John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies who contributed and Sinn Féin for presenting the opportunity to have an update on the situation with regard to the delivery of social and affordable housing.

Deputy Connolly said no social housing units had been delivered in Galway in recent years. More than 220 were delivered by Galway city and county in the past two years, which is an insufficient number and does not go near to meeting social housing demand but Deputies should at least be accurate when they make comments in the Chamber.

Deputy Mattie McGrath, in a typically colourful contribution, spoke about the role of approved housing bodies and legislation is being drafted at the moment on the role of these bodies. The greater part of the social housing that has been provided in the past few years was by such bodies and their work should be acknowledged and supported.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan mentioned the vacant sites register, which is being implemented by some local authorities and not by others. My part of the Department deals specifically with local authorities and there is an overzealous application by some local authorities to sites that are clearly not vacant, such as family farm holdings on the edge of urban centres which would not qualify under anyone's definition of a vacant site. Her general point about the lack of action by many local authorities is, however, true and this is an issue with which I will be dealing in the coming months.

I will speak about what the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Damien English, both of whom are directly responsible for housing, have been doing in the past couple of weeks. Earlier, the Minister outlined his intentions regarding strategic land management and housing delivery. He plans to co-ordinate a lot of the work through the new residential land management and development group. Land is at the heart of the delivery of housing, particularly affordable housing. If builders pay too much for land it drives up the cost of supply and this is passed on to buyers and renters. If local authorities cannot get their hands on good housing land at fair prices they cannot deliver social and affordable homes.

The Minister will be bringing together key stakeholders from the Department, the Housing Agency, the Housing Finance Agency, the Department of Finance, local authorities and the NDFA. Other relevant semi-State and State bodies will be invited along as appropriate. The group will drive the development of housing on State land, accelerate the delivery of housing from all residentially zoned land and monitor and assess the availability of residential development land. We have commenced preparatory work with officials in the Department and the intention is that the full group will convene in the coming weeks.

We have also mapped 2,000 ha of local authority housing agency and broader State residential lands. We have a build programme of 12,293 social housing homes so there is still significant capacity from that land and local authorities have major sites, some of which were mentioned in the motion. These include O'Devaney Gardens, St. Michael's in Inchicore and the Oscar Traynor Road - all in Dublin City Council 's area. There is also Kilcarbery in Clondalkin, which is in South Dublin County Council; Wellview in Mulhuddart, Fingal; Hampton in Balbriggan, which is a housing agency property; Shanganagh in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown; and Whitechurch Road in Cork city.

We need homes on these sites as soon as possible. The State also has suitable sites scattered around many of our towns and cities where with a little imagination and a lot of determination, we could deliver many of the new homes we need. At the housing summit, local authorities were asked to think about State-owned sites in their areas that would be strategically important for them in terms of the delivery of housing. I would say that every Deputy in the Chamber could name numerous HSE sites that are dotted around the country in prime locations. Virtually every significant urban centre in the country has such a site. Some will be suitable for housing while some will not be, but we do need to look at those sites in the context of the housing shortage. It does not make sense from a social or economic perspective to have such sites lying idle. Now that the Minister has announced the three affordable housing initiatives - the Rebuilding Ireland loan, the affordable purchase scheme and the affordable rental scheme - local authorities can be more ambitious in their plans for the development of these lands. Local authority chief executives were at the summit. We will meet them and their teams individually to discuss how each local authority will realise new homes from these lands in terms of its updated social housing targets and its plans for the delivery of programme of affordable homes.

What, if anything, is holding up this development? We know that debt is a significant issue on some sites in some local authorities. Are there sites that are not suitable for development in the short to medium term, that is, where there is little or no demand for social or affordable housing? Looking forward, what is the local authority's future requirement for residential lands and how soon will it need to secure additional sites? Is there an opportunity to target broader State land for housing? These are vitally important questions that were raised with chief executives at the summit. We have asked them to come back on this in detail by mid-February at our bilateral meetings.

Under the NPF, we are looking at land in the context of that planning framework. The Government is considering the establishment of a new public development and renewal agency under the planning framework to work with local authorities. It could use State lands or purchase lands in key locations for affordable housing for people to buy or rent, and indeed not just for housing. Such an agency could work with local authorities in assembling and releasing key and strategic areas for renewal and revitalisation and would have access to publicly owned but redundant or under-utilised lands suitable for redevelopment. Such an agency would also help to create a national centre of expertise in development and renewal to ensure that existing lands are utilised to their fullest and best extent and in a manner that complements the sustainable planning and development of our urban and rural areas. It would have a remit beyond housing in terms of providing other vital services in those areas that need regeneration and renewal. The Government will be considering these issues fully in the context of the finalisation of the planning framework.

As part of this broader consideration, the regime available to local authorities to secure new residential land also needs to be examined. We must learn lessons from the recent past. We know that the last time local authorities bought a large amount of lland, some of those sites cost local authorities a lot of money - too much money - and saddled them with large debts. We are working with officials on the examination of the compulsory purchase regime. This is important. Some of the legislation in this area is very old and cumbersome and is not used as often as it could be by local authorities to ensure that vacant and derelict properties in the centre of towns in particular can be compulsorily purchased for housing and indeed other public uses. It is timely given that the Law Reform Commission is now examining the CPO legislation.

In conclusion, the Minister has set out the Government's record on housing. With regard to social housing, we are increasing stock by 50,000 by 2021. A total of €6 billion has been ring fenced. To resuscitate the residential construction sector, we have streamlined planning, provided funding of €200 million in the infrastructure fund and delivered new apartment guidelines, and we are setting up Home Building Finance Ireland. With regard to affordable housing, recognising that people are struggling to meet accommodation costs, we are bringing forward the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, an affordable purchase scheme and an affordable rental scheme. We are not there yet but the signs and data are heading in the right direction for the first time in many years. The latest available housing market data shows that residential construction activity levels continue to strengthen. Planning permissions in the 12 months to the end of September were up 13% year on year. At over 17,500, commencement notices in 2017 were up 33% year on year. Registrations in 2017 were up 68% year on year while at just under 20,000, ESB connections in 2017 were up 29% year on year, which shows that the plan is having an effect. Social housing provision is ahead of target. The Government is committed to delivering on the new affordable housing schemes the Minister and I have mentioned. The Minister and I, along with the Minister of State, Deputy English, the Department and our delivery partners will continue to do all in our power to drive that delivery.

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