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

It might help. Let me return to the question of ideology and the comments of Deputy Ó Broin and many others. This debate has mainly been very reasonable. Most want to get back to building 10,000 social houses per year. We are committed to that. Those who support the Government are also committed to it. We recognise, however, that one cannot just do it overnight. One cannot just flick on the switch because the capacity in the system to build any houses, private or public, was gone. Construction dropped by about 90%. We have to bear that in mind. Much of our work has been to revamp it and increase capacity in the private sector and certainly the public sector. We are committed to social housing. We want a minimum of 47,000 social houses, either built or acquired. That is the same figure that Deputy Ó Broin talks about, bearing in mind an annual rate of 10,000 per year. Therefore, we are on the same page. We wish we could build them overnight but it takes a little time. The Minister, in the review of the plan and in including more actions and driving it on, is increasing the targets to get where we want quicker, but we are talking about the same figure.

I refer the House to the original Rebuilding Ireland document. Like the jobs action plan, it must be updated every year. We have been asked to increase the urgency. Pages 43 to 46, inclusive, refer to increasing the numbers and they imply we want to be building or acquiring 10,000 houses per year. That is what we are trying to do. We are on the same page so it is not a case of ideology. There might be slight timing differences. The Deputies should please park the false argument about ideology. If we want to have a debate about rights, let us have an honest one. We all want the social housing and recognise the need for it. Let us also bear in mind the facts, however. We will go quicker when we can.

I have listened to people saying there is nothing being done and that we are way behind. We are also committed in the plan to revamping and restarting private building. We hope to return to the rate we all want, namely, 28,000 per year. We believed it would take three or four years to get there. The ESRI confirmed in its figures this week that, by 2018, the State will be delivering about 24,000 houses. As it turns out, a good 20% plus of those will be social houses. The percentages are in favour of what the Deputies want. Again, we are on the right trend. I wish that some of the work we have been doing for the past year were more visible to everybody so we could have a better argument here. We can see some of the trends going in the right direction. Some of the data prove that. We recognise on our side, however, that it is not enough to deal with the emergency.

We will do more. We will put more money into it and push on.

I can assure the Deputy it is not ideology. Again, the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has referred to trends. Planning permissions have increased by 42% or 43%, commencement notices have increased by 40% and the number of housing projects on site has increased this year in the Dublin region and around the country. More than 2,000 social houses will be delivered whereas two years ago, the figure was 75 and last year the figure was approximately 700. Next year the figure will be 4,000. The trends are going the right way. We are trying to get to the figure of 10,000 units. Whoever is in government thereafter can add to and build on that but we need to be realistic as it takes a little more than one or two weeks to achieve that.

The money is available. Deputy MacSharry and others have asked whether the money is real. It is real. We have travelled to every local authority in the country over the past year. In the past couple of months the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has engaged with each local authority to tell them straight up, face to face, that the money is available and to get pipelines in place and bring projects forward. That is what we are asking and we will back them.

I can confirm that no project has been refused on funding grounds in any local authority. We have repeatedly asked councillors and colleagues from all parties to drive this agenda at local level. People have referred to affordable housing and using State-owned lands. We have identified 800 sites belonging to the State, 770 of which are in local authorities. The most recent proposal from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown was driven by Fine Gael councillors. Every party and councillor can roll in behind this process and drive plans forward. Affordable housing plans on all of those sites are in addition to our commitment to 47,000 social housing units. I ask Deputies not to tell me that we are holding them back. The options are there, the mechanisms are in place and we must drive the process on.

Part of having an action plan for housing is to move things forward at pace and with a sense of urgency. That is part of the reason for having a review in order to determine whether we can do things even faster and add more changes. That is what is happening. People are have quoted timelines for the delivery of social housing projects that are out of date. We have improved the system and made changes to speed up the process. In some cases it has not happened quickly enough and we will re-examine the process. A new delivery team is being established to build on the housing delivery office to drive that process even faster and push the system even more to make it even more urgent. We recognise that quite a number of people in emergency situations are declaring themselves homeless on a weekly basis. We will drive on and do more.

