Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

NESC has done a lot of work on housing in recent years. This fact featured very strongly in its 50th anniversary meeting, which the Taoiseach referred to. I want to raise with the Taoiseach again an area that needs to be examined; namely, the significant and growing deficit in the delivery of three- and four-bedroom homes. I want to update our conversation on this. The Taoiseach said that there are figures to show that the big need is for one- and two-bedroom homes. Certainly there is a big need for one- and two bedroom homes. However, for the Taoiseach's information, in terms of housing need assessment in specific areas, those receiving housing assistance payment, HAP, are not being counted in the figures for housing need because they are on transferred lists. Huge numbers of those people are in larger families, many of whom are ending up homeless in emergency accommodation. We are seeing child and family homelessness growing. Developers do not want to build three- and four-bedroom houses because they can make more profit from one- and two- bedroom houses. We need to do something about this. Even when there is some uptick, albeit not enough, in the delivery in housing - mostly apartments - generally not enough three- and four- bedroom homes are being delivered. We are seeing people being made homeless or couch surfing in all sorts of deplorable situations. I urge the Taoiseach to look at this. Obviously we directly have to deliver more three- and four-bedroom houses in public and affordable housing developments. However, we also need to insist that developers deliver more three- and four-bedroom homes as well.

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