Dáil debates

Thursday, 21 November 2019

Supporting Children out of Emergency Accommodation and into Homes: Statements

 

3:00 pm

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

Let us be clear on that. I get a sense from some of Fianna Fáil Deputies that they believe this is an attack on the LDA. I spoke at the outset about the importance of making sure this situation does not happen again. At the presentation of both of the reports we are discussing today, some speakers, in particular the Ombudsman for Children, talked about this happening again when the next crash occurs. It cannot happen again. That is why we must put in place long-term plans. I will not go back over my entire speech, but I made the point that we have made long-term plans to prevent housing difficulties such as we are experiencing now and to prevent the situation from ever happening again. The LDA is part of the long-term solution. It is not mentioned in Rebuilding Ireland as part of the short-term solution in the first couple of years. It is charged with managing the State land to deliver more than 150,000 houses over the next 20 years.

Other speakers, including a Fianna Fáil Deputy, referred to mindset. They said it is the mindset of the Government not to provide social housing. I did not make political points in my opening statement, but I remind people of why we are here. When 90,000 houses were built in this country in 2007, only 4,000 of them were social houses. That is approximately 4% of activity. We have not built enough social housing in the past and that is the reason we have difficulties today. Thankfully, this year, more than 30% of the delivery of more than 20,000 houses will be social housing. That is how we must address this in the future in order to prevent it from happening again. Members should not tell me about mindset: this is not about mindset. It was in the past, but that is no longer the case. It is about how quickly we can deliver houses. In fairness, Deputy Funchion touched on this. The solution is housing. The Deputy referred to what the committee asked for in 2016. Number one of the committee's many recommendations was the delivery of 10,000 social houses a year. That will happen this year. Next year we will build 11,000 houses, but it must happen every year, not just when Fine Gael or Labour are in government but no matter who is in government. All parties must commit to that and hang on to it. I have not heard those commitments from everybody else. Very few solutions were outlined today. The two reports contain recommendations and we will implement most of them. It is not correct of Deputy Broughan to say that we will not. We will look at the recommendations and if they are worthwhile, we will implement them.

Deputy Jan O'Sullivan asked a specific question about whether we would buy large houses for families who are caught in emergency accommodation. We are doing that. There are large families, in some cases Traveller families, who find it very hard to find a solution through the rental market. We do step in and we will use money to buy housing for them. Local authorities have been asked to do that. There are many other solutions. People asked about the hubs and the training of staff. I wish to be clear: all staff in family hubs are vetted and linked in with the various agencies as well. We provide services through the Departments involved as well. I could go back through it all here, but I will send messages on that as well. To be clear: there is no reason for someone to be in emergency accommodation long term. Thankfully, the majority of people now are in emergency accommodation for fewer than six months. I remind Members that of every two families that present, we find at home for at least one of them immediately. In the past, we could not, but now we are. It is still not enough and I do not say it is but it is going in the right direction.

While we are building and replenishing the housing stock we must work with the private sector. There is no choice but to use the HAP scheme because, without it, 40,000 families would not have a home tonight. However, people on the front line who claim they are operating with the best interests of families do not recommend HAP as a solution. It is a solution in the short term and it is better than a family hub or hotel on the journey to a permanent house. I cannot be any clearer in my message on that as well.

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