Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not reflective of her colleague, Deputy Eoin Ó Broin, who seeks to make a constructive contribution to this debate in every engagement I have had with him to date.

To address the motion, the Government will not be voting against the motion but we will not be voting in support of it either. We agree with the broad thrust of much of what is in the motion, because we believe that is exactly what is happening at the moment, but we cannot agree with the language. We cannot agree with it when it says, for example, "Rebuilding Ireland continues to over rely on the private sector to meet social and affordable housing need". When we look at the construction output for next year we know that, of the 20,000 homes that will be built, which is a conservative number, one quarter to one fifth will be social houses built by local authorities and housing bodies. We cannot agree with how Sinn Féin manipulates the numbers either. While the motion points to some indicators, I can point to others that show Rebuilding Ireland is working. There has been a greater than 40% increase in planning permissions since last year, a greater than 40% increase in the number of commencement construction notices over last year and an increase of 33% in the number of homes connected to the ESB grid since last year. Those figures tell us that activity is happening - of course it is. When we approach this debate, we have to be even-handed in the language we use but also in regard to the figures we rely on to talk about what is actually happening out there today in the world.

When we look at some of the new measures that have been brought in under Rebuilding Ireland, like the fast-track planning process with An Bord Pleanála, it is important to note there are now 5,000 homes on the books through that fast-track planning process. That is 5,000 homes that will be built more quickly because of new measures that were brought in.

In so far as my analysis or review of Rebuilding Ireland is concerned, Deputy Ó Broin should not mind the leaks. I am taking a very collaborative approach to the work I am doing. I am talking to everyone I can and listening to them. I am considering as much as I can. I am not ruling anything out or anything in until I make a decision on it. If others choose to talk to others about that, and it makes its way into the media, I cannot control that. What the Deputy can rely on is the rolling analysis I am doing. When I make a decision and announce it, as I did in the course of the housing summit, that is the change or improvement that happens. It is similar in regard to the change to the rent pressure zones and in regard to the change that will be made in regard to the Residential Tenancies Board.

We have a crisis in homelessness and we have a shortage of houses - we know that. Many European neighbours are facing a similar situation today as well, such as France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. The Netherlands has a constitutional right to housing in its constitution but that does not mean it does not have a problem with homelessness and housing. Thankfully, we still have one of the lowest rates of homelessness among member states. Scotland is almost double our rate and Germany is more than double. While that is nothing to be proud of, we are putting in a huge amount of resources and effort to try to help people and families in very difficult circumstances. One homeless family is one family too many. The Taoiseach has said it is a stain on our society and I agree with him on that. Thankfully, though, we are helping these people as much as we can. At times, we will do everything we can to support a homeless individual and put in every single support we can, and it will not be enough, but that does not mean we should not try harder, which we do, although we know we need to do more. This year, more than €100 million will be spent on homelessness, which is more than double what was spent in 2014, and that does not include the €25 million that was allocated for hubs, the additional €10 million that I approved earlier this year and the additional €10 million that has been ring-fenced since then for family hubs.

I was in Limerick this morning to attend a two-day conference of the social housing bodies as well as local authority representatives. I know from the local authority in Limerick that it will be drawing down that funding for two new hubs in Limerick. It intends to have almost all families out of hotels and bed and breakfasts before Christmas as a result of the work it is doing and the funding we are providing.

Consider the Mater Dei facility, which the Oireachtas committee was invited to attend, and which the vast majority of Members have not attended. Deputy Ó Broin has attended there - fair play to him for his engagement - but most Members have not. Of the 27 families that went to that new facility in June, half have moved on to more permanent accommodation. Others are, unfortunately, having difficulties finding accommodation. Different families have different needs and we must be sensitive to them. If they need a tailored response that takes more time then we will do that for them. We have nine family hubs in place at the moment that look after 300 families. We aim to have a total of 15 hubs. I repeat this is the first response. It is not a long-term source of accommodation. It is a better response than hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation. It is a first response for those families.

While we support the broad thrust of the motion, I cannot give the commitment called for in the motion: "to give a clear commitment that no family with children will be left in emergency accommodation for more than six months...". We must be sensitive to families' needs and we have to make sure that in finding them permanent, sustainable accommodation we take into account the different needs they have and we come forward with tailored solutions. The motion also says "that no person will be forced to sleep rough due to lack of safe and appropriate emergency accommodation." Again, sometimes we can do everything we can but it still will not be enough. There will be 200 more beds in place by the end of the year and this figure will have a spare capacity in it to make sure that nobody has to sleep rough. It is important that we do this.

