Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, has inherited a dreadful legacy in her social housing portfolio. This is the result of long periods of neglect and under-provision by previous Administrations. Let us take a moment to consider this legacy of neglect. There are 100,000 people on housing lists, long queues on transfer lists and homelessness and hostel figures have reached unprecedented levels. There is also another waiting list of tenants waiting for repairs, new doors, windows, heating and insulation to their homes. While figures are important, they do not fully express, capture or measure the anxiety, helplessness and frustration of families who long for a house to make their home. Despite the scale of the problem facing her, the Minister of State has risen to this challenge and ably secured significant sums for social housing. She has, for example, obtained €15 million for refurbishment and a further €15 million for initial new construction. A successful application has been made to the European Union for a loan of €100 million in EU funds to make ready vacant apartment blocks in three cities. This is a very impressive start to her efforts to tackle a seemingly intractable problem.

On behalf of those on the housing list, many of whom visit my clinics every week, I want to know whether the era of neglect of social housing has come to an end. I also seek a reassurance that the Government takes a different attitude to social housing from its predecessors and has a commitment to it.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. I assure him that the Government is determined to address the problems faced by people waiting for housing. Unfortunately, we inherited an economy that had collapsed, which had a significant effect on capital budgets.

One means of dealing with the housing list is to make available empty houses. Some 3.3% of social housing stock is vacant, out of a total stock of almost 130,000 social housing units. Local authorities are responsible for the management and maintenance of the social housing stock. Rental income is used to support responsive and planned maintenance programmes. However, constraints on local authority revenue funding have resulted in a growing number of properties being left vacant for protracted periods.

The best approach to preventing houses becoming long-term voids is through proactive, planned maintenance programmes by local authorities and taking steps to ensure the quick turnaround of properties as they become vacant. Local authorities are, by and large, doing this, although some problems remain. My Department has a number of capital support measures in place to assist them in refurbishing vacant and boarded up houses.

This year, the Department is providing funding of more than €121 million in capital grants to local authorities for improving the social housing stock. This includes €80 million for the regeneration of run-down estates and flat complexes in Dublin city - Deputy Conaghan will be familiar with some of these - as well as Limerick, Cork and a number of regional centres. Approximately €20 million is being provided for estate wide remedial works and this year the Government approved a new €50 million insulation retrofitting programme which will result in some 25,000 local authorities houses being provided with attic, roof and wall insulation. This will have a significant impact on comfort levels and energy savings and create much needed jobs. Some €10 million of this funding has been made available this year and will be used to retrofit approximately 5,000 properties. A further €25 million will be made available in 2014 when I expect work will be completed on some 12,500 properties. On a visit to Corduff in Fingal yesterday I saw how this programme is being used to make houses more comfortable and energy efficient and to reduce fuel costs for householders.

The Department also applied for funding from the European Union and I hope this application will be successful. This funding will be used specifically to address problems in flat complexes in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

The Government's housing policy statement published in June 2011 clearly identifies that the priority for Government will be to meet the most acute needs of households applying for social housing support. We must use all the schemes available to us while we await further capital funding. This includes the rental accommodation scheme, securing housing units from the National Asset Management Agency, a process we are seeking to accelerate, and working with approved housing bodies. These bodies have demonstrated a capacity to raise funds additional to those that are allocated from the Department's capital budgets. We are, therefore, working to provide social housing through various means.

This year, the Department announced funding to enable local authority housing construction programmes to commence. This funding is additional to funding provided to address void or vacant housing units. Some local authorities have a large number of void units and we want to ensure they are returned to use. While the sum provided this year is relatively small owing to the ongoing difficulties with capital allocations, we will increase this funding when it becomes possible to do so. I am determined to ensure the social housing programme optimises the delivery of social housing and the return for the resources invested.

It is essential that we use all available Exchequer supports in the prevailing conditions, and the various solutions at present, to address housing needs. That includes a variety of measures.

I am determined that we will address this problem. It was one that was on the increase during the Celtic tiger when the money was around. It is more difficult now because we have so little in terms of capital funding, but the economy is recovering. We intend to ensure that we use the rising of the economy to be in a position to provide more social housing.

Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I am pleased with what the Minister of State said. I am aware of her long commitment to and compassion for the housing issues in her native city of Limerick, for example, the massive regeneration project to which she is fully committed in that city, and the transformative impact that such a project will have on the lives of the people her native city.

I am also aware, from discussions with people whom she has met in Dublin in places such as St. Teresa's Gardens, and where she has met former residents of St. Michael's Estate, of the praise they have conferred on her due to her conduct of those meetings and her attitude, and her understanding of the issues with which they are confronted. That all augurs well for the lifetime of portfolio. I pass on some of the best wishes of residents in St. Teresa's Gardens and former St. Michael's Estate. When they knew I might be speaking to her today, they asked me to thank her sincerely for having visited and for the length of time she spent, and the understanding and the compassion she brought to bear on the dilemmas that they are facing in their housing issues.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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On Dublin, as Deputy Conaghan will be aware, there is still some work to be carried out, this year and next, in Ballymun but it is close to completion, and we really want now to address difficulties in the kind of estates of which he spoke, such as Dolphin House. There is a commitment to funding, at least in the lifetime of this Government, for those projects.

On the application for European Union funding, if we get that funding - I have no guarantee that we will get it but we hope we will get it - it will allow us address 2,000 local authority flats, 1,500 of which are in Dublin with the others in Cork and Limerick. That is a substantial number of units of housing as well. We will be working hard to ensure that we get that funding to address those difficulties.