Dáil debates

Thursday, 5 May 2022

Accommodation Needs of Those Fleeing Ukraine: Statements

 

1:35 pm

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

Russia’s illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine is a watershed moment for all democracies across the world. Putin’s war of devastation has thrown down the gauntlet to us to stand by our values and live by our best traditions of decency and fairness. Ireland is not a global military power but we are a humanitarian one and we can give badly-needed compassionate refuge to those fleeing the bullets and bombs of this ruthless invasion.

I pay tribute, as my colleague the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, just did to the generosity of spirit displayed by Irish people in their warm-hearted response. Our NGOs too, have responded in an exceptional manner. I thank all of them for the work they have done heretofore and their ongoing commitment. In particular, I thank staff in local authorities right across the Republic for their extraordinary effort on top of all the other pressures they must bear. We are asking much of them and they have shown remarkable agility, innovation and empathy in their work to assist those who need our help. Their continued engagement has made a real difference to the lives of the Ukrainian people who have arrived here. The immediate, emergency response as outlined by my colleague, the Minister, Deputy O'Gorman, is directly with his Department. The medium- to long-term requirements of new accommodation supply are being addressed by my Department. Co-ordination is being undertaken by a newly established special Cabinet committee headed by the Taoiseach and a Secretary Generals' group.

Housing is the greatest challenge facing the Government and it is where the pressure of the Ukrainian emergency will be felt most acutely. The crisis simultaneously poses an unprecedented demographic shock and a supply chain crisis for our housing system. The invasion will have an impact on the overall housing supply.

However, the situation is too volatile and unclear and it is too early to quantify exactly what the extent of that will be. This means we need a tiered response that we can escalate as needed, depending on the scale of numbers seeking refuge and the length of time for which our friends from Ukraine stay in Ireland. It also has to take into account the economic impact, inflationary risks and supply chain issues that are real.

My goal, as Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, and that of the Government is to protect Housing for All, the national housing plan to address our domestic crisis, and meet the accommodation requirements of our friends from Ukraine. In order to achieve this, my Department is responding with a twin-track approach. The first strand is focused on meeting the specific needs of our Ukrainian friends, while the second addresses the broader impact on the housing system.

First and foremost, Housing for All, the national housing plan, remains at the heart of Government policy. It is the most ambitious housing plan in our history, backed with unprecedented levels of funding. It places home ownership back within the reach of working people and massively ramps up public and private home building. Measures to address the needs of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict will be in addition. We will take additional and accelerated steps to help accommodate the impact of desperate people forced from their homes. I emphasise that the response to the Ukrainian crisis is separate from and additional to Housing for All. It is not and should not be displacing existing targets. Those are required to address our own pressing housing needs. To address the Ukrainian crisis we are undertaking a tiered set of extra actions that can respond to each scenario of numbers seeking sanctuary as it emerges. The bright red line between existing measures to tackle our housing crisis and extra steps to address the needs of Ukrainian refugees is vital.

Those fleeing conflict are not simply collateral damage in this invasion; they are a core part of the Russian strategy. Russia has sought to weaponise human misery and use it against European solidarity. Putin is gambling that the pressures and strains of accommodating and caring for people and tackling a cost-of-living crisis will snap the bonds of democratic solidarity with Ukraine. For the sake of all small nations seeking to assert their right to independence, we cannot and will not allow that gamble to pay off. Putin and his allies are indulging in crude nuclear imagery on state television in an attempt to bully small nations. That will not stand.

We can and must look after our people while helping Ukrainians who need our aid in their darkest hour. That challenge places a profound moral and political responsibility on all Members of this House. We cannot allow the seeds of division to be sown or issues be stoked for partisan gain. We have to confront misleading and false information and engage in good faith on the challenges this crisis presents. However, I do not agree with Deputies who heretofore opposed Housing for All using the crisis as an excuse to repeat their call for an immediate new national housing plan. That would only blur the lines of our response, confuse delivery targets, risk pitting one group against another and achieve nothing but further uncertainty in a volatile situation. I urge Deputies to desist from doing that. While every plan needs to show flexibility, the core commitments, policies and funding of Housing for All are at the heart of Government policy. There is already an inbuilt annual review in the plan to ensure it is on track. Ultimately, those calls in respect of stalling or revising the plan are motivated from a political perspective and I will not go down that road.

As with Brexit and Covid, Irish people have continually shown their depth of resilience, natural innovation and immense empathy. This international crisis caused by Russia’s aggression will see us do the same again.

Essentially, my Department’s response to Ukrainian accommodation needs is set over three areas, with a special housing task force drawing the various strands together. The first strand focuses on vacancy and refurbishment, the second on temporary volumetric and modular accommodation, and the third on new permanent homes. This threefold strategy builds on a series of summits, workshops and meetings with both the public and private sectors though the past two months as well as consultation with Members of this House to design an agile and tiered response to the crisis. In the first area, relating to vacancy, I have established an emergency vacant housing delivery unit within the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA. This unit will support relevant Departments and agencies in repurposing vacant State-owned buildings for emergency use. It will also support each local authority to refurbish a flagship project in their area to house those fleeing Ukraine. These properties will be selected from buildings we have identified across the country, further adding to our capacity. More than 500 units have already been analysed by a team of former chief executives. A total of 89 buildings, covering an estimated 5,300 potential beds, are already being transferred to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. I am also funding local authorities to establish specific support teams, and designating an additional director of services in each local authority to co-ordinate supports and services locally and across agencies and community groups, building on their sterling work to date.

In the second area, the Office of Public Works, OPW, will take the lead in designing and constructing modular homes on State lands. To be clear, this will be a small but important part of the State response. It will assist in plugging the gaps where other accommodation is not readily available. My Department will support it in identifying and planning for appropriate serviced sites.

On the third area, the focus is on activating the 80,000 unused planning permissions in the State. I will issue a national call for inactive permissions shortly to help collate delayed or stalled developments. I am setting up a clearing house group composed of key planning and infrastructural experts. Its role will be to identify and analyse the reasons behind the lack of progress on these matters. The clearing house group will be empowered to make specific recommendations to me to issue special time-bound planning permissions and changes to catalyse developments. Any suitable and additional permanent accommodation under these measures will be returned to general social and affordable housing if and when the Ukrainian crisis is resolved and special accommodation needs end.

Our housing system is coming out of a decade of undersupply that has been compounded by pandemic shutdowns. It is now facing supply chain and inflation pressures from the Ukrainian crisis. To help address these issues, I have removed the local authority acquisition cap and restored local decision-making in certain emergency situations. There will be a new voids programme in 2022 that will focus specifically on those on the social housing lists. Using new regulations under section 9 of the Local Government Rates and other Matters Act 2019, I will restrict the use of commercial rates vacancy refunds to encourage the reuse of vacant stock. We will also look at the potential for zoning additional lands, as well as for providing temporary emergency permissions through section 181(2) of the Planning and Development Act. We are doing a trawl of all 31 local authorities for public and private sites on which we can develop homes for our Ukrainian friends in a speedy way.

We will stand shoulder to shoulder with other democracies against authoritarian aggression. We will look after our people as well as those fleeing war and we will live up to the best traditions of fairness and decency towards those who need our support.

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