Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter for discussion. I welcome the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and thank him for coming to the House to participate in this debate.

I submitted this topic for discussion on a number of occasions last week and decided to try one more time before I left the House last Friday. Little did I know then that by the time the issue had been selected for debate, Mr. Jonathan Corrie would have died not 50 m from Leinster House. May he rest in peace.

I am aware that the issue of homelessness is complex and that one must factor in issues such as alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness and the breakdown of relationships. The Oireachtas and the Government cannot wash their hands of the issue or leave it to those who work daily to solve the problem. I have in mind organisations such as the Simon Community, Focus Ireland and Inner City Helping Homeless. Emergency accommodation must be provided as a short-term solution.

I welcome the initiative announced by the Minister today to invite a number of stakeholders to attend an emergency forum on homelessness. The figure indicating that 168 people are homeless in Dublin may be the tip of the iceberg as more people slip into homelessness every day. There are also many layers of homelessness and many reasons for it. I am aware of homeless people who travel many miles to Clondalkin every day to keep their children in education. We can only imagine the additional distress this causes.

Short-term emergency solutions are needed. The problem, as the Taoiseach and the Minister noted in statements today, can only be solved by implementing long-term solutions. For this reason, I welcome the Minister's initiative and the ten actions announced by the Government which include the refurbishment of vacant units, the provision of increased funding for housing and emergency beds, as well as the housing first service and other initiatives. This approach provides a way forward in the long term. However, we must also ensure an emergency programme is introduced to solve the problem for those who are sleeping on the streets before Christmas.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Since the Government took office, we have had a major housing crisis. I extend my sympathy to the family and friends of Mr. Jonathan Corrie who died only a stone's throw from Leinster House. I hope his death has finally kicked the Government into action.

The Government's recent proposals on housing placed little emphasis on the emergency housing crisis. It is clear that the increase in homelessness has been caused by people losing their homes as a result of rent increases. The caps applied to the rent supplement and rental accommodation schemes are being breached by landlords. Families in emergency accommodation are spending lengthy periods in hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation and hostels which were intended to provide a temporary solution. The long-term answer to the problem is to deliver more social housing.

What we need is a plan to enable people to access places immediately. Rent controls which the Government has resisted are necessary to stop the haemorrhage of people from the rent supplement and rental accommodation schemes into homelessness. Figures show that 45 families were made homeless in the past month and that 168 people were recorded as sleeping rough on one night in Dublin alone. Every night 2,580 adults and 798 children are housed in emergency accommodation. We do not know the true figure because some people are living in cars, sleeping on sofas in other people's homes or finding other places to sleep. We do not know anything about these people.

State properties and properties owned by the National Asset Management Agency, abandoned buildings and other innovative options should be utilised. I have been on the soup run on which I have seen appalling sights. Furthermore, families housed in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation do not have cooking facilities or amenities and their children do not have anywhere to go. They are isolated from their extended families and children must travel across the city to attend school.

Government statements suggesting it will end long-term homelessness in 2016 are farcical considering the scale of the problem, as is the claim that it will end waiting lists by 2020. According to the Taoiseach, officials and representatives of the housing agencies and local authorities will meet next Thursday. A series of constructive steps are needed, not a talking shop. The Government was quick to allocate €700 million from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund to Irish Water. It should consider this option as a means of securing more funding to deal with the issue of homelessness.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The tragic death of Mr. Jonathan Corrie is an unspeakable event for his family, friends and loved ones. It is also a source of immense shame for the State, the political system and the Government. We cannot allow tragedies such as Mr. Corrie's death to continue. Emergency measures are needed to deal with what has become a national emergency. Talk of long-term solutions and spending billions of euro by 2020 is all very well, but we need an emergency response now. Incidentally, the House has not had an opportunity to properly scrutinise the Government's housing proposals, about which many questions remain unanswered.

I will make two simple proposals which have been made on numerous occasions, both by the homeless agencies and, since 2011, Deputies in this House. First, suitable empty buildings must be requisitioned in every local authority area and quickly refurbished to provide accommodation for the homeless.

In my area there are two buildings owned by the local authority, one of which has been earmarked for homeless accommodation for several years and another of which is an empty building in which dozens of families or people could live. They are sitting there empty. The local authority should be given the money to refurbish them and get people off the streets.

We need a phone call from the Minister for Social Protection to community welfare officers around the country telling them one simple thing, namely, that if a person cannot find accommodation under the rent caps but can find it at €1,100, €1,200 or €1,300, it will be approved. It is not about raising the general level of the caps; rather, it is about nobody being turned away. All a community welfare officer has to do to confirm the legitimacy of such a claim is to go onto www.daft.ie on the same day and check if it is a reasonable request.

