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

In recent years sufficient financial and human resources were not available to local authorities and Departments to enable them to tackle this problem which has, undoubtedly, continued to get worse in the past 18 months to two years. Over 2,700 people will exit homelessness in 2016 because we have secured permanent housing solutions for them. More than 5,000 exited homelessness in the two previous years. Many people who became homeless in recent years have come through the system and now have permanent housing solutions. While we are making progress, there is no denying that additional families are entering homelessness. We hope to be able to catch up in that regard and get ahead in the coming months. We are trying to do this by implementing a range of actions across various Departments. I accept that this means the active purchase of properties by local authorities and housing agencies which are being very careful not to compete with others who are trying to buy the same properties.

We are trying to buy vacant properties. We are dealing with all of the lending institutions to identify and buy properties that may have been vacant for a period of time. Some €70 million has been provided to make this happen. Two other new schemes have been announced to give local authorities the finances they need. Under the first scheme, money is being provided to lease vacant properties and help their owners to bring them back into use. Under the second scheme, money is being provided to buy and refurbish houses. A number of new initiatives have been brought forward. Over 500 HAP scheme houses were delivered this year for people who were homeless. That figure will increase to 1,200 next year. We should be in a position, given the funding allocated, to provide over 3,000 housing solutions for people who are homeless. Funding has been ramped up to meet demand.

As the Deputy understands the building industry, he will appreciate that we cannot flick a switch overnight. I do not doubt that when all of these actions have been completed, we will have a construction sector that will be back on a stable footing. We will have a constant supply of housing to ensure we will not be in this position again. A major part of this will involve the delivery of enough social housing to deal with the demand. We cannot have people living in emergency accommodation on a long-term basis. That has to end and we are committed to ending it by June next year. The Deputy is sensible enough to understand this will take a little time. We cannot announce a plan to deal with a problem in July and have it fully solved by August. It takes a little time and we are beginning to get into it now. We will try to stay ahead as best we can.

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