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

It is one thing the Opposition Members are good at. I will give them that. A couple of points were raised earlier. I heard some of the comments made by the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and by Deputy Jan O'Sullivan in response to what Fianna Fáil is calling for in the motion. Very often we are accused of not addressing the housing shortage early enough and not stepping in, but as Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, said we took the first chance we got when the State finances were repaired and there was money and we made sure to put it back into housing. Listening to Fianna Fáil one would forget that for seven or eight years there was no money. It was not there. I listened to Deputy Cassells and many others speaking as if there was money and there was never a problem with housing. We had better not forget that housing construction fell by 90%. Hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs and left. I will never ever forget knocking on doors in 2011 and meeting people who said this country had no future and their children had no future. That is what they were saying. They could not see any hope. I do not go back to that very often in this House but we had better not forget what has happened in the past seven or eight years and prior to that. I do not mind all the political slagging. That is all part of it, but it comes back to housing construction. However, we had better not forget the hurt that was in people's eyes. I have only seen that same hurt since in the last couple of weeks over the recent scandals, but back in 2011 people were genuinely afraid that their children and grandchildren had no future in this country. It does not work to just put down a motion about affordable housing as if one could just fix the entire housing crisis by clicking one's fingers. One cannot just rewrite history. It takes time to get housing construction going again. The underlying idea behind Rebuilding Ireland, the Action Plan for Housing, was an investment case to secure the money that was needed to invest in housing. We put together a business case and a plan and secured €6 billion of taxpayers' money to invest.

I listened to comments earlier about the great work being done by many NGOs such as Focus Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust, the Simon Community and many others. There was also much praise for housing associations and the great work they do. People also need to realise that they are also spending taxpayers' money. They are part of Rebuilding Ireland. They work with local authorities and the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. They are all playing their part as stakeholders in the delivery of houses, housing solutions and homeless services, but that is being done with taxpayers' money. This year we will spend the guts of €2 billion of taxpayers' money and the taxpayers need to know that their money is funding solutions. When Members of this House constantly say what the Government is not doing and praising everybody else they should realise it is taxpayers' money being channelled through a Department by the Government. In some cases it is matched with voluntary help and fundraising but a lot of taxpayers' money is funding those solutions too.

The Government's approach is working and it is providing solutions. The fact that we are in here discussing a motion on affordable housing shows that our plan is now working because stage 1 of the plan was to address homelessness and social housing, and to restart social housing which had been stopped well before any recession. Let us not kid ourselves. Many local authorities did not have housing teams for many years before the recession because they did not need them. The first step was to go back into local authorities, put the teams together, channel the taxpayers' money through local authorities and put them in a prime position to deliver housing. They are now doing that. Last year we saw an additional 7,000 houses coming into the system through a combination of direct build, acquisition, Part V, long-term leasing and other schemes as well. In addition, another 17,000 to 18,000 houses were provided through the housing assistance payment, HAP, and other schemes as well. In total, 26,000 families had housing solutions. A total of 4,700 people left the homeless situation.

Regrettably, we admit that there are still between 9,500 and 10,000 people in a homeless situation for various reasons. Everyone has their own individual story. We met many people today who were in a hotel for three or four months last year in the Fingal area and now they are in a house. I made the point that the story is changing for many of them. When we first started to tackle the situation people were living for two or three years in emergency accommodation in a hotel or bed and breakfast. Thankfully, there has been a lot of movement in that regard. I accept that there are still far too many people in emergency accommodation, bed and breakfasts and hotels but the story is a little bit different. People are not there for as long as they used to be. They are moving through the system. They recognise that. They do not want to be there. We do not want them there - nobody does. It is not a place to be or to raise a family. Thankfully, with taxpayers' money being spent in the right way, through a plan, this year we will see more than 8,000 new social houses coming into the system. Many of the people who are in emergency accommodation tonight, who are homeless or without a house or in an overcrowded situation with their family will be in a home during this year.

