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

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all the words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "notes that:

— supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key Government priority; increasing housing supply across all tenures is critical to addressing homelessness; significant progress is being made in increasing overall supply;

— a record 22,443 homes have been completed in the first nine months of 2023, an 8.9 per cent increase on the same period in 2022 and the highest number of completions recorded for the first three quarters of any year since the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data series began in 2011;

— there are very positive signs that the uplift in new home delivery will be sustained in 2024 and over the coming years, with almost 33,000 (32,801) new homes commenced in 2023; this is the highest number of annual commencements on record, an increase of over 21.5 per cent compared to 2022 (26,957) and is the highest number of annual residential commencements since records began in 2014;

— Budget 2024 provides an allocation of €242 million for homeless services to support increased provision of prevention and tenancy sustainment along with support services, and ensuring pathways out of homelessness as quickly as possible;

— Q3 2023 saw a significant increase (16.3 per cent) in the number of households who were prevented from entering emergency accommodation compared to the same period last year;

— over 1,700 acquisitions were completed in 2023, with the majority of these properties acquired under the Tenant in Situ Scheme; the Government has also approved an increase from 200 to 1,500 for Social Housing Acquisitions for 2024; and there is a strong pipeline for 2024 with over 1,600 proposals already being evaluated for purchase;

— the Cost Rental Tenant In-Situ Scheme (CRTiS) was introduced on 1st April, 2023, for tenants in private rental homes who are not eligible for social housing supports but who are at risk of homelessness; by the end of Q3 2023 47 CRTiS acquisitions have been completed; and

— an additional 1,319 supported tenancies are to be delivered nationally under the Housing First National Implementation Plan 2022-2026 which provides the most vulnerable of our homeless population with a home for life as well as key wraparound health and social supports; the Housing First targets are based on an analysis of need, this analysis involved all key stakeholders and was supported by the Housing Agency;

further notes that:

— social and affordable housing supply is increasing, under this Government (from July 2020 to the end of September 2023) 30,581 new social homes have been delivered, including 19,590 new builds, 4,216 acquired homes and 6,775 leased homes;

— the social housing pipeline is strong with over 23,600 homes either onsite or at design and tender stage at the end of Q3 2023;

— since affordable housing schemes were established in 2022 to end of Q3 of 2023, over 3,863 households have been supported, including 482 affordable purchase homes, 2,594 First Home Scheme properties, and some 800 Cost Rental homes;

— in Budget 2024, the total Exchequer funding being made available for the delivery of housing programmes is €4.25 billion; the Capital provision of €2.7 billion will be supplemented by Land Development Agency investment and Housing Finance Agency lending resulting in an overall capital provision of over €5 billion;

— a review and refresh of Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland targets is underway, including for social and affordable housing, with revised targets to be agreed and published in 2024;

— sufficient provision is already made within planning legislation for the delivery of local authority housing through a temporary time-limited planning exemption to enable local authorities to accelerate the delivery of social and affordable (including cost rental) housing on State owned land;

— Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) has been identified by the Government as a key measure to address the different housing needs in Ireland; methods to support the development of MMC in Ireland are set out in Housing for All and include an accelerated social housing pilot programme to deliver over 1,500 MMC units; and

— under the Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) Activation Programme, launched in April 2023, local authorities are being supported to use the CPO process to bring properties back into use as social and affordable housing as well as selling these properties on the open market;

notes that, regarding bulk purchasing of homes:

— in 2021, the Government introduced a series of measures designed to prohibit the bulk buying of houses and duplexes, including Section 28 Guidelines which aim to provide an 'owner-occupier' guarantee by ensuring that new 'own-door' houses and duplex units in housing developments can no longer be bulk-purchased by institutional investors;

— a 10 per cent stamp duty levy was introduced for the cumulative purchase of 10 or more residential houses in a 12-month period, aimed at ensuring a level playing field for traditional family home buyers, including but not limited to first-time buyers, while facilitating vital investment in high density apartments;

— since the introduction of these measures the increased level of stamp duty has applied to less than two per cent of total new dwelling completions; and

— by the end of Q4 2023, planning permissions which had the 'owner-occupier' guarantee attached amounted to 39,900 homes with an owner occupier guarantee since the guidelines were introduced in 2021;

notes that, regarding the provision of domestic violence refuge places:

— the Government has established Cuan, a statutory agency under the remit of the Department of Justice, dedicated to tackling and reducing domestic, sexual and gender-based violence (DSGBV); the Agency will support and oversee the delivery of safe and accessible refuge accommodation, and ensure the delivery of services to victims of DSGBV; and

— a key priority under the National Zero Tolerance strategy is the doubling of the number of refuge places over the lifetime of the strategy to 280 spaces;

notes that, regarding no fault evictions:

— the Government agreed on 7th March, 2023, that the 'Winter Emergency Period' under the Residential Tenancies (Deferment of Termination Dates of Certain Tenancies) Act 2022 would come to an end on 31st March, 2023;

— extending the emergency period would be detrimental to the medium and long-term supply of private rental accommodation, local authorities are instead focusing on implementing the additional measures announced last March to increase the supply of social and affordable homes; and

— under Housing for All the Government is committed to increasing supply and protecting renters while trying to keep small landlords in the system; the Government is currently undertaking a review of the Private Rental Sector which will inform the measures which need to be taken to ensure a well-functioning private rental sector in Ireland; and

agrees that continued implementation of Housing for All represents the most appropriate response to deal with the housing challenges, which Ireland is now facing.".