The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has made it very clear that money is not an issue in tackling emergency homelessness. Money is available for whatever is required, be it the HAP scheme, the hub scheme, acquiring houses, repair and lease back or voids. Everything is happening and we will work as quickly as we can to bring houses on board. Deputy Cowen said people need to see hope and change. Let us reflect on the figures. Last year, more than 3,000 people left a homeless situation and found a housing solution. In the first three or four months of this year, more than 900 people found a housing solution. Last August and September we stood here and made a commitment to move people out of hotels. At that stage, there were approximately 1,100 living in such accommodation. One thousand families have left hotels and are in other accommodation. I acknowledge that more have required hotel accommodation and there has been an increase in presentations in the past three or four months. We will deal with that and some progress is being made.

I do not state that the Government is looking for a pat on the back because it is not enough until everyone is out of emergency accommodation and living in a house. People need to know that progress is being made because taxpayers' money is getting to the root of the problem in some cases. We will build on that and do even more. I ask Deputies not to come to the House and say nothing is happening because that is not the case and the facts do not back that up. We want to do more as quick as we possibly can.

Most Deputies who have spoken have been constructive and tried to put forward good suggestions. The Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and I have made the same point. I refer to the Action Plan for Jobs. When the Minister, Deputy Bruton, set out that the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government would create 100,000 jobs over three or four years many, including some Deputies in the Chamber, said this would never be done. In the first year of the plan we received a lot of criticism and people asked where the jobs were because they could not see them. As a Government, we kept saying we were making all the right changes, putting all the resources in place and were making all of the right moves and policy decisions to deliver those jobs. In the second, third, fourth and fifth years of the Action Plan for Jobs the jobs started coming. The private sector worked with us and we were way ahead of target as by 2016, more than 200,000 jobs had been created. The process of the Action Plan for Jobs was right.

The housing process will deliver results. I am confident that all the measures we are putting in place, as well as the new measures that are being added on a weekly basis, will fix the housing crisis, shortage or emergency – whatever one wants to call it. I was involved in the jobs process and saw what happened.

Deputy Barry mentioned hundreds of thousands of young people. I am not sure of their ages. He said they cannot get houses and are stuck living in family homes. In a debate three or four years ago, Government Members were being told hundreds of thousands of young people had no future in Ireland, would never have a job here and could not be educated. We were asked where they would go. All of that has now changed. Those young people can stay in this country and have the option of getting jobs and developing careers. Our job now is to make sure we can provide accommodation for them and we will do that. As we gave them hope of staying in this country and having the choice, we will do the same when it comes to housing. It means driving on these actions.

I welcome all of the suggestions on how to improve things. Some people in the House made submissions to the Rebuilding Ireland review and others did not bother. Of those that did, we will take them on board and drive them on as best as we possibly can. I ask Deputies not to tell me this is to do with ideology because it is not. We will put the required resources in place and drive the process forward as quickly as we possibly can.

People have talked about rights and how this debate is about inserting rights into the Constitution. I am not sure how that would help to fast-track the supply of private or social housing. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and others have said it is fine to have the conversation. In the programme for Government, we agreed to have the matter dealt with by the appropriate committee, to review the report published a couple of years ago and to have this conversation. There is nothing wrong with having the conversation and making the right decision. The Bill will not solve the housing crisis today, tomorrow or in the next six months or year. We must drive on and keep our focus on the delivery of social, private and affordable housing and ensure people have the choice to rent.

Deputy Barry put forward some suggestions around the rental market. We have made changes. The Government has recognised that if people are to have the choice to rent, which they have in the many countries to which the Deputies referred, it is because there is investment in rental properties from an affordable and cost rental point of view from both the State and private sector. There needs to be investment in property or people will not have choices.

We have rental plans and strategies. The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, announced more changes yesterday to strengthen the rights of tenants and provide them with more confidence of supply and security. We must recognise the need to balance that with providing investment for housing. People want that choice. As a Government, our job is to do all of the different things to make sure we tackle housing supply. We will do that and I thank Deputies for their support.

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