Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My approach is one of common decency and compassion. I firmly believe the State has the responsibility to provide housing for those in our communities who cannot access it on their own. The more housing the State provides, the less it must depend on private landlords to provide stop gap solutions. We all have to accept that there is a social right to a home. I am more convinced than ever that this is the essential starting point.

By last Christmas, our doubts and concerns about the commitment of the Government to solve the homelessness and housing crisis which was escalating month on month were further increased when it engaged in showmanship by refusing to compromise on rent caps and brought the planning Bill and the Government to the edge. I decided that, with a leadership contest imminent in Fine Gael, we would have to put up with the showmanship on the basis that the commitment to solve the housing crisis remained. The Government even committed to specific deadlines for achieving the many great actions it promised that Rebuilding Ireland would deliver in its five pillars that contained a grand total of 84 separate actions. While the report's statistics are great for the communications gurus to throw around, they make little difference to the children and parents who have spent more than two years in hotel rooms. During this Fine Gael-lndependent Alliance Government, with its five pillars and 84 actions, 11 people, including children, have presented as homeless every day. Fianna Fáil took the Government at its word and we have worked in a non-party political way, as many Members have, not only to point out flaws in Rebuilding Ireland but also to suggest solutions. We have done so because it is what people expect us to do and it is the right thing for responsible politicians to do.

One of the major deadlines the Government had set with regard to homeless families and the use of hotel accommodation has failed. The Minister who spoke to the nation and the Dáil about his total commitment to address housing and homelessness and his personal determination to complete this task has swanned off to another Department after one year. Since housebuilding ground to a halt in 2011, we have had three Ministers with responsibility for housing, namely, Mr. Phil Hogan, Deputy Alan Kelly and the current Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Simon Coveney. It seems all of them had more conviction about themselves than they had about providing housing solutions.

This is the wrong thing for politicians to indulge in and it totally corrodes the people's trust in our parliamentary system. Ministers must deliver solutions, not focus on political crisis communication. It is also damaging to those in our Civil Service. While they may be used to this, even civil servants must be disillusioned at watching the same old cynical political manoeuvrings at the expense of doing the right thing.

I thought that the appointment of a new Minister would at least allow us to focus on the work at hand. We were then told, however, that the new Minister’s first task would be to review the Rebuilding Ireland report. We were told that this would be a three-month review, despite the fact the report itself is barely a year old. This review is political speak for avoiding responsibility. It is a review to cover the Government in a cloak of convenience while the spin doctors dream up more slick housing slogans to roll out. What are we doing in the Dáil Chamber and at committee if not reviewing Rebuilding Ireland? We are continuously providing honest and sincere analysis and suggestions for improvements. By the end of this debate the Minister's review should be completed. I understand that a new Government brings new dynamics but the Minister should stop treating the housing and homelessness situation as an exercise in crisis communications. While this three-month review takes place, a further 954 people will become homeless. We do not have the luxury to make this review.

Three years after it was first announced, we are still awaiting the special purpose vehicle which will allow up to €2 billion of credit union funds to be used to deliver social and affordable housing. The promise to end the use of hotels for homeless families by the end of June has failed. Today there are 695 families still living in hotels in Dublin alone. The promise to build 1,000 rapid build homes by the end of 2017 is also going to fail. The Government has only delivered 22 of these so far and has only identified the possibility of delivering another 177 by the end of the year. The Government's housing construction programme consists of over 600 projects, 75% of which are for 20 houses or fewer. Only two projects nationwide are for more than 100 units: one 100-unit project in Dublin and one for 106 units in Louth, the largest housing development on this construction programme. Out of the more than 190,000 vacant properties identified by the Department only 800, or 0.4%, are being targeted to be converted back to homes.

This is the reality of this Government's performance. We need to get real and radical and we need to do so quickly. There is no more time for review and there is definitely no more time for spin.

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