Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to discuss with colleagues today the many issues that fall under my Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. I recognise that many people might want to focus on the issue of housing in particular because it is so important but I would like to speak, if I have the time, to issues that have happened around the planning area, local government, Irish Water, our fire and emergency services and Met Éireann as well. By way of background in respect of what has been happening in housing and homeless services, I had my first engagement with members of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, DRHE, on 25 February, when they raised the issue of Covid-19 and what was then feared, that a crisis might come to the country, and the work they had been doing in preparation for such a potential crisis. I refer to the work they had been doing themselves with the local authorities but also with the NGOs. I had a further meeting in Grangegorman with the Taoiseach and with staff from the Department of Health, Safetynet and others. We learned that as early as January, people in the health sector were working around what potential challenges we might face, should we experience the kind of crisis we have now experienced. Because of their great efforts and foresight early on, a significant amount of work has been done to protect some of our most vulnerable citizens, those who are homeless, in emergency or sleeping rough, to keep them safe in the crisis we have been experiencing. I really want to thank them for those efforts. On 4 March, the HSE published its guidance on homeless and vulnerable people. We provided that to local authorities and it was updated again on 14 March and on 16 April. On 6 March, we communicated to the local authorities and NGOs the checklist of actions that had been drawn up by the National Public Health Emergency Team, actions that service providers needed to take to keep people safe in this crisis.

Through this work, we have seen some fantastic things being done by people working on the front lines. To reflect on that briefly, I refer to two of the main actions that have been so important. One is the dedicated health response that has been put in place for people who are in emergency accommodation. Not every person who is in emergency accommodation is just having a crisis in terms of a home for themselves, a roof over their heads. Some issues are more complicated but the health supports that have been put in place have been absolutely phenomenal. That is just one action that really stands out and that must continue into the future. The second action was moving very quickly to secure additional accommodation that became available when it did. As a result of that, more than 1,000 new spaces were secured in Dublin, more than 400 outside of Dublin and there is more capacity above and beyond that. For every person who needs to self-isolate on their own, we can provide that through the service providers. We can also allow for social distancing. We were able to decongregate our five largest family hubs because of these new apartments, in many instances, that we were able to secure. We were able to decongregate the five largest adult individual hostels as well because of the additional accommodation that was secured. The NGOs have been working together, as they always do, in a co-operative fashion. One NGO in particular has taken the lead in terms of looking after people who may have the virus or have been confirmed with it. As a result of that pooling together of resources, other community settings have been allowed to remain safe in this crisis. They have even trained up their own health staff to be able to take tests, while there is now a dedicated and targeted programme under way for people in emergency accommodation.

My latest round of engagement with the main NGOs and the DRHE was yesterday, just to get an update on what further actions may be required over the coming weeks. As we move through the phasing plan that we have, in the region of an additional €20 million has been spent in this crisis period for the different supports that have been put in place. On Travellers and members of the Travelling community, the Minister of State, Deputy English, has led in this regard. On 18 March, communication was made with all local authorities detailing actions that had to be taken and the funding that would be available for people who are in the Travelling community. An additional €1.2 million in funding was approved for 16 programmes across 15 local authority areas. This has allowed for an improvement in services, opening up new bays and providing new homes for people to self-isolate or socially distance where that is necessary. The Minister of State, Deputy English, continues to have regular engagement with the local authorities and will engage again with the National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, if not later this week, then next week.

Overall, more than 2,700 new homes have been secured through the housing assistance payment since 2 March. More than 400 of those homes went to families who were homeless, which is an incredible amount of work despite the crisis that we have.

The number of people in emergency accommodation is slightly down, which is to be welcomed. Although we did not want it to happen, following health advice construction had to stop and sites closed. However, working with the Housing Agency, we identified 39 sites, on which roughly 1,000 homes for social housing were being built, that were able to reopen because the developments were almost complete. These will be new homes for people who are either in emergency accommodation or coming off the housing list. This very important work is being done and I am glad it has been able to progress, despite most sites having to close.