I know of a woman who was made homeless three months ago because of the rent caps. She has found somewhere that is cheaper but is still not within the rent caps. She was led to believe by the Minister for Social Protection that there would be flexibility from the community welfare officer. This weekend she, along with her two children, is facing homelessness again because the community welfare officer will not sanction a breach of the cap. She will be homeless unless those phone calls are made. I appeal for a phone call to be made to the Department of Social Protection to say nobody will be forced into homelessness because of the rent caps.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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What happened outside Leinster House on Monday morning is a tragedy for the whole country and, in particular, the Government. I would like to extend my sincere condolences to Jonathan, his family and his friends. The best thing we can do is to do something about the situation he faced on the streets night after night. When one contrasts what happened yesterday with the fact that NAMA, the largest state-owned property company in the world, is sitting on property, we can only ask why this happened.

The Minister has called a summit on Thursday. Will he invite the CEO of NAMA to the meeting to ask him exactly what properties are vacant and how they can be utilised? Can we establish how many suitable properties which could be used to solve the issue of rough sleeping as part of the emergency resolution are held in the city by NAMA? It cannot be impossible to deal immediately with the estimated 170 people who are sleeping rough in the city. As Father Peter McVerry said, such people are the ones people can see. It is the ones who are hiding and trying to protect themselves who should also be added to the list. There could be another 40 or 50 people sleeping rough.

The Archbishop of Dublin has said he has been invited to the summit. Can he be asked why 90 completed housing units at Father Scully House, built with 100% funding from the State and the city council and run by the Catholic Housing Aid Society, are lying idle because of the rent demands from that institution?

We see the same thing happening every year. We respond to the crisis, but we now need to put in place something that can deal with the crisis in the future. There should be a temporary three-year rent cap to deal with the crisis in the building of social housing, a rent supplement increase for those in immediate need and a longer-term plan to bring on board properties which will provide suitable accommodation, rather than the squalor I have seen in wet hostels, in which people can feel comfortable and secure. Many people will not stay in hostels because they are insecure, their belongings are stolen and the situation is chaotic.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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I also express my condolences to the family of Jonathan Corrie, my solidarity with all of those who face the human tragedy of homelessness and my support for those who are currently holding a vigil to highlight this issue.

There has been an explosion in homelessness. There has always been homelessness in our society, but it has multiplied massively over the past year. Focus Ireland said it would normally deal with about eight families a month; last month it dealt with 45. All of those cases involve individual human tragedies. Every person who contacts me in a housing crisis has a horrific tale about the experience of ending up in that situation and trying to get out of it. We have seen cases such as that of Shane and Ciara Dwyer, who were living in their car in Jobstown, Fiona O'Connor, who has to leave her house by Christmas Day, and Helen Lynch, who has been homeless for the best part of a year and has to find permanent accommodation in order for her son to get on a transplant list. Every single one of the numbers has a human case underneath it. We cannot wash our hands of the situation and say it is a tragedy and some unexplained natural disaster. It is a tragedy which is a result of Government policy. It is obviously not the intention of the Government for this to happen to anybody, but it flows from Government policy. Father Peter McVerry put his finger on it earlier today when he said:

Unfortunately cattle and sheep are more important to our economy than homeless people. We have a homeless crisis which is not being addressed.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The death of Jonathan Corrie is shocking but not surprising. I thought Rory Hearne of Maynooth University put it well when he said recently:

When our financial system was in peril there was no obstacle too large for our political establishment and the state to overcome. Now we face an equivalent crisis in terms of the fundamental housing needs and rights of hundreds of thousands of our citizens. It is legitimate to ask why the same radical approach that determinedly did 'whatever was needed to be done' is not applied to the housing crisis. It appears it is because the government is unwilling to stand up to the financial and property investors and transform the residential property market into a system to meet housing needs.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I thank all Deputies for their contributions. I do not doubt their sincerity in trying to find solutions to this very complex issue. I too want to offer my condolences to the family and friends of Jonathan Corrie. It is quite shocking that he died so close to where we operate every day in trying to solve these issues. I do not want to turn this into a political shouting match because that would not be appropriate. This is a political Chamber, but there are some topics for which we need to find solutions without dropping down to political point-scoring.

The reasons many people are homeless are complex, and sometimes the solutions have to be. If there were an easy solution to deal with every individual who is homeless, I would have made sure it happened. There is no best practice for homelessness. I have taken a number of actions as Minister and have prioritised this issue. Meetings about social housing and, in particular, homelessness, take place with Dublin City Council at 9 a.m. every Monday. A Cabinet sub-committee meets to discuss this issue on a regular basis. Many fairly positive actions have been taken.

