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

I sat here and listened to what the Deputy said. Deputy Paul Murphy wants to hold a big march in a few weeks. That is fine. He should hold the march, but be honest with people. The last time there was a big march I listened to the message from the campaign, which was to deliver 10,000 social houses. That is what we are doing. Deputy Joan Collins nodded her head. She wants that, and it is sought in the motion. That is what is happening in 2019. Members sanctioned that budget.

I accept that Members have a difference with us about delivery. We are saying there will be 10,000 additional social houses. Approximately 6,500 of them will be directly built by local authorities. It appears Members do not wish to give any credit to local authorities for the work they do with AHBs and with the different sectors in acquiring vacant properties and bringing them back into use. They do that work as well. Their job is to deliver houses, not just to build new houses. Naturally, we want them to build more new houses every year but it is wrong to say that one can solve a housing problem by just building social houses from day one and doing nothing else.

Members raised issues with HAP, using the private sector and so forth. More than 40,000 families are in HAP houses today. Has anybody here got a solution for those 40,000 people tomorrow? There is no other quick solution. We have to use, engage with and rely on the private sector in the short term. However, that is not the only plan. The plan is to reduce that after a couple of years when the housing supply is increased.

However, one must first build the houses. In the meantime, people must avail of HAP or some other form of support. Some Members do not seem to like it but no other solution has been put forward. I ask them to bear that in mind.

In recent debates on this issue, Members raised situations involving persons living in emergency accommodation for two or three years and so on, and such situations are referred to in the motion. However, when I looked into the detail of the cases raised, I discovered there was more to the story. In some cases, the person was offered HAP accommodation but refused it as it did not suit his or her needs. In other cases, the person was seeking a council house within a small geographical area, which limited the available housing options. There is more to the story. The majority of people do not spend two or three years in emergency accommodation although, sadly, some do. We wish they did not. People are offered various options and solutions, but those solutions may not always suit their needs. However, some Deputies are trying to create the perception that everyone who enters emergency accommodation is left there for two or three years and that there are no solutions. The fact is that approximately 5,000 adults, along with their children, left a homelessness in 2018, slightly more than was the case in 2017. The difficulty and sadness for us all is that just as many came back into homelessness. I do not deny that.

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