We are back in the House discussing housing, which is the number one priority of this Government. There are unquestionably issues remaining to be resolved with housing, but real progress is also unquestionably being made on supply and delivery. Some Members will not want to acknowledge that for political reasons and that is fine. Sinn Féin will come in week after week and bring forward motions. We are a year on from its housing spokesperson promising a Sinn Féin housing plan. That has yet to be produced.

I have listened to a number of Sinn Féin Deputies talk about homeownership. I will touch on a few matters around homeownership and address other issues that have been raised here. This Government, and I as Minister, support homeownership 100%. Fortunately, every week we are seeing about 600 first-time buyers buying their homes across the country. Many of those first-time buyers are using the supports this Government has brought forward, including over 42,500 households availing of the help-to-buy grant, which is €30,000 of their own tax that they have earned back in their pocket. Listening to Deputy Ó Broin and his colleagues, I wonder what is wrong with individuals getting a rebate of the tax they have worked hard for to use towards the deposit to be able to buy a home. Sinn Féin has repeatedly said, though there is some contradiction on its position on this, that it would abolish the €30,000 help-to-buy grant that is helping many individuals and families to buy new homes that are being built across the country. There has been a contradiction between the position of the party’s housing spokesperson, who said he would abolish it straight away if - God forbid - he was in government, and that of his party leader, who is trying to assure people there will be no cliff edge in this regard.

The first home scheme is another measure the Government has bought forward to bridge that affordability gap, which is a real gap that is there for many people across the country. As of 15 January, some 7,595 individuals have registered for that and there have been over 3,300 approvals. That is the State stepping in to help people to bridge the gap between the finance they have, including the deposit. Many of them will be using the deposit through the help-to-buy grant, which again is tax back that they have earned in their pocket, and then accessing the first home scheme to be able to buy the homes. I have met individuals and families across the country who have been able to buy homes through that scheme. Why would a party decide to abolish a scheme that is working? It is working for people and supporting homeownership. Some parties talk about homeownership and say that they apparently support it, but then in the policy approaches they bring forward, the motions they bring forward and their public utterances, they talk about abolishing these supports. Maybe in the summation of the Sinn Féin motion, its housing spokesperson will for the first time say what Sinn Féin would replace those supports for people with.

Moving to the delivery of affordable homes through our local authorities and the Land Development Agency, last year, for the first time in a generation, we saw affordable homes being delivered through local authorities and the agency. This Land Development Agency will invest about €1 billion this year in social and affordable housing right across the country. By the way, the main Opposition party is on record as saying it will abolish the agency. It says it would get rid of the agency; it does not want an agency that develops State land and delivers homes for people. Again, we have not seen what the alternative is. The Land Development Agency is developing cost-rental homes at scale and will deliver more cost-rental homes this year for our people. We do not see what would replace that.

On supply and delivery, the housing completion figures for 2023 will be published by the CSO on Thursday. For the second year of Housing for All, we will see that its targets have been exceeded and exceeded substantially. We need to deliver more social homes. In 2022 we delivered more social homes than we have in 50 years. Yes, we are playing catch-up. We have ten years of very significant undersupply in public homes, but as I speak there are over 24,000 social homes at various stages of construction across this country because of the €5 billion-plus we are investing in housing this year on behalf of our people under a published, detailed, Housing for All plan. It is a plan incomparable with that of any other party. There is a complete absence of a plan from the main Opposition party. What would it replace the LDA with? What would it replace the help-to-buy grant with? What would it replace the first home scheme with?

With vacancy, we see that over 6,000 applications have been made to help individuals and families to defray the cost of bringing vacant homes back into use, which I take it we all want to do.

Again, Sinn Féin's alternative budget, published a month after the budget, made no provision whatsoever for vacancy grants and the continuation of same. This leads me to believe that Sinn Féin will abolish those grants if it is ever in government. These are schemes that are working for people. What we have to continue to do is increase the supply of public and private homes across the board, stabilise the private rental market and continue with the delivery of cost-rental homes.

Unquestionably, the number one challenge remains homelessness and ensuring that those who do not have homes can have permanent homes for themselves and their families. Since 2020, 21,212 single adults and families have either been prevented from entering into, or have exited from, homelessness and into permanent homes. About 14,000 HAP tenancies have been transferred out of the HAP scheme and into permanent social homes. That is what we have to continue doing.

On bulk purchasing, I changed the planning regime in 2021. I brought forward legislation that amended our planning laws to ensure there was a ban on bulk purchases of family homes, including houses and duplexes. Since May 2021, 42,000 planning permits have been granted for homes with that absolute condition attached. There is a ban on the bulk sale of those homes and the Deputies opposite know that. The issues that we are dealing with are legacy issues related to planning permission granted before that date. The legal advice was very clear on that and maybe some Deputies opposite would accept that one cannot change planning permission that was granted before the date of the law that came forward. The reality is that out of approximately 125,000 property transactions since that legislative change, less than 1% of homes have been the subject of bulk purchase in that period. That said, it is still something that I do not want to see.

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