Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for that endorsement.

The lack of housing and the level of homelessness are an appalling blight on our society and, without question, represent an emergency. It is an emergency that demands urgent, effective and targeted action. Too many families and children are homeless. Rents are far too high. Too many people are waiting far too long for council houses. Young working people cannot afford to buy houses. Students' third level experiences are compromised and diminished by the housing crisis and the high cost of accommodation. Official figures do not tell the full story. We all know, from the people we meet at our clinics, the countless number on social housing lists who are living with their parents and other families and of the ensuing strain and stress for all concerned. It is an emergency that has lacked any effective intervention. If the contents of the series of governmental and ministerial announcements in the past four years had come to fruition, in any shape or form, the problems would not be half as bad as they are. Delivery has not matched the high blown rhetoric of ministerial announcements.

The repair and lease scheme, promised in 2017, promised 800 houses, of which none has been delivered. The affordable rental scheme, promised since 2015, has delivered nothing. The rapid build scheme, announced in 2015, with a target of providing 1,500 houses, has delivered 208. NAMA had nearly 7,000 units certified as being available for local authority and social housing, of which approximately 2,400 were delivered. There were 400 units promised by the end of 2018 under the affordable homes scheme, but the number delivered is zero. There was meant to be credit union off balance sheet funding for housing, with a clearing house group set up in 2015, but as yet nothing has been delivered. The Poolbeg West scheme was a strategic development zone announced by the Tánaiste, Deputy Simon Coveney, in May 2016. He said the pace at which it would be delivered would take us by surprise. He certainly took us by surprise. It has not yet been delivered and will not be for another couple of years. In 2015 Deputy Alan Kelly announced a public private partnership to provide 534 houses. The successful tender was announced only yesterday and the houses will not be completed until 2020.

Above all is the farcical situation where local authorities must submit plans for any build that will cost more than €2 million to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. That is also the case with any development of more than ten houses and it takes nearly 50-odd weeks to deliver them. These bureaucratic delays at local authority level are farcical and mean that local authorities have an inability to get schemes off the ground.

Does the Taoiseach accept that there is a fundamental gap between ministerial announcements and delivery and will he explain the absence of delivery across the board? Does he accept that we are facing an emergency?

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