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

I thank the Members who spoke during this debate. As the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Murphy, said at the outset of his remarks, which were primarily directed at affordability, the latest homelessness report repeats what we saw in January and would seem to indicate a very worrying trend since the beginning of the year in relation to the number of families presenting to our homeless services. I want to reassure the House again that the Government, local authorities, the voluntary housing sector and all the stakeholders involved are putting huge amounts of time and resources into helping people in homelessness every single day and night of the week.

I acknowledge the comments of the chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust, Mr. Pat Doyle, this afternoon. He spoke about the need for all of the stakeholders involved to redouble their efforts and to work together. He also said that while overall figures have risen substantially, it is still clear that progress has been made in some areas. An example of that progress includes the fact that the number of single adults in homelessness fell last month. The number of rough sleepers is down dramatically - over 50% year on year. The efforts that local authority staff and voluntary staff from the different agencies and organisations made during the recent weather event was clear to see.

In January and February, almost 300 families were prevented from entering emergency accommodation or have exited it. Of the more than 100 families that presented in Dublin in February, only 20 were accommodated in hotels during 2017. More than 2,000 families left hotels and moved to sustainable tenancies, with the majority going into homes. Last year, more than 4,700 adults exited homelessness. A huge amount is happening. That is due in no small part to our partner organisations which are funded through taxpayers' money, including groups such as the Peter McVerry Trust, The Simon Community and Focus Ireland. These groups work closely with the staff of the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The underlying challenges remain - to build more homes and to do it at an affordable price, and to ensure affordable rental levels.

Deputy Stanley spoke about the voluntary housing groups. Legislation will come before the House in the next number of weeks regarding those voluntary housing agencies. The Deputy said that this is a national issue, and he is correct that homelessness affects every part of the country, not just Dublin and the major cities.

It is very important that the House discusses this issue on a regular basis. I have observed many of the debates that have taken place. Given the dreadful impact of the economic downturn on housing supply and the housing sector, it has taken a long time for recovery to kick in. Now that the country is recovering economically, demand is continuing to increase. This has resulted in house prices rising, and a significant increase in rental prices. The Government remains absolutely committed to continuing to drive the recovery of housing supply through the active implementation of the Rebuilding Ireland action plan and the adoption of policies and approaches where necessary. In tandem with increasing supply, we are determined to deliver a reformed and sustainable housing system which will provide quality affordable homes. Progress is being made towards these aims. The Government has restarted the delivery of social housing at scale, which was mentioned by many speakers today. It has offered hope to people on the local authority housing list and breathed life into the ailing housing construction industry. It has also offered hope to first time buyers, people who need to trade up or down, and indeed to renters.

Social housing output has been increased dramatically; the social housing needs of almost 26,000 households were met in 2017. To put that in context, the corresponding number for 2014 was 7,000. A substantial pipeline of new schemes is coming on track, and we will continue to drive the delivery of those new homes. I commend the local government sector on all the work it is doing in the areas of housing and homelessness. Local authorities are working with the Department, approved housing bodies and the housing agencies to deliver on the front line.

5 o’clock

As Minister of State with responsibility for local government, I see at first hand the challenges that the sector faces and its excellent response across the country. Last year, 100 households a day had their social housing need met. That is 100 cases a day where all that hard work made a huge difference in people's lives.

As housing and planning authorities, local authorities are uniquely placed to drive and oversee the delivery of affordable housing supply. Now that the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, has announced the Government's new affordable housing measures, local authorities will be crucial in operating and managing the new home loan offering, affordable purchase and cost rental schemes. Councils are bringing forward their sites for the construction of thousands of new social and affordable homes. We are working with them to accelerate that delivery and to increase the yield of affordable homes to buy and rent, particularly in parts of the country with very high house prices and rents. We need the political system at national level, and the colleagues we all have in each local authority around the country, to get fully behind the work. It is fair to say that some local authorities are better at delivering than others. It is also fair to point out that there is a political responsibility on all of our party colleagues and our independent colleagues on local authorities around the country to ensure that we deliver results. Councils are also working with the private sector to ensure that good sites where we can deliver affordable homes are provided. To help this, the Government is providing €275 million to fund enabling infrastructure. We have also removed potential obstacles and de-risked the planning and regulatory regime.

I have listened to most of the contributions and I want people to be assured that the Government will do as Pat Doyle, the chief executive of the Peter McVerry trust, called for today. Working with all of the agencies and bodies involved in the sector, the Government will redouble its efforts to implement real changes affecting people who are caught in homelessness.

See this speech in context