On housing generally, today's figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, are very welcome. Almost 5,000 new homes were built in the first quarter of this year, although that was before we had to close down construction sites. We have been engaging for some time with the Irish Home Builders Association, IHBA. I had a conference call meeting with the IHBA some time ago. It was preparing work on how we could open up housebuilding sites in a responsible way and safely for the people working on them. That became part of a larger piece of work on construction more generally. Using that framework and guidance, we hope that, from 18 May, we will be able to open up construction sites in a safe way because it is crucial that we begin to build new homes.

In the rental sector we had to move quickly to freeze rents for three months and to freeze notices to quit. This decision came in to force on 27 March following legislation we passed in this House. These two freezes expire on 27 June but they can be extended by ministerial order if necessary. Rents, like house prices, were falling before this crisis began. It is not yet clear what will happen when we come out of the emergency period. We will keep a very close eye on that in the coming weeks to make sure the right decision is made ahead of 27 June.

The Residential Tenancies Board continues to handle disputes. It has introduced new ways of doing this and we had very good engagement with the board on how it would do that.

Rent supplement is in place alongside the Covid-19 pandemic payment to help people who face difficulties paying rent. There are huge numbers of people who have difficulties paying rent. I have asked the ESRI to do a report on rent arrears to try to figure out over this period what kind of situation is building up for individuals who might be falling into rent arrears and how it might impact on them and on their landlords. That work by the ESRI will guide further decisions that may need to be made in this area.

We hope that estate agents will be able to open up their operations from 9 June and work is being done on that area.

On mortgages, the banks have made their decisions and the Government made its decision on the Rebuilding Ireland home loan, which I communicated in March. The latter applied for a three-month period which can be extended if necessary. It is important to note that Rebuilding Ireland home loan borrowers are not being charged interest over that period and there is no additional cost to those borrowers. Applications are still being processed for the Rebuilding Ireland home loan and a significant amount of money is still available. I believe more than €500 million is still available for low-cost mortgages for people who need them. We encourage people to continue to apply for those mortgages.

It is essential to keep the planning process open. Having planning applications processed and approved and having people getting on site for building, not just for housing but across the board, will be an integral part of the recovery. To protect the integrity of decision making I had to make a decision to extend by six weeks the public participation process in planning. I will take a third order to the Cabinet tomorrow to extend that process again until 23 May. From that point on, the system will be back to as it was, but with some improvements as we are trying to expedite the roll-out of e-planning to make things much easier for people engaged in the planning process. Building projects with planning permission for 40,000 homes have not yet gone on site. Hopefully they can get on site when the phasing begins on 18 May. The planning authorities received 2,000 planning applications in April. People are, therefore, still active in this area and it is important that activity continues given the role it will play in the recovery.

The local authorities have often been the front line in the community response to crises, especially in the type of crisis we face now. We have seen this in the many severe weather events we had previously and we see it again now in the community call and community fora that have been established. Huge work is being done in this regard. Between 31 March and 4 May, the 31 local authority community fora received more than 29,000 calls. The national helpline set up by ALONE has received more than 17,000 calls since the beginning of March. These community bodies are very important in protecting and looking after people in their communities during this crisis. Their response has been fantastic and I thank them.

I will address funding in the few seconds I have left.

We have parked rates for businesses, a decision we made in March. That is very important because small businesses up and down every road, village and city had to close. We have since made the decision, announced last Saturday, that for a three-month period from 29 March, rates for businesses that had to close will be waived. Some €260 million has been secured for local authorities to fund that gap, so they will not be without that rates money for that period. Pubs, which closed a little earlier, and some childcare facilities will not be pursued for rates, and we now also have the restart fund being led by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, which will act as either a rates waiver or a rates rebate into the future. If, for example, a business decided to go for the waiver option, that is 15 months of no rates bills that it will face. I know that rates for some businesses are only a small part of the costs of doing business but it is an important way we can help them get back on their feet and adapt to the new reality.

Some €500 million in funding has so far been secured for local authorities to help them fill that gap for businesses.

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