For instance, in the next few months another 655 voids - social housing units that have been closed up - will be opened up. This alone could provide enough units for people homeless in this city. It is scandalous these units have been left void as they are the quickest way to turn around the situation in this city. I prioritised the return to use of these units immediately I took on this role.

I have changed the allocation policy in regard to homelessness. For instance, I have told local authorities in Dublin that 25% of allocations should be based on the homeless. I have increased the budget by 20%, bringing it to over €55 million, the highest ever. Just 12 or 14 days ago, I provided a further €4 million to Dublin City Council for homelessness, despite the fact that the council rejected a proposal to increase the budget for homelessness. We are all aware supply is the critical issue and we must ensure we have a greater supply for the future. Hence the policy announced last week and the €3.8 billion to provide for the new strategy in the medium and long term. We have also announced the Housing First service, which is being provided through Focus Ireland and the Peter McVerry Trust and will provide support for the homeless and those with specific needs. Some 164 more emergency beds will be supplied in the coming weeks, bringing supply to in excess of 1,500 beds.

I would like to see the intervention mechanism run in Dublin by Threshold rolled out further. It concerns itself with people in vulnerable situations who might be about to become homeless and intervenes and negotiates on their behalf, via the local authority and landlords etc. It has dealt successfully with more than 200 cases in recent months. I would like to see this rolled out throughout the country because the intervention tactic works well. In more than 90% of these cases, the rent supplement has been increased. This initiative was targeted, but we need to become more involved in intervention.

There is a plan in place to deal with homelessness and this plan was in place long before the social housing strategy was announced last week. I have announced a coming together on Thursday of the key players to discuss how we can maximise everything that is being done. I am not convinced it is all about funding, but if there is a requirement for funding, I will go to Cabinet and demand more funding. The processes are at play here. We need a greater coming together of everyone working on this issue - the Department, the Government, local authorities, the NGOs and other organisations - to ensure people do not fall between stools and to ensure we intervene where necessary.

It is not just an issue of providing accommodation. If that was all it was about, I am confident we could do that. There are solutions to provision through NAMA and other sources, but the issue is more complex. Each individual circumstance is different. It is about providing complex solutions that work and initiating a process that will ensure they always work. There must be continual interception in order that people are not made homeless one night, then we intervene, but one week later they are homeless again. A complex solution is required.

The actions we have taken are good, but the issue now is that we must work closely with the NGOs and other agencies to ensure that all of the processes intercept those who are vulnerable to the maximum possible. That is the ambition behind our planned meeting on Thursday. I have meetings every week on the issue of homelessness. Officials from the Department meet officials from Dublin City Council and local authorities every Monday morning at 9 o'clock on the issue of homelessness. This is not about another strategy or plan. It is about taking direct and immediate action to help those whom everyone in this House agrees we should help.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response. It is clear from his contribution that there is no simple solution and this issue cannot be resolved by the stroke of a pen. It is a complex situation and I wish the Minister well in dealing with it. We will be watching vigilantly given what has happened and I wish him well with the work.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister says the issue is complex and is not all about resources. I am sorry, but it is substantially about resources. Take, for example, the case of Ann Heffernan, the woman I have talked about. Having been made homeless several months ago because the rent for the accommodation she was in went up to €1,300, she went to the community welfare officer, but the officer would not sanction a rise in the cap and she was made homeless as a result. She then went looking for somewhere else to stay and managed to find a place for €1,200, but when she went to the community officer and asked if they would sanction €1,200, the community welfare officer said sorry, but the cap was €975. She then got on to Threshold, but it cannot get them to raise the cap. She will be homeless next week unless a phone call goes to the community welfare officer asking him to raise the cap. This situation is happening all over the city. We cannot have excuses and bureaucracy and talk of complexity covering this reality.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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We are not covering it.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Let us have action. I want to see the community welfare officer being phoned and told to raise the cap to realistic levels. In regard to buildings, Peter McVerry and Crosscare will say that if we give them the buildings, they will house the people on the streets.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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The Minister did not answer two of the questions I put. Will NAMA be part of that discussion on Thursday? It should be, because it is the biggest property owner almost in the world. In regard to Fr. Scully House, why are those 90 units not handed over immediately?

