Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Labour for tabling this motion.

Despite me pointing it out in the Chamber a number of times, the fact that the number of people who are classed as homeless is an under-representation remains unchanged. If the Government's figures are based on those who fit the criteria to be considered homeless by local authorities, it is falling short of the mark. In Tipperary alone, the county council is doing its best to provide for people in need of emergency housing, but there is a feeling that we are just treading water. Last year, Tipperary County Council was made aware of 300 notices to quit, which has been described as a large number by the local housing authority. This is the kind of pressure the council is under.

There has been no real progress in the homeless figures in Tipperary. Whatever spin the Minister may like to put on it, people are still struggling. It is fair to say that the opportunity to make an impact on homeless numbers that the eviction ban offered him has not been used effectively. There has been no improvement for people in Tipperary or nationally. The figures have continued to increase.

We have been consistent in calling for a three-year ban on rent increases and a full month's rent back into every private renter's pocket. That call stands and is needed now more than it ever was, but our policy of accelerating the delivery of social and affordable housing must accompany it. The Government's target has been missed three years in a row. Its housing targets need to be revised. Social and affordable housing targets must be increased to at least 20,000 per year. This means increasing direct capital investment to councils and approved housing bodies in order to deliver 12,000 social houses and 8,000 genuinely affordable houses per year. As part of this, we need at least 4,000 affordable purchase homes per year.

Another issue that the Minister needs to address is the anomaly in the increase in income thresholds for social housing. Tipperary is an outlier, with lower thresholds than nearly all of the counties surrounding it. This puts home hunters in Tipperary at a disadvantage. It makes no sense for one county to have a different rate applied to it than is applied to the surrounding counties. The county council wants its threshold increased.

The Minister of State will be aware of this request and I ask him to consider it again.

People need permanent social homes. We can see the result of the haphazard approach taken by the Government and its predecessors, highlighted by the fact that, despite an eviction ban being in effect, homelessness continues to increase. The Government failed to reach its initial 2022 social housing targets. For the sake of the people in my constituency and around the country, the Government must put its party political misgivings aside, listen to the solutions offered on this side of the House and act in the interest of the 11,632 people who are classed as homeless and the others we have not even included in this data.

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