Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for bringing this Bill forward and providing us with another opportunity to discuss homelessness and, importantly, the aspect of prevention. It is correct that prevention is always better than cure. Tackling homelessness is a moral imperative for this Government and for our State.

On the point raised by Deputy Andrews regarding local connections, I clarified that aspect this week in writing to every local authority. That correspondence has been issued. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan and others have raised this issue and to them I note it may take a short time for this to bed in. I ask that they be a little bit reasonable and allow that bedding-in process to happen. I have been crystal clear, however, that local connections should be no barrier to anyone in accessing emergency accommodation and that is something we will keep under review. The letter is there and available for people.

Returning to this Bill, the stated purpose of which is "to provide a legal definition of persons at risk of homelessness and to give the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and local authorities the power to provide such persons with supports to prevent them from becoming homeless". I will not be opposing this Bill on Second Stage. The issues which it seeks to address should be considered further during pre-legislative scrutiny. The Bill cannot be directly implemented in its current form, however. It is transposed directly from UK legislation and contains several basic and fundamental drafting errors which would need to be corrected. I urge all Deputies, again, to engage with the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, and the resources that the Oireachtas provides to Members, particularly in the Opposition, to ensure that Private Members' Bills are legally sound and robust. That will help all of us and, indeed Deputy Ó Broin's party, to avoid issues in future regarding the legality and drafting of some of these Bills.

I note the provisions of this Bill are the same as those contained in the Homeless Prevention Bill 2018, which lapsed with the dissolution of the last Dáil and Seanad in January 2020. The Deputy, in fairness, referred to this. When reintroducing the Bill, therefore, it is a pity that the resources of the Oireachtas were not sought or used to ensure the Bill was legally sound and drafted correctly. It proposes to insert a new section 3 into the Housing Act 1988 in respect of preventing homelessness. Presumably, it is not intended that this would replace the existing section 3 in the 1988 Act but that is not clear and that is just one example of a couple of things which we would need to work through. If it did replace the existing section 3, then provisions allowing for the payment of a subsidy for acquisition or construction of houses would be deleted from the 1988 Act. I am sure that is not something Deputy Ó Broin would want to see happening.

It is also notable that the amending provisions do not have regard to how homelessness is already defined in section 2 of the Housing Act 1988. There is a risk that section 2 and the proposed new section 3 could end up being in conflict, which is not something any of us would desire. The Bill is based, as Deputy Ó Broin said, on the provisions of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which came into force in England in 2018 and the Housing (Wales) Act 2014, on which the English legislation is based. It appears that in drawing on provisions enacted in England and Wales, that sufficient attention was not necessarily paid to how this would fit into the Housing Act 1988 and we would also need to address those issues.

One of the proposed provisions is to empower action on the basis of "any reason deemed acceptable by the local authority". This would place a responsibility on a local authority in deciding what would be considered as "acceptable". While the Bill lists reasons, and those are described, they are not meaningfully defined. We would need to be more expansive and specific in that regard. This raises questions concerning whether the Bill, as it is currently constructed, would operate effectively in the first instance. A local authority would also become responsible for the provision of services to groups, and without regard or reference to other statutory bodies that also have obligations to these groups.

I will give some examples. These will include released prisoners, care leavers, former members of the armed forces - which, by the way, we do have a definition for in the Republic of Ireland, as we do not use that term here, and it may have been a direct transposition from legislation in the UK - persons leaving hospital and persons suffering mental illness or impairment. Much work is needed on the Bill, and I just use those as examples of what would need to be done with this legislation to make it robust. The language, such as the example I gave of "armed forces", would not be appropriate to be used in legislation in the Republic of Ireland. The measures in the Bill would raise costs. While that is not something I would baulk at, we would need those costs to be quantified in some way. Those costs would fall to be met either directly by Exchequer funds or by the local authorities. It is welcome, however, that the legislation has been tabled and that we can discuss it further on Committee Stage.

I will outline some of the actions taken by the Government in tackling homelessness. It is one of our greatest challenges and one I am committed to addressing. The allocation of €218 million in budget 2021 is a case in point and is necessary funding to deal with the emergency situation. The end game and the priority, however, must be to increase supply and improve provision, and that is why €3.3 billion has been allocated to meet the housing needs of 28,500 people next year and to deliver 12,750 social homes, 9,500 of which will be built, which is the highest number constructed in any given year in the history of the State.

That is significant.

Turning to the numbers of people, during the month of October, there were 8,737 individuals, comprised of just over 6,000 adults and 2,643 dependants, using State-funded emergency accommodation nationally. This included over 1,100 families in emergency accommodation, which, incidentally, represents the lowest number of families in emergency accommodation since June 2016. If we cast our minds back 12 months to October last year, the reported homeless figure was 10,500 individuals. Progress is being made. We need more progress and for that progress to be expedited. The progress has been possible because of the emphasis placed on both preventing individuals from entering emergency accommodation in the first instance and on ensuring that those individuals experiencing homelessness are supported to exit homelessness as quickly as possible. Some 6,000 people exited homelessness this year, half of them on the basis of targeted prevention measures. That is important, but we need to do more in that regard.

I turn now to some of the claims made by Sinn Féin this week. It is important when we are debating this legislation that we do so on the basis of information that is correct. In recent days, claims have been published that the homelessness figures are under-reported. This statistical type of bingo being played by Sinn Féin in terms of fictional housing figures to inflated homeless numbers is dishonest. More important, it does not help those families and individuals whom we all seek to assist. Sinn Féin is, of course, entitled to its opinions and policy direction, but it is not entitled to use its own figures. I ask that it be responsible in its actions and, also, in calling into question how many of our homeless services are reporting homelessness. It is not correct. I publish data every month on the number of people who are homeless. These figures are fully validated and they are accurate. They provide a record of people who are being supported with emergency accommodation by each of the 31 local authorities in the Republic. They are based on a methodology that was agreed by all stakeholders across the homeless sector. These stakeholders feed into the homeless task force that I personally chair, including Threshold, Focus Ireland, DePaul Ireland, the Peter McVerry Trust and many others. This week, during my visit to Cork I met Cork Simon Community and saw the incredible work it is doing there. The reduction in Cork in homeless numbers among families and individuals is welcome. It is important that we do not disregard or disrespect those who work in this sector by misreporting and misrepresenting the figures on the ground for purely political gain.

Turning to the Bill, it is important that prevention is key to what we do. The Government is committed to ramping up Housing First, particularly for those who have complex health needs, which I have spoken about on a number of occasions in this Chamber, and to ensure it is expanded across the country. The Government's plan is to have 663 additional Housing First tenancies by the end of 2021. We will meet that target. Only today, the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, and I launched the Housing First manual for Ireland, the first in that regard. It is a priority of the Government to expand Housing First provision across the country, continue prevention and reduce homelessness through the delivery of permanent homes.

This Bill will form part of an important discussion in committee. I have highlighted this evening some of the deficiencies that I see in it and which will need to be addressed by the committee. I am open to working with colleagues in improving the lot and situation of our most vulnerable. Tomorrow, I will bring forward further rental protections by way of the third rental protection Bill that I have brought forward since July this year. I hope the Opposition will support that Bill to extend protections into April next year. Others have asked that party political differences be set aside when dealing with this crisis and in preventing homelessness. I hope that tomorrow Sinn Féin and others will support the legislation to extend the tenancy protections for those affected most by the pandemic to April 2021.

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