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

5 o’clock

The Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, had to leave early. He cannot speak twice in the debate in any case, but as he outlined earlier, many of the aims in the motion are already being achieved through either the Land Development Agency or other Rebuilding Ireland housing policy initiatives.

The immediate focus of the Land Development Agency, LDA, is on managing the State's lands to develop new homes, regenerate underutilised sites and, in the longer term, assemble strategic landbanks from a mix of public and private lands, with the overall objective of being involved in the delivery of 150,000 new homes over the next 20 years. The new public land affordability requirement, whereby a minimum of 30% of any housing developed must be reserved for affordable purposes, in addition to the 10% statutory social housing requirement under Part V, will enable greater delivery of social and affordable homes on public lands. This new requirement will apply regardless of whether such development is being progressed by the LDA or any other market operator.

On establishment, the LDA had access to an initial tranche of eight sites across Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Westmeath and Galway. Significant preparatory work is under way on these sites, with feasibility, planning and other preparatory works already initiated. Construction activity is envisaged to commence on the first homes in 2019 for delivery in 2020, pending the granting of planning permissions on those sites. Development of LDA managed lands will make a substantial contribution to the achievement of wider Government targets for housing delivery in general and social housing specifically, as set out in Rebuilding Ireland, thus enhancing supply, aiding the moderation in increases in housing costs and enabling new sources of affordable housing supply, including for cost rental accommodation, which has been mentioned by many speakers.

The Government is committed to bringing forward cost rental housing and the LDA will be involved in that. Under the cost rental model a provider supplies accommodation and charges rents sufficient to cover the capital costs associated with delivery along with the ongoing commitments related to the management and maintenance of the development. Together with delivering more affordable and predictable rents, cost rental will make a sustainable impact on national competitiveness and the attractiveness of our main urban centres as places to live and work. As cost rental is a new housing model to Ireland, and to drive delivery, a number of important early mover projects are being advanced, delivering important lessons in cost rental in an Irish setting. These cost rental pilot schemes are at Enniskerry Road, in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, and Emmet Road in Inchicore, where 50 and 330 units, respectively, are being developed. The Department is also engaging with the National Development Finance Agency, the European Investment Bank and the Land Development Agency to examine the optimum funding and delivery options to support delivery at scale in Dublin and other urban areas.

As stated, overall housing supply continues to show significant increases. More than 18,000 new homes were built in 2018, a 25% increase on the previous year and the highest number of newly built homes in any year this decade. More than 2,500 homes were brought out of long-term vacancy and almost 800 dwellings in unfinished housing developments were completed, meaning the number of new homes available for use increased by almost 21,500 in 2018, together with more than 3,700 student bed spaces.

The key focus of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2018, which is scheduled for Committee Stage in Dáil Éireann tomorrow, is to deliver on a number of commitments flowing from Rebuilding Ireland and the commitments made to provide the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, with additional powers and resources to deliver enhanced protections to both tenants and landlords. The key measures and reforms in the Bill are designed to enhance enforcement powers for the RTB, provide greater security of tenure for tenants, and further underpin the operation of the rent pressure zone arrangements, along with some further targeted priority measures. The Betterlet: RTB Accredited Landlord programme has been developed from an action in the strategy for the rental sector and is a voluntary accreditation scheme for landlords to participate in to gain knowledge on best practice, including a comprehensive understanding of the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants.

I always listen to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae's comments on housing. Just as his speeches are always the same, the answer also remains the same. There is no prohibition on Kerry County Council providing extra resources from its funding sources. Almost half of the Healy-Rae family are members of Kerry County Council at this stage and perhaps the Deputy could encourage them and other councillors to provide extra funding, be it for demountable homes or the once-off rural houses he mentioned. Not every answer necessarily rests with central government. Local government still has significant autonomy, and just because decisions are not made at local government level does not mean everything should fall back on central government.

The motion calls on the Government to create an Irish housing development bank by merging parts of the National Asset Management Agency with the Housing Agency, Housing Finance Agency and the Land Development Agency to act as a State owned commercial housing developer with a remit to produce social housing and affordable public housing on publicly owned land. There is no obvious rationale for creating a bank of the type suggested. The Housing Finance Agency and the Housing Agency have specific functions and I am confident that each is operating effectively. In addition, Home Building Finance Ireland, HBFI, a new State lender for small and medium-sized builders and developers has been established with an initial €750 million to fund the delivery of up to 7,500 new homes over the next five years.

The rainy day fund forms part of the Government's policy to stabilise the public finances and increase the State's resilience to external economic shocks. It is important to remember that the almost complete shutdown of residential housing development after the crash is a major contributor to the current housing shortage. The reason it is so important to have a rainy day fund is so we have a buffer against a future crisis and a better capacity to sustain capital infrastructure projects in particular. Diverting investment from this fund would deplete the reserves available to be drawn on in the event of a serious unforeseeable economic event occurring during the relevant year.

Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness was introduced by this Government in 2016 and provides a comprehensive framework for tackling the range of complex issues that must be addressed across the housing sector. Very significant progress has been made on delivery through local authorities, approved housing bodies and a range of other delivery partners, with in excess of 72,000 households having their housing needs met during the first three years of Rebuilding Ireland. A further 27,300 households are supported by a record investment of €2.4 billion in housing this year, bringing to almost 100,000 the total number of households that will have been assisted under Rebuilding Ireland by the end of 2019. Overall, the Rebuilding Ireland action plan will increase the supply of new homes to 25,000 per annum by 2020 and meet the housing needs of a further 87,000 households through the housing assistance payment scheme and the rental accommodation scheme.

This Government remains resolutely focused on ensuring that all appropriate measures to address the challenges of homelessness will continue to be deployed. The Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, is provided by Dublin City Council as the lead statutory local authority in the response to homelessness in Dublin and adopts a shared service approach across the four Dublin local authorities. The Department also established a dedicated housing delivery office in September 2017 to support local authorities, approved housing bodies and all stakeholders involved in the delivery of key elements of the ambitious private and social housing targets in the Rebuilding Ireland plan. The purpose of this office is to accelerate and monitor housing delivery, both private and social, on key sites and to identify further mechanisms to accelerate delivery.

What is critical at this stage is to ensure that all of the structures already in place are aligned, co-ordinated and working towards a common objective. This includes the Department, the Housing Agency and the Housing Finance Agency working with local authorities and housing bodies throughout the country.

The Government is satisfied at this time that appropriate arrangements are in place to deliver a much-needed social and affordable homes across the country.

The Government is committed to improving the energy efficiency of our housing stock. Funding is being provided for a number of grant schemes to encourage energy efficiency upgrades in homes. These schemes, which are funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and administered by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, provide financial support for installing insulation, ventilation, heat pumps, solar, thermal, and photovoltaics. Additional supports for people on lower incomes, including free energy efficiency retrofits are also available. More than 400,000 homes have already upgraded the energy performance of their homes with the assistance of these grants.

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