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Sorry, I meant to answer that.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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These units could deal immediately with those who are homeless currently. There are 1,400 families in emergency accommodation, 168 people or more in Dublin city alone. Whatever we can do in Dublin must be done around the country where similar supports are needed. The Minister was correct in saying that 248 homeless people from the homeless list were provided with long-term accommodation, but the numbers of homeless are rising. Once people cannot pay the rents demanded by rack-renting landlords, we will see more people on the streets. This must be stopped. The only way this can be stopped is to put a cap on rents. There must be rent control and the rent supplement must be raised.

In addition, decent accommodation must be made available. I talk to a homeless man on Marlborough Street regularly. He says he will not go near the hostels because his stuff would be robbed and there are too many problems and there is too much chaos in them. The accommodation being provided must and should be of good quality.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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I do not deny that homelessness is a complex and complicated issue, but the Government should not be allowed hide behind that. Much of the homelessness facing us right now is not that complicated. According to Peter McVerry, a majority of those who are homeless currently - this is substantiated by my empirical experience - are homeless simply because rents have risen out of control and they cannot afford to pay them. These are not just single people who are unemployed. Some are couples, one who is working and one who is unemployed. They are homeless because rents are out of control, particularly in this city. The simple solution to this is to increase the caps immediately, impose rent controls and, over time, build homes.

There is also a simple enough solution to the dire circumstances of people in emergency accommodation. Dublin City Council paid €2.4 million last year to private hotels and other commercial entities for emergency accommodation at a time when NAMA is sitting on hotel properties that could quite easily be adapted and made accessible for homeless people.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Nobody doubts that this is a serious challenge, but for a number of years most Government action, of this and the previous Government, was geared by a neo-liberal ideology. That is part of this scene. When the Minister said he was introducing a housing strategy, I thought we would get a real housing strategy, but what he has given us is a budget plan. What has he done about rent control. In Germany, rent is linked to inflation. Here it seems it is linked to the sky. Rent has gone up 30% in two years.

The Government seems prepared to walk away from interference in the private market. What is the Minister doing about quality social housing and about where it is being built? Half of the young people looking for housing in Ireland in the next ten years will be looking for social housing, because they will not be able to afford to buy homes. The buying of homes by young people will be a thing of the past.

What are we doing about land banking and about developer-led planning? What are we going to do about ghettoisation? These are all issues I thought were going to be part of the Government's housing strategy. The Minister can talk all he likes but the Government is not dealing in a holistic manner with the challenges of housing in Ireland.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Wallace. That was an amazing contribution from him. We all have responsibilities in this House. We all have responsibilities towards everyone we deal with, and so does Deputy Wallace. We all have responsibilities to ensure we do our utmost to make sure people do not get into poverty and are not left in difficult situations. It is imperative we all do that. I certainly will not be hiding behind anything. I am going to hide behind budgets or anything else in regard to an issue like this; it is far more serious than that. I have said already in the House, in committee and previously that if it is a question of looking for budgets, I will get budgets, but it is broader than that. It is a very complex issue. If the processes are not working, people will slip through the cracks no matter now much we put into this. That is a fact, and I know all of the Deputies have accepted it to some degree.

I have no issue whatsoever with NAMA coming in. It has supplied a serious number of units for social housing and there is a plan to supply thousands more, so there is no issue there.

I am more interested in Deputy Collins' second point on Fr. Scully House. I agree with the Deputy. Perhaps I should have been more vocal on this earlier but this cannot go on. We have a situation where 99 units are not in play. This is not in my control, as the House will appreciate, as it is a private organisation. I will be asking Archbishop Diarmuid Martin about this but I understand he has made comments previously that he does not have any role, so I will have to tease this out. By all accounts, the name as opposed to the orientation is the Catholic Housing Aid Society, but whatever role Archbishop Martin can have, I would welcome any help. The idea of a situation continuing where 99 units - fine units, by all accounts - are left standing idle is not acceptable and cannot continue. There may be other cases where work is taking place with other groups and there are similar issues.

I want to see solutions brought about that will intercept people who are in vulnerable situations. I have spoken previously about budgets but I absolutely believe that, collectively, there is a need for processes to be put in place to co-ordinate what we, the local authorities, all of the NGOs, State agencies like the HSE and others involved in addiction counselling are doing. It must cover everything. All of this needs a protocol that works clearly. My orientation on Thursday will be to deal with that in an intense way to put in place processes that will work. If it requires more funding, I will go to Government looking for that and I will get that, but it is not, I believe, confined to that issue. I need everyone to come to the table, to leave their organisational brand outside as regards what they want for themselves, to think collectively, as a society, working together in that room on how we are going to deal with this issue, because society let down Jonathan.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left)
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Rent controls first, then deal individually with those landlords who have problems with that.