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

Deputy Byrne should look at his own party's proposals. No party in opposition has greater ambition in relation to social housing than we do in government. We have set out a ten-year plan which brings Rebuilding Ireland forward with a commitment to deliver up to 1,200 social houses a year. I do not see anyone else here with that ambition. The ambition is there at national level and it is backed up by the money allocated to make it happen. The Deputy is right that we need every local authority to match that ambition by bringing forward plans and a pipeline of projects. As a Minister of State in the Department, I sit down with local authorities and officials on a weekly and monthly basis to see where they are going with this and what are their ambitions. In some cases, it is 50 units, 60 units, 70 units or 90 units and it can go over 100 units. However, bringing forward a massive site just for social housing will not happen. The site in Navan is 28 acres and its initial phase involves fewer than 100 social houses. However, a great many more can go on that at the right and appropriate time as determined by Meath County Council.

As I said to Deputy Byrne's colleagues, we will match the ambition of Meath County Council. The funding will be put in place to fund the housing projects it brings forward. Whether it is ten large sites or 40 small sites is a decision for Meath County Council to bring forward through Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael county councillors working together. Meath has responded to the initial targets set and is on track to meet them by delivering over 1,056 permanent new build homes itself. In the short term, it uses the HAP scheme to meet people's needs today and tomorrow and it does so very well. Deputy Byrne mentioned homeless families. The majority of people who become homeless in Meath do so for a very temporary period. The local authority responds quickly using all of our schemes to find those people houses and rightly so. That is what we expect it to do.

I understand what the Deputy is saying. He wants to see what is happening in 2020 and 2021 and I share his wish. We want to work with the local authority to fund plans for the future. We are up for it in our Department and the money is ring-fenced to match that ambition. Meath County Council has brought its housing waiting list down by 20% every year for the last two or three years and is well capable of doing this. We need to continue that positive trend, build on it and bring forward many more projects while also dealing with vacant units. An example in Kells is the €10 million which has been set aside for a street of vacant houses. Meath County Council is beginning to take on a great many initiatives and it can do more with our funding.

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