The numbers of those who have come out of emergency accommodation show there have been 3,000 sustainable exits from homelessness in 2016. In the first quarter of 2017 there were 900. In the second quarter I hope to see the same. At the end of the housing summit I announced the new inter-agency group, to be chaired by John Murphy the former Secretary General of the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The group will co-ordinate the funding and resources that go in to homelessness. It is not just about shelter and emergency accommodation, it is about a range of issues. We have exit co-ordinators coming in to place also to prevent people falling back into homelessness. This is important and it was welcomed.

We also have a national director for Housing First coming and an additional 100 places for Housing First. This was all welcomed. There is also the new agreement whereby landlords must write to the RTB to notify it when they are issuing a notice to quit. This allows the RTB and the services to get involved to prevent people having to access emergency accommodation, to either keep people in the homes they are in or to help them in to new accommodation. There is also the roll-out of the new HAP place finder service across the State, which is doing a good job where it is available.

If we look at the details of the motion and the provision of 10,000 houses for local authorities arrived at, when I talk about the figures I want to be quite accurate so people will understand what I am talking about. Because of a decision that was made a few weeks ago, 3,800 houses will be built directly by local authorities and housing bodies. This is a 30% increase on what we were going to build next year. When we count in Part V provision as well as the voids that will be converted, we are looking at 5,000 homes next year. The figures for acquisitions and leasing will be an additional 3,000. This is 8,000. The Deputies have spoken of 10,000 for 2018; we will get 8,000. With regard to those acquisitions and leasing figures, we will have the acquisitions in stock and the leases will be long-term leases. We will have those. When we look at the 20,000 homes that are going to be built next year, we look at the new accommodation coming online, we can point to a 20% to 25%, or perhaps even more, that will be social housing homes for tenants who need those supports. This is because new money is made available and new money is re-prioritised. I am having conversations with the Minister for Finance and he has assured me that additional resources will be made available for our capital spend from 2019 on to make sure we can increase our ambition.

In addition, in 2018 some 17,000 new tenancies will be supported through HAP. This year 21,000 social housing homes will be through this range of measures. This is 80 new tenancies per working day of the week across the year. Next year we will see 8,000 homes from the build programme, acquisition and leasing and the 17,000 that will be available through HAP. That is 25,000 social housing supports next year. This is significant and is well beyond the 10,000 figure the Deputies are talking about delivering. It is important to point this out.

The motion also makes reference to the new measures to stop the flow of people into homelessness. I have already spoken of some of the outcomes of the housing summit, which I believe are very positive. The rent pressure zones, while a temporary solution, have worked. If the trends continue for the first and second quarters of this year we will see an average inflation rate of 3% in Dublin. It was 8.5 % last year. This will help families to stay in their tenancies. I have announced a definition of substantial refurbishment that is coming. We are working on this with the RTB, and other services are going to feed in to that definition. If I need to put it on a statutory footing I would have no problem in doing that.

A change management programme has been developed for two years to turn the RTB into a proper regulator. We also need balance and we must recognise that we cannot force anybody to be a landlord. People need to be incentivised to do this and they need supports, especially where there are accidental landlords or where people are thinking of selling on as a vacant possession. We must see if there are things we can do to make sure that landlords sell to landlords. If Deputies want to cry foul over the number of international institutional investors that have come in to invest in the rental sector, we must make sure that if we are trying to get them to exit there are going to be enough domestic landlords in place to take on that role.

Today in Limerick I announced that a housing body will use the new mortgage to rent scheme to help people whose mortgages are in distress of more than 720 days to stay in their homes as social housing tenants. This will help them and they are going to get a debt write off too, which is welcome. For the last nine consecutive quarters the numbers of people in long-term arrears has been reducing. The measures that were already in place have been working. We can, however, always bring about new solutions. We reviewed the mortgage to rent scheme earlier this year and we now have a housing body taking advantage of the changes that were made. More changes are going to come also.

I cannot, regrettably, address all the points in the motion that I had wanted to address.

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