Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There were 19 contributors. I want to acknowledge the importance of the debate. I really want to echo what the Minister said and to reaffirm our commitment to tackling homelessness and solving the housing crisis. Since the formation of this Government, we have been committed to long-term sustainable solutions to homelessness, accelerating the supply of homes including building of sufficient social and affordable homes. We are fully aware. The recent rise in homelessness is of course of serious concern to everyone here on the Government side, and no doubt on the Opposition side as well. We take this very seriously. We know the impact it has on individual families. We have put €242 million in the budget for this year, up from €215 million last year. Resourcing is not an issue. We are redoubling our efforts to prevent further homelessness. I refer to the tenant in situscheme. There were 1,700 acquisitions last year of social housing, the majority of those under the scheme. To date this year, we have 1,600 houses under purchase with many of those tenancies under way. The cost rental tenant in situ scheme has 47 completed. We would like to see more coming forward in that area.

We have seen a small decrease in certain areas, particularly in October, in single adults in emergency accommodation in mid-east, the midlands, mid-west and south east compared to October. There was a small fall in the number of families accessing emergency accommodation in the west. However, the figures are too high and we acknowledge that point. We are working closely with local authorities and NGOs to support them to help people exit homelessness. In the first nine months of last year, 2,000 adults exited from homelessness. That was an increase on the previous year. There were 2,500 preventions. That is up on the same period from 2022. In the last quarter of last year, we saw an increase of 14% or 1,585 people exiting and preventions from homelessness.

I want to deal in facts. We had a debate here and Members are talking about facts. There has been delivery on social and affordable housing. More than 10,263 social houses were completed last year. They were not all purchased. There were 7,433 new builds, the highest in many years. There were 960 acquisitions and 1,870 leases. Ask anyone who wants social housing. They are not concerned whether the house they are being provided with is built by a local authority or leased or acquired. Furthermore, there were nearly 9,675 in a combination of RAS and HAP. This year alone we have seen over 2,500 up to the quarter. The majority come through in the last quarter. I would advise the Deputy to hold her full comment until she sees the outcome of the last quarter.

In terms of social housing, there is the focus on affordable homes to rent and buy. Some €250 million has been approved for affordable housing fund delivery of more than 4,000 affordable homes in 67 projects across 20 local authorities. From a starting point of zero, 1,800 homes were delivered last year. In excess of 2,000 affordable homes are to be delivered in the first nine months of this year. Deputy Stanley said no affordable cost rentals were being progressed in County Laois; there are. There is an application in before the Department for Portlaoise in terms of affordable cost rental. There has been delivery of affordable purchase in Stradbally.

The Croí Cónaithe scheme has had 6,220 applications, of which 3,400 have been approved. Only 103 have been paid but that is a bit of a red herring. Anyone who has been approved under the scheme has 30 months to do the works so they are going to be drawing down at a later period.

On many of the points Deputies have raised, we all want the same thing here. It is not fair to say that there has not been delivery; there has. I will touch on a few points that were raised by Members during the debate. We spoke about the whole issue in terms of the investment funds purchasing homes. Deputies neglected to state that following the changes in the planning laws since May 2021, approximately 42,000 properties have been given the owner-occupier guarantee. They are homes that are ensured to be available for owner-occupiers, which is hugely important. Less than 1% of the homes were actually purchased by the funds. As the Minister said, Sinn Féin must provide details of its alternative plan. Deputies stated the average house price should be €300,000. That is an unrealistic price and they should be honest with the people out as to how they are going to do that. Anyone who buys a home will have no control over their home. The site will continue to be owned by the State. If they want to rent their home, they cannot. If they want to sell their home, it is at the control of the State. The schemes we have in place make the purchase of houses affordable. The Sinn Féin scheme will bring about negative equity. More than 40,000 people have availed of the help-to-buy scheme. Sinn Féin continues to speak about it. The party has put on record that it will abolish the scheme. In one of its reviews, the Central Bank has stated that the scheme provides a major advantage to people in putting a deposit together. It has very little impact on inflation. It is only people getting their tax back that they have already paid. Sinn Féin opposed the first home scheme. That allows the State to go in and basically provide an equity stake that people can buy out, unlike the party's scheme, where the site they are on will be owned by the State, effectively.

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