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

The Opposition should not try to rewrite history just because we are getting close to an election.

Deputy Thomas Byrne raised the issue of commuter belt areas. We are trying to prevent the sprawl which has come back to the density issue. Under Project 2040 we will have to accept higher density in our cities, towns and boundaries. That means changing the way we think about the type of housing and trying to fit it into sites and that will not be nice for everybody. We have a lot of work to do to bring communities on board because we do have to achieve higher densities in key areas to take the pressure off Meath, Kildare, Wexford and Wicklow which got all the houses and nothing else in previous years. Under Project Ireland 2040 we are trying to rebalance that. There will be some housing and growth. Some councils want loads more but I favour balanced development, with some more housing, matched with proper school places, jobs, education, investments in health and so on. That is what we are trying to achieve here. Deputy Thomas Byrne raised it and I back him up on that. School places are a key area. We see that in Dunshaughlin, Trim and Navan and the Minister for Education and Skills has said he will meet all the principals to deal with some short-term solutions and to put in place some long-term solutions as well. We will be proactive and will find everybody a school place but we should not have to do that. It should be planned right. That is what is happening now with Project Ireland 2040: joined-up thinking.

Deputy Lahart mentioned the SHD process. It is not so much that process he has problems with but density, planning guidelines and applications. He did say at the end of his speech that not every planning application is granted. Some bad applications have been refused. We are trying to look for quality. There is a choice but SHD is not for one type of housing, it allows all types of housing. It is not a permanent process. The Deputy may have missed it but the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, signed it on Tuesday so the two-year extension put before the House a few weeks ago was confirmed. We are considering that and we will be adding to it and bringing it through here, with the Deputy's support I hope.

To respond to Deputy Casey, I do recognise the support we get from him and his party on many of the housing issues. He is right to say that many of the applications through the SHD process did not produce the result they should have and activity on the site. The planning permission was granted but not enough houses were built. In the review it was flagged to the Minister that he should consider bringing in a use it or lose it clause. He said he will do that. We will be here in January with legislation. I do not know if it is a regulation or legislation to tweak that to say the developer has a certain period to use their planning application under the SHD process or they will lose their permission. We want to encourage activity on sites and more housing. All the solutions to our housing problems regardless of the differences we may have about who pays what and so on are aimed at supply of housing. That should be our focus, to get the supply of housing up as quickly as we can.

This week and last week I have heard from one side of the House about home ownership. Those Deputies would want to check their facts on this. Home ownership is something I totally and utterly believe in and so does my party and this Government. We give people the option to buy if they can when they can or to rent if they want to rent, as many want to. Home ownership in this country however has been declining steadily since the 1980s, not just in the past three or four years. The facts are that home ownership declined dramatically from 2011 to 2016, much more in those five years than in the past five or six years. If the Members opposite are going to try to throw some stones at me and my party they should please check their facts first.

There is a myth being put about by one party, for some strange reason, that we want to blame local authorities. I started my speech by praising local authorities and by recognising their major achievements over the past three or four years. I am not saying they are all saints or that the Department is sainted, we do not get everything right, but the local authorities have come a hell of a long way from delivering less than a couple of hundred houses three years ago to this year's output of over 10,000 houses. They are front and centre of addressing the housing crisis. Like our councillors and Deputies they meet the people daily. I commend the housing teams who work in very difficult situations. It is very difficult to tell someone that there is no house for them today and they should come back in a few months. That can be very hard. The local authorities are doing a lot of good work but we are constantly pushing that, changing that and doing more to make it even better to deliver faster and so on and we have changed the system.

5 o’clock

Deputies should not try to put words in our mouths and claim we are blaming the local authorities because we are not. This is a partnership between the Department, the Government, local authorities, housing bodies and NGOs and everyone is playing a part. There has been a major increase in delivery but I am the first to admit that it is still not enough. It still has not delivered a home for everybody and I am not denying that. However, we are on the right track. People say to me that Rebuilding Ireland is not working but by the end of this year, over 100,000 people will have been helped by it. We are now at 10,000 social houses per year and will be at 11,000 next year. We would not have got there in one year; it took a couple of years to get there. Some said that we should wave a magic wand and do it in one year but that was not possible. It takes time to get up and running. Now that everything is up and running, we can build on that supply and keep it going. At the end of the day, nobody wants to see children and their families in emergency accommodation. We must try to get them out of emergency accommodation as quickly as possible and into a permanent home and that is what we are doing.

I touched on the HAP earlier. I know that not everyone likes it but it provides solutions relatively quickly for some people. It is not the endgame or a permanent solution but it is better than living in hotels or family hubs. I am aware that some people encourage families not to take up a HAP house. That is wrong because a HAP supported house is much better than living in hotels or family hubs while on the journey to a more permanent home. I could say a lot more but I have run out of time.

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