Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Housing is a national crisis, if not a scandal. I do not want to rain on the parade of the Minister of State and his colleagues after yesterday's announcement, which is the fourth such announcement since October. It seeks to promise the delivery of social housing units and, in the time allocated to me, there is not enough time to go through the dismal record of house construction under this Government. Figures supplied to me in answer to a parliamentary question indicate why the crisis has become a scandal. Waterford has had one unit over the past four years, Offaly received none, north Tipperary received none and there were 60 out of 100 in Dublin last year. It makes dismal reading and I would have thought the Minister would have a more holistic approach to this crisis before now. Even at this late stage, I would have thought the Minister would combine private sector and empowerment initiatives to assist that sector through the use of the strategic investment fund to fund developers, get house building going and address the difficulties, given the lack of houses available, the increasing crisis in mortgage arrears and the construction aspect of providing homes. The Minister made no effort to address those issues when I thought he would.

To deal with the specific issue raised here, it relates to previous Government announcements by the front-line Minister. In particular, capital funding for 7,500 units includes new builds, acquisitions, refurbishments and voids was promised over a period of three years. At a committee meeting a couple of months ago and in responses to parliamentary questions, we were informed that 1,400 would be new builds completed by the end of this year. The announcement yesterday says it will be 1,700 by the end of 2017. Will 300 be built in 2016 and 2017, with 1,400 this year?

On foot of the announcement last yesterday and notwithstanding the difficulties arising from the management of the crisis over the past four years and the fact that it developed into a scandal involving 1,000 children living in emergency accommodation in Dublin, was the Minister and his colleagues convinced that 1,400 units were to be built this year? What has changed in two months leading to the announcement yesterday of 1,700 over three years?

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Every week for the past number of years, Opposition Deputies have highlighted the housing crisis, with over 90,000 people on the waiting list. Breaking it down by county, the announcement as part of the spring economic statement for my county involved 40 houses between now and the end of 2017. There are 12 for Killarney, 12 for Tralee, four for Lixnaw, and 12 single rural cottages. This amounts to 40 houses. There are 4,000 people on the housing list waiting across the county, with 2,000 on the waiting list in the town of Tralee. That puts things in perspective when the State is paying out €6 million per year on rent supplement to private landlords in the county of Kerry. A substantial number of former local authority houses are for sale. I have asked the council to consider purchasing them. It depends on what will come from the Exchequer to help.

The people looking for transfers include those with disabilities living in upstairs apartments. They are waiting to be housed and cannot get transfers from council apartments. It is a shambles. The Minister of State will argue that this is what he inherited from the previous Government and the crisis in the economy. Having said that, there is an urgent need for this and I cannot understand why the Government pays €6 million a year to private landlords for rental accommodation when a substantial amount of that money could be spent providing local authority housing for 2,000 people on the housing list in the county.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the opportunity to address this matter but I was disappointed at the announcement by the Minister today. There were multiple announcements over the past six months since the budget. Many of the announcements were of housing building programmes, and at this stage I was expecting to see concrete being poured and hundreds of houses under way. That is not what we see. I have summed up the reams of paper on the back of a postage stamp, where I wrote out the housing programme. Over 2015 to 2017, over three years, there will be €312 million spent and 1,700 units built. Some 49 houses will be built in Laois, 57 in Kildare and 33 in Offaly. In County Kildare, almost 8,000 people are on the housing waiting list and almost 1,700 households are on the waiting list in Laois. I have summed up the programme on the back of a postage stamp. It is not nearly enough and I am concerned and disappointed. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Kelly, told the House about the massive house building programme. However, the reality is that the needs of 98% of the people on the housing waiting list are not being addressed and the house building programme that fits on the back of the postage stamp will only address the needs of 2% of the households on the waiting list. It is far too little too late. In Dublin, in the middle of the crisis, 183 houses were built in 2013. In three years from 2015 to 2017, the Labour Party and Fine Gael proposed building 167 houses over three years. This is the answer to the housing crisis. It is not of enough and I want to know what other measures will be put in place to address the crisis.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising the important issue. They miss the point. Yesterday's announcement is but one strand of the Government's response under the social housing strategy. The figures quoted are the direct builds by local authorities proposed by the same local authorities through the Department. They have received the green light but it is only the first phase of direct building. I expect the support of all Deputies in all of those projects. The figures quoted do not take account of forthcoming proposals under the capital assistance scheme, CAS, under which voluntary housing bodies will provide a number of units, nor do they take account of the number of voids, vacant and boarded-up local authority units for which additional funding has been provided. Over 2,000 units have been turned around and put back into beneficial use over the past year. Further funding for 1,000 additional units will be provided to put them back into beneficial use. It does not take account of the number of acquisition units, where local authorities from all over the country propose to the Department to buy units from the market at good value for money. The announcement yesterday does not include that but the Deputies chose to ignore this fact. Nor do they allow for the rental accommodation scheme or the housing assistance payment schemes that are up and running in local authorities around the country.

