and comprehensive starting point in the Government's efforts and resolves to really deal with the issues of housing and homelessness.

The plan is ambitious, but it is also appropriate. It has to be ambitious and hit targets. The committee had further ambitions and that was its job. I was a member of a committee a few years back and it was its job to push the Government and analyse policy. Committee members have to scrutinise and put Ministers and Departments under pressure by asking questions and constantly coming up with new ideas. I have seen this from both sides and it is an essential job. We have got close to the target, but we are not there yet and everyone hopes the plan will go beyond what has been set out.

I generally enjoy listening to Deputy Bríd Smith, but I cannot let the claim that the belief in social housing provision is absent go unchecked. A commitment to build 47,000 houses represents a major development, if we can make it happen, and a sum of nearly €5.5 billion is not small change. It is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money and shows there is a belief in social housing provision. We can disagree about the percentages, but there is a commitment to deliver a lot of social houses and that should be recognised. We can disagree, but we must fact facts.

The Oireachtas committee was very important and informed the debate in bringing forward its report. Some suggestions made in it have not gone away, but they could not be factored in or achieved at this stage. Proposals on rent certainty are an example. We are developing a rental strategy, but we have to make it attractive to both investors and tenants. I understand from where the committee was coming on this issue and we will spend a couple of months trying to tease it out further to come up with the best strategy we can to make the sector work. Despite what people have said in this debate, there is a desire to provide rental properties. Apart from social housing, the figure for rental properties is above 20%. People are not only interested in buying houses; if one can rent at the right price, people are interested. There is an onus on us all to give them that choice and develop a proper rental market with proper services, as well as proper communities. We must work on that issue.

The Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, and I, as well as departmental officials, have met a very broad group of stakeholders in all areas. We have hosted two well attended stakeholder forums, both of which generated constructive debate and feedback. The process has added greatly to our understanding of the housing system and its faults and failings and how its difficulties are leading to homelessness for many. The housing system is a broad and interconnected set of markets and sectors. Importantly, each sector of the market impacts on a different group in society. In developing the action plan the Minister and I were acutely aware of the need to deal with each part of the housing system individually but also to address the interconnectivity and cross-dependencies in shaping an overall solution to build more homes. It is a whole-of-government process, into which every Department and agency is feeding. Everybody has been asked to buy into it and put his or her name to the actions to be taken.

Am I allowed to give way?

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