Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Before I sum up I will respond to a few of the contributions from Deputies. In Deputy Bacik’s contribution she mentioned again the 1 million homes and about engagement with Government. We would love to engage with the Labour Party on how it proposes to achieve that. We are always willing and open to the ideas of the Opposition. That is critical. Deputy Bríd Smith mentioned that we are putting it into the hands of private developers. That is not true. There has been the greatest investment by the State in the history of the State.

It was also claimed that we gutted local authorities. Again that is not true. We have provided additional staffing around planning, vacancy and CPOs. We have front-loaded that as well. Deputy Smith mentioned the Dublin City Council and Bow Lane and Kilmainham. If the Deputy wishes to raise that with us separately, it is a matter for Dublin City Council and the engagement of the landlord in that case. Deputy Shanahan raised the issue of development being prohibitive for smaller building companies. Again, that is not the case. We try to facilitate all types of development right across the market. In regard to labour shortages, we are working with the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, on apprenticeships. The planning Bill and planning reforms will expedite supply.

Vacancy and dereliction were also mentioned. Deputies Mattie McGrath, Danny Healy-Rae and Donoghue mentioned vacancy and building standards being too high. That is not the case.

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Building standards need to be high for renters, people who are buying homes and those in social housing. There must be a consistent standard.

Deputy Harkin raised the issue of homelessness in the north west and this is something the Government is committed to tackling. I will mention modular housing later, as we are giving good, active consideration to modern methods of construction.

Housing for All is a comprehensive plan with the largest housing budget in the history of the State to transform our housing system and achieve our ambitious targets of more than 300,000 new homes by 2030. Increasing supply across all tenures is key. Almost 30,000 homes were built last year. That was up 45% from 2021 and 41% from 2019. This was 5,250 or 21% higher than the 2022 Housing for All target of 24,600. Within that overall supply, the Government will continue to expand the provision of social, affordable and cost-rental accommodation to ensure all sectors of our society have accommodation that meets their needs available to them.

We know the challenge is immense. New housing supply in Ireland, as in much of the EU, has been impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and global supply-chain issues. The war in Ukraine has exacerbated inflationary pressures. These factors have combined to have very real impacts on the cost of housing provision. We are acutely aware that behind the demand for secure, stable and affordable homes are real people and families and that is why we are committed to continuing to work to overcome these challenges. Despite the challenges we face, Housing for All is taking effect in terms of delivering a supply of homes of all tenure types across the country. Last year saw the highest level of housing expenditure in a single year. Almost €3.5 billion was expended on housing and this represented an increase of 21% on 2021. The number of new social homes delivered was 10,263 and this included 7,433 new-build homes, 960 acquisitions and 1,870 homes delivered through leasing programmes. The delivery of 7,433 new-build social homes in 2022 represents the highest delivery of new build social housing since 1975.

Increasing investment in the delivery of both homes for social housing and renting and genuinely affordable homes for working people is exactly what we are doing. There has never been more Government funding available for housing in this country than currently. This Government introduced the Affordable Housing Act 2021, the first ever stand-alone affordable housing legislation to establish new affordable housing schemes to deliver on our programme for Government commitment to put affordability at the heart of our housing system. Over 2022 this included 1,336 approvals issued under the first home scheme in the nine months since its inception in July 2022; local authorities delivering the first affordable purchase homes in a decade; cost-rental housing being delivered in increasing numbers, with hundreds of cost-rental homes tenanted by AHBs, local authorities and the LDA and the LDA’s first cost-rental delivery secured via its market engagement initiative, which is titled Project Tosaigh.

This year will see further record investment in housing, with total Exchequer funding of €4 billion to deliver housing programmes. This includes €2.6 billion in capital funding and €1.4 billion in current funding. Additional supports have been put in place for local authorities, AHBs and the LDA to further develop their growing pipeline. This includes sizable additional resources in local government of up to 320 additional staff for both social and affordable delivery. New provisions came into effect from 8 March 2023 that, subject to certain criteria, will provide a temporary exemption from the Part 8 planning approval process for local authority-owned developments of social and affordable housing that begin construction before the end of 2024. The Department, with the support of its delivery partners, continues to advance specific initiatives to improve the quality, cost-effectiveness and especially the pace of delivery of social, affordable and costrental homes. This involves fundamental change and improvement in the delivery processes.

Recognising their potential, the Government is advancing the use of vacant and derelict homes and new building technologies. This area was mentioned by Deputy Bacik. The Minister launched the Vacant Homes Action Plan 2023-2026 on 30 January. It outlines the work needed to bring the maximum number of vacant properties into use. At that time, the Minister also announced details of the new €150 million urban regeneration and development fund vacancy fund. Local authorities are being encouraged to actively engage with owners of vacant or derelict properties to raise awareness and support uptake of the schemes available to them. Housing for All sets clear targets under these schemes for the tackling of vacancy and dereliction and this includes a CPO programme. Where owners of vacant or derelict properties cannot be identified or where they are unwilling to engage with the local authority, compulsory purchase or compulsory acquisition will be considered by local authorities to bring the property back into use. Local authorities are being encouraged to take a proactive approach in availing of their available legislative powers and the vacant homes unit in the Department is currently engaging with all local authorities in respect of these powers.

The Department is also working closely with the local authorities to increase the use of modern methods of construction in social and affordable housing. To this end, funding of €94 million was provided to local authorities to address legacy land debts in December 2022. The provision of this funding was linked to the immediate development of a housing proposal, a commitment to use modern methods of construction and construction itself starting in 2023, or no later than 2024. Local authorities received funding for 26 sites that will be part of an accelerated delivery programme and additional sites have since been added.Overall, approximately 30 sites have been identified for accelerated delivery and this involves more than 1,500 new social homes. This provision has the potential to shave months off the pre-construction process.

On 7 March the Government decided that the "winter emergency period" under the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 would cease on 31 March 2023. There are ongoing measures to mitigate the impact of the end of the emergency period and the Government has agreed to a number of additional measures. The First Home Scheme Ireland Designated Activity Company, DAC, has agreed to expand the first home scheme’s eligibility to encompass second-hand homes where a landlord has issued a notice of termination due to an intended sale. Between its launch in July 2022 and the end of quarter 1 of 2023, 257 families have been able to secure their homes using the scheme. In addition, the Department has developed a bespoke cost-rental tenant in situscheme that will see the Housing Agency acquire a home in order that a tenant who has received a notice of termination and is at risk of homelessness, but is not in receipt of social housing payments, continues to reside in the property. A temporary scheme is operating on an administrative basis from 1 April until the legislation is brought forward and enacted.

To conclude, while clear challenges remain, the outlook is more positive than might be presented here. The Housing For All strategy is working, supply is increasing and, in particular, affordable schemes are being implemented to assist ordinary people into homeownership. In its amendment, the Government reflects these realities and makes clear its commitment to the core principle that everybody should have access to good-quality housing to purchase or rent. That is what we intend to deliver over the lifetime of this Government.

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