The HAP scheme has now been expanded into a further 12 local authorities. The social housing strategy is targeted at providing over 110,000 social housing units through the delivery of 35,000 new social housing units and meeting the housing needs of some 75,000 households through the HAP and rental accommodation schemes. In total, €3.8 billion is being ring-fenced for the strategy. This marks a fresh strategy in terms of the provision of social housing. I find it hard to take lectures from those opposite, especially those in Fianna Fáil. It abdicated its responsibility in terms of direct build social housing in local authorities for over a decade. Some 15,000 units were built in the previous four years.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Four years is nothing. Compare and contrast what was built in the previous four years.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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For over ten years, Fianna Fáil failed. On top of that, it propagated a property bubble with Part V-----

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Fine Gael has not even built a henhouse in the last four years.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----provision that delivered no houses over a five-year term. I will take no lectures in this House from Fianna Fáil regarding the provision of social housing. Likewise with Sinn Féin-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Get on with it.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister of State read the rest of his notes?

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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I am not reading. I am telling Deputy Dooley straight.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Read the notes.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There was nothing built in Waterford over the last four years. Not one house.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Sinn Féin provided in its budget for 2016 an allocation-----

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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6,000.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----of €1 billion over 18 months, which it said would provide 6,000 units by direct build. That is less ambitious than what the Government has set out in its social housing strategy. The Government has committed over €4 billion over the next few years-----

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Waffle. Where is the substance?

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----for the provision of social housing. The Deputies should know, as former councillors, that one cannot build houses overnight. They must go through Part VIII in councils, tendering and then the construction must start. Yesterday we announced green lights for projects all over this country that will deliver housing units and over 3,000 jobs in the construction sector. This Government is treating social housing as a top priority. Unfortunately, we are picking up the pieces of the mess that was left. We are now addressing it and giving it its full priority. The Deputies will-----

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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Four years later.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----see further phases and announcements over the coming months that will address the shortfall in housing at the moment.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I know we are only dealing with one strand. My question only dealt with one strand.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy did not say that.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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That strand is the direct build sector. The Minister of State has the authority to direct local authorities to provide for the 90,000 applications. It could be 200,000 people. If he wants to compare and contrast what was built in the last four years with what went before, the Government built nothing in Waterford, for example, nor in Laois nor North Tipperary. I have the list here.

Deputy Barry Cowen: That strand is the direct build sector. The Minister of State has the authority to direct local authorities to provide for the 90,000 individual applicants. It could be 200,000 people. Having said that, if the Minister of State wants to compare and contrast what was built in the last fraye our, he built none in Waterford, for example, or in Offaly, Laois or North Tipperary. I have the list. I can go through them.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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We will build them this year.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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If the Minister of State wants to play that game, he will lose.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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God, we will not.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I will ask him now what I asked him earlier. Why did his senior Minister tell me two months ago that 1,400 new direct build units would be provided by this Government and local authorities throughout the country this year? That was two months ago. The Government rushes to make so many announcements that it forgets what was said in the previous one. That is what was said two months ago. Yesterday it was back to 1,700 over three years. Can the Minister of State confirm that it will be 1,400 this year and 300 in the next two years? Is that the divide? Why was I told 1,400 would be built two months ago when yesterday he told the country only 1,700 would be built over three years? People do not trust the Government anymore. They do not believe-----