Many others will avail of the HAP scheme and other schemes and housing solutions that are being provided. Deputy Frank O'Rourke suggested that in some cases the scheme is not working the way it should be. We accept that and we will address it and move things on. I heard some speakers criticise the HAP scheme. I remind them that before the HAP scheme there was rent assistance which prevented people from increasing their income. That discouraged people from going back to work. If one got a job one was penalised and lost the assistance straight away. The HAP scheme was brought in to encourage people to get back into work when they could and to take up a job, and to better provide for themselves and their families. It did not hold them back. That is what it was there for, but it also meant that more than 30,000 people are in a home today of their choosing - one they found that suits their needs that is subsidised through the State. They will adjust their needs as they go along and many of those people will choose to leave and go on to either their own private house or into a permanent social house. HAP is not a scheme to put people to one side because more than 1,000 people have left it and moved into a permanent social house. It is part of a journey that people are on.

We do not want to rely on the private sector all the time for social housing solutions but in the short term when we are rebuilding the construction housing sector we will have to rely on the private sector to some extent or make it a partner until the State is in a position that the housing stock is replenished and it can continue on by itself. That is what the approach is about. There is a commitment from the Government with the support of many others as well to deliver a minimum of 50,000 social houses in the next three or four years. People ask why the houses are not there. Anyone with common sense knows one cannot do it in six months or a year. We are approximately 19 or 20 months into our programme. The Department has been totally reorganised and we have different teams and schemes working through local authorities which have changed their processes. A lot of change has happened which will deliver all those thousands of houses this year, next year and into the future.

Part of the remit of Rebuilding Ireland was to put in place a sustainable residential housing construction sector to give people confidence that it is a safe place to invest in their skills, be it in formal education and training, an apprenticeship or traineeship or at fourth level. We are encouraging people to go back into those areas to retrain, add to their skills and as the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, said earlier to restart their companies and put them together again, to invest in this sector and plan for the future. That is what this document was about, namely, putting people in a position that they could have confidence to invest again in a housing construction sector. There was a guarantee to deliver 25,000 to 30,000 houses every year for the next five, ten and 20 years to match proper planning. That is what it is doing. This year the supply of housing will increase by more than 20,000. The industry itself says 23,000 and the Central Bank says the same. The Department conservatively estimates the total will be approximately 21,000. That is ahead of our own target. Next year we will build on that. Each and every year the supply of housing increases, which will deliver social housing, affordable housing, housing for the rental sector and across all the different areas, and private housing at the right price as well. The supply of housing is the solution to all of the problems. That is what is being achieved by Government intervention through the Action Plan for Housing devised by the Department. That is what it is there for. It does not mean one can fix the problems in one night, one weekend, six months or one year. We cannot do that. It is a five-year plan to deal with all the housing-related problems and it is delivering because we can see the social housing.

Going back to the people who are homeless, we wish they were not in emergency accommodation. It is not a place to be. All our efforts are to make sure they are not there but there has been progress. In terms of people's individual stories for being there, two or three years ago it was nearly always based on economic need but that is not the story any more. There are different stories but it is not just due to economic and financial reasons. There is movement and we are addressing all the various scenarios. We are working with individuals and families to get them back into a home or get them back on track if they have other needs as well. Progress is being made.

I heard the comment that funding for other services around housing has to match. Deputy Cassells has a bit of a cheek to come in here and say the Government has to build houses and then provide all the services around them as well. We watched construction in this country go to 90,000 houses per year without the services around them. All the counties surrounding Dublin and in the greater Dublin region were let down by Governments that allowed house after house to be built without the proper services and infrastructure. Rebuilding Ireland, which was launched by the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is a long-term plan which includes the services around the houses. It plans where we are going to put the houses in the future and where there will be schools, shops, education facilities and health services around them.

11 o’clock

A site in Ashbourne that is big enough to provide educational facilities - which is what is was purchased for in the first instance, as well as housing and some community amenities - was chosen. It is not all just for houses. Let us not kid ourselves. That is not what the council brought forward in its plan. Ashbourne exploded because of a lack of planning. It is full of houses, like everywhere else in the greater Dublin area. There is no longer a lack of planning. The plan is in place and we will deliver services with houses.

I was in Balrothery, which is in Deputy Darragh O'Brien's constituency, earlier today opening new houses. Residents told me that two years ago they opposed the building of those nine houses because they thought that a playground should be built on the site. They told me they were wrong to oppose the development and that they are happy the houses have been built. I want to be clear on this - they said they were wrong. Likewise, when the position is explained to residents in Ashbourne, they may also realise that they are wrong to object.

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