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

I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett and his colleagues for tabling this motion. I fully accept the bona fides of what is in the motion and of the Deputy Boyd Barrett's perspective. I do not agree with everything in the motion, although there are parts with which I do agree. I will say to Deputy Connolly that there is nothing in the five-page counter motion that is incorrect. That is factual. She does not have to agree with it all, and I respect that too. However, this debate again shows the scale of the challenges we have in housing.

I will put it in context if I may. We have had ten or 12 years of significant undersupply of public social homes and no affordable homes to speak of at all. We have got to turn that around. We are not going to turn that around in a year or two years. We have had one year of Housing for All. I would say respectfully, to speak to what Deputy Connolly said, that this is true housing for all. We will be putting in €4.5 billion in 2023 and have put in more than €4 billion this year. It is about actually building public housing and social homes. I believe in social housing. This year, we have targeted 9,000 new build social homes between local authorities and approved housing bodies. That is really important. I had the pleasure of meeting many people in Deputy Connolly's county, in Deputy Boyd Barrett’s constituency and in the Acting Chairman's county of Wexford who are now getting those safe and secure for homes for life. There is a good pipeline into next year.

Of course there are challenges, and we were restricted. That is a fact. To be fair, Deputy Boyd Barrett recognised previously that we had two severe construction shutdowns in 2020 and 2021 that limited supply. Even in those years, however, if we take last year, on social housing alone, 9,183 social homes and just over 5,000 new builds were delivered. That is not enough at all. We will note this in the Deputy's motion as well. Looking at the quarter 2 delivery figures, which I say to the House and to Deputy Boyd Barrett specifically, we will have very strong delivery on the social housing side in the last two quarters of this year. Much of it is always back-ended to the last part of the year due to completions.

I will address some of Deputy Connolly's comments for the record because I want to respond specifically to Galway. It is about building the platform and putting in the foundations to deliver social homes at a scale we have not seen before, that is, 90,000 between now and 2030. I respect Deputy Connolly's suggestion, and the policy her party has, about creating a State construction company and letting that company do all this building of public homes. I would ask this question, however. How long would it take to get that State construction company established and up and running run and to be effective? How long would it take to get the people in to do the work, get the land and deliver those additional homes that we need?

Deputy Connolly mentioned the LDA. I fully agree with the concept of using idle State land to provide homes for our people. That is actually what we are doing this year. For the first time, the LDA has delivered homes. I was in the homes in Mallow in County Cork this year. We are breaking ground in Shanganagh Castle, which the Deputy knows very well, which will provide just over 600 affordable and social homes. The St. Kevin's site in Cork will provide cost-rental, affordable purchase and social housing. There will be thousands more. We have planning applications in through the LDA on State land for affordable and social homes for approximately 2,500 new properties. Therefore, it is happening. The overall target for delivery under Housing for All this year is 24,600. The Deputy will say that is not enough, and it is not enough. It is, however, about building that capacity of having the people to actually build the houses.

When we look at the levels and the numbers of people in construction pre pandemic versus what is there now, there are actually 20,000 more. That is because the plan is giving confidence in the sector that there will be a safe, secure and stable housing market. We must build that capacity up. Thankfully, this year, it is projected from the data and research I have done that we will exceed the overall target. We might not hit all the targets within it but we will exceed the overall target and deliver affordable purchase homes for the first time in a generation. These homes start from €166,000 in Lusk in my area to Kilcarbery in south Dublin and right the way across. I have already approved 1,900 local authority-led and deliverable affordable homes through 30 schemes across the country through the affordable housing fund, and we are approving more and more. That is with real money, with the State putting in that subvention and taking that equity piece to allow the low-income and middle-income earners to actually buy that home.

Deputy Canney mentioned the first home scheme, which I will address for the purpose of the record of the Dáil. People said they do not know about in Galway. We have already had approximately 20 approvals of houses for people in a very short space of time in Galway county. That is ramping up. We had 600 approvals for real families and real people to buy real homes at an affordable rate. These are people who were locked out of the market for years, many of whom were renting and who, if they could get a mortgage, would be paying much less. I want those targeted supports in there because I believe in home ownership and in public housing. We have seen a reduction in the numbers of people in social housing but not on social housing waiting lists. It is not near enough, however.

I want to address the issue of HAP that has been raised. HAP is a support for approximately 60,000 households. I am certain no one is suggesting that we flick the switch and turn off HAP overnight. What I have done in the two years I have been Minister is reduce dependence on HAP, transferring people out of HAP and into permanent tenancies. That involved about 4,000 households. I am allowing for a lesser increase in HAP tenancies this year and next year because I want more people in permanent social homes. What we have got to do is deliver them. This year we will have significantly more new-build social homes than last year and than in decades. We have to build on that again. Next year we are targeting 29,000 and it moves on from there. It is not going to be changed overnight.

On the issue of vacancy, by the end of this year I will have brought more than 7,500 vacant social homes back into use. Our local authorities have to be quicker at tenanting and re-tenanting them and turning them around. They do not all have to be deep retrofit, either, as Deputy Danny Healy-Rae suggested. I want those homes back in safe good use and we are doing it. That is actually happening.

When I look at the measures in the motion, with the exception of the commentary that led into the motion, there are elements that I would completely agree with. I want to use my opportunity here today to address in particular the notices to quit with tenants in situ. For RAS and HAP tenants, I have told every single local authority, in person with their directors of services for housing and their chief executives over a housing summit last Thursday week and again in writing, that for any HAP or RAS tenant who is issued a notice to quit, the local authority should buy the home, end of story, no conditions. They do not need to come back to me to ask for it. Since then, and I think the Deputy questioned the Taoiseach on this last week as well, we have about 650 properties, and I hope to get more. The local authorities have been told very clearly they are to do it. If anyone comes across instances where that is not happening - there are one or two exceptions such as criminal antisocial behaviour or something like that. That is fine; we would all agree on that. I want that done as a measure to help people not fall into homelessness as we are building up our supply. It also increases the public housing stock that we have. I have been very clear about it. I am not putting any further conditions on it. I want them to do it. I want to deliver affordable housing, which we are doing.

Cost-rental did not exist in this country 12 months ago. We legislated for it in the Affordable Housing Act, which the Deputy, as is his right, opposed. We legislated for a national cost-rental scheme for the first time. We have already got hundreds of tenancies in place in that scheme and I want hundreds and thousands more of them. It is extremely popular. Every single cost-rental scheme that has been advertised has been oversubscribed. I cannot deliver 10,000 cost rental units overnight. The Deputy knows that and, in fairness, the general public knows it too. It is about building the capacity and having a robust plan that is fully funding and is going to be able to drive this development, both public and private.

In the area of vacancy, in the budget and more recently I announced the Croí Cónaithe vacancy grants. We have vacant and derelict homes right across the country. It is expanded into the rural areas from 1 November. I have announced that, in answer to Deputy Danny Healy-Rae. That is done. The grants are €30,000 for a vacant home and €50,000 for a derelict home. Since August, there have been over 400 applications to that scheme by people who want to buy a home and use that money to affray the cost of renovating it. We are also expanding the buy and renew, which is local authorities buying vacant and derelict homes and doing them up, and bringing them back into public use. That is happening through repair and lease really well in some counties. Other counties need to be supported to do more. In Waterford and Limerick there is some really good work in conversion of old commercial buildings where I have set aside the planning, by the way, for conversion from commercial to residential. There are many things happening and momentum is building around it. Is it all done in one year? Of course it is not. No one would suggest that it could be. That is why I certainly take on board and acknowledge the manner in which the Deputy raised the points he has from his policy position. Many of those things are actually happening.

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