Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin for putting forward this very important motion. It is not an unrealistic expectation that the Minister would engage more seriously when these motions are put forward. I do not mean the Minister of State currently present in the Chamber: I mean the senior Minister who has left. In a situation of record homelessness that is higher than ever seen before in the history of the State I would expect the senior Minister to come in and acknowledge that, acknowledge the absolute trauma this causes for people, and then tell us what specific actions he will take to reduce the highest ever number of people in homelessness and in emergency accommodation. I do not expect him to be able to work miracles overnight but I do expect him to tell us what specific measures he is taking now to get those numbers down so that month after month we are not getting record levels of homelessness. People would be realistic about the time it would take to get the numbers down. Instead, each time a motion like this is proposed the senior Minister spends most of his time attacking the Opposition parties and blaming them for the housing disaster that we have, while not giving us a serious analysis and commentary on what he will do to tackle this issue. That is not too much to expect. That is what most people in this country expect from our Cabinet Members. Of course the senior Minister is not here in the Chamber and he is not hearing these comments. The junior Minister of State is here.

I will talk about what needs to be done and what can be done to get us out of this terrible housing disaster. For those without a home it is a disaster. Homelessness is at record levels with 13,514 people in emergency homeless accommodation in November. This includes 9,409 adults, 193 pensioners and 4,105 children. Homelessness has been rising for 22 out of the past 23 months. This does not include - as others have said - hidden homelessness. It does not include those who are sleeping in cars, in doorways and in tents. It does not include the 118 people who are sleeping rough in Dublin this winter. It does not include the more than 600 international protection applicants who have been sleeping rough recently during freezing winter conditions and storms. The number of children in homelessness has increased by 55% since the Government has taken office and the number of adults in homelessness has increased by 56%.

This Government has missed all of its targets for delivery of social and affordable homes in 2022 and in every year since being in office. Housing For All in 2022 promised 9,000 social homes and 4,100 affordable homes. Only 7,433 social homes were delivered. Only 323 affordable purchase and only 684 cost-rental homes were actually delivered in 2022. We have the figures for the first three quarters of 2023 with 9,100 social homes promised and 5,500 affordable homes promised. In the first nine months only 2,642 social homes, 159 affordable purchase homes and 56 cost-rental homes were actually delivered.

At the same time, since the Government took office, more than €1 billion allocated for housing to build homes that we desperately need was left unspent, allocated elsewhere or returned to the Exchequer. Last year alone, €220 million allocated to build local authority social housing was allocated elsewhere and €70 million allocated for affordable housing was allocated elsewhere. At the same time, more than 500,000 adults are stuck living in their childhood bedrooms. Those aged between 25 and 29 in Ireland are 15 times more likely to be living at home than the same age cohort in Denmark. Home ownership is at its lowest level in more than 50 years. If we look at us compared with 1991, when Ireland had one of the highest levels of homeownership rates in the European Union at almost 80%, and fast-forward 30 years, we see home ownership levels fell to 66% in 2022 and they continue to fall.

What needs to be done? It is quite simple and straightforward. I am not saying it is easy or does not require a lot of work, because it does, but it can be done. What the Government, the State and local authorities should be doing now is using compulsory purchase orders to buy land so we can build affordable and social housing at the scale that is needed. They should have a master plan for the land as a strategic development zone, plan the amenities and community infrastructure, and then get on with starting to build the thousands of affordable and social homes to rent and buy that we need rather than the Government missing its targets every year, hoping the delivery mechanisms will come through, which they never do, and get on with doing this. This was recommended 50 years ago when the Kenny report was published.

Along with this, the Government needs to invest in upgrading infrastructure, including water, wastewater and public transport, to service the CPO lands. It needs to sort out capacity constraints. For example, it should adopt the proposals of the Law Reform Commission on how to speed up the CPO process. This would help. We need to get more people into construction apprenticeships. A very good start for this would be to pay them at least the minimum wage. This would be a good start if the Government were to take this seriously. It should ensure in terms of State construction contracts that at least 10% of the workforce would be apprentices. This is done in other countries where they take this seriously, unlike the Government. It should take measures to get more women involved in construction apprenticeships. In the UK the number of women in apprenticeships was tripled because it took proactive measures to do so. In some countries half the workforce in some areas of construction is made up of women. Our labour participation rates are off the charts compared with some other European countries with regard to how poor they are in terms of women.

Where gaps in construction cannot be filled we should of course expand the critical skills list. This includes planners. They are not on the critical skills list even though we have a crisis. An Bord Pleanála is hiring more planners, which is welcome, but it has taken planners out of local authorities where there are also needed. We are not training enough each year. There need to be more trained planners coming out of the education system. Pending this we should have planners on the critical skills list, as they were previously, when planners in countries with similar planning systems, such as New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, were able to come and fill empty posts. This needs to be done. The cumbersome first stage approval process should be abolished. Early stage finance for affordable housing projects should be provided to help get them off the ground. This is a critical barrier that needs to be tackled.

This is not a radical plan that I am advancing. It is simply what needs to be done. It is simply what was done before in this country when we had very few resources. Ireland in the 1950s was not some sort of economic powerhouse but this is exactly what was done. Look at what Dublin Corporation did in terms of putting in a large amount of social and affordable purchase housing in my constituency on the northside of Dublin. It completed the northern sewage system to create the wastewater infrastructure to allow for that housing. In 1954, it used CPO to acquire 602 acres. This is how we got a large number of social and affordable purchase homes built and provided in areas such as Kilmore, Bonnybrook, Edenmore and Coolock. Along with this it reserved sites for shopping centres such as Edenmore Shopping Centre and Northside Shopping Centre. With hindsight we can absolutely say the densities were far too low and it could have done much better with far more housing, but it was successful delivery of housing through the use of CPO and getting on with it.

In 1963 in my constituency,, the corporation put in a CPO for 329 acres in the Swan's Nest area of Kilbarrack. It was very successful in delivering much-needed homes. In fact, it was quite a controversial CPO because it involved land owned by private developers with existing planning permission. It still went ahead and did it because it was needed. It completed homes that went on to provide the basis for people having very successful lives and getting involved in their communities and building their families.

How could this be paid for? Of course there is no shortage of funding from the European Investment Bank. There are a range of European Union funding streams for housing that the Government is failing to maximise, such as InvestEU. Its social window could be used to fund social and affordable housing. The European Social Fund Plus can be used to fund social housing in areas with a high risk of homelessness. This is very relevant here. The European Regional Development Fund can be used for investment in social housing. Horizon Europe can support investment in social housing through research and innovation projects aimed at improving housing conditions. There is no shortage of things the Government could be doing now to get more housing, which we need built and delivered.

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