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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-----and they see in black and white the disregard-----

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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-----for the housing provision element of local authorities.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There are more zeros here than anything else.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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They are not euro, they are duck eggs. Nothing has been built and nothing has been provided. The Government has no interest in sorting out the housing crisis.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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It has been allowed to develop into an absolute scandal.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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There is no doubt that the Minister of State is very good at spin and waffle. There is no better man at waffle than him.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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With the exception of the senior Minister.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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There is no doubt that he is well able to waffle. This Government is paying out €6 million each year to private landlords while there are 2,000 people on the housing waiting list in my county, Kerry. The Minister of State is proposing to build 40 houses over the next two and a half years. How will that facilitate the thousands of people who are crying out to be housed in this State? How can the Minister of State say that to people with disabilities who are living in upstairs apartments and must be helped up and down the stairs while this Government has done absolutely nothing for four years? This Government has done nothing for this country in the last four years regarding providing housing. It is an absolute disgrace to stand here today and lecture people across here with the record it has.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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There are 1,000 people in Killarney alone.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister of State has given the impression that huge money is there for voids, empty council houses. Turning around empty council houses is welcome but in County Laois there are not three voids at the moment. That will not solve the housing crisis. New builds are needed. We are directly addressing the local authority house building programme for the next three years. The busiest industry since the last budget has been the offices of the Minister of State and the Minister, churning out press releases and papers, which I have summarised on the back of this postage stamp. The Taoiseach's house-building programme fits on the back of a stamp. It is 1,700 units over three years. That is the reality when one strips away the billions. What is happening here is that the money the Minister of State is announcing has been taken from the Department of Social Protection. He has brought it over to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and called it housing assistance payment, HAP, which some people are calling "hapless". That is how he is calculating his billions. He is not dealing with the housing crisis. There is a serious housing crisis out there. There are homeless people in Laois, Offaly and Kildare and there are 1,000 children in temporary accommodation at the moment-----

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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That issue needs to be addressed. The Government is not addressing it.

Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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We cannot continue to go on about the past. The Government is here now. It is in the driving seat. We are supposed to have this great recovery. The Government must address the housing issue.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Cowen asked about the number of units being delivered this year. He is not taking account of the €68 million that was provided for in last year's budget-----

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I asked the Minister of State that.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----for the commencement of over 50 construction projects, which are now coming on stream this year. Yesterday's announcement is in addition to that.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There are 1,400 this year, then.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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They are direct build projects in local authority areas all over the country, including in Deputy Cowen's constituency.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There are 1,400 this year, and one in Kilbeggan, I hear.

Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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It takes time.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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There are 1,400 this year.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Cowen and his party destroyed the social housing provision in this country.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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This Government is working towards a sustainable construction sector, which would provide houses for all our people into the future. In response to Deputy Stanley, huge progress has been made in terms of the turnaround of voids in this country. He has already acknowledged that directly to the Minister, Deputy Kelly, and me in committee. Some 2,000 voids and boarded up houses have been turned around in the past year-----

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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They should not have been allowed to develop into the voids.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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-----and another 1,000 will be turned around in the coming year. He is not taking account of the voluntary housing bodies, which will be announced very shortly.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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No, we are not. We are dealing with the direct build.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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They will also contribute to the housing demand that is out there at the moment.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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One press release after another.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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He is not taking account of the acquisitions local authorities can make all over the country.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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We can wait for another press release next week or the week after.

Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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This Government is taking housing as a top priority and cleaning up the mess Fianna Fáil made.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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How many thousand are on the waiting list? The Minister of State should cop on.