Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Minister of State taking the third matter?

Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I was told it was being withdrawn.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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That is news to me.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy who intends to speak on it is present. If he will bear with me for a minute, we will check the office for the Minister. The Minister of State is in the Chamber and Deputy Pringle should proceed.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I thank the Acting Chairman. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing this issue. I believe a topical issue was withdrawn earlier, albeit not this one, which probably is what caused the confusion. As Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan cannot make it, I will raise the matter by myself.

Five families have been told they must leave Lynam's Hotel on O'Connell Street in Dublin by Saturday, as the hotel has gone into receivership and the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, has appointed receivers to the hotel. I acknowledge Dublin City Council is in negotiations to try to get more time for these families but this system is broken and all the city council can offer families is more of the same inadequate, insecure accommodation for short periods and I believe the Government must now intervene in this particular case. It is important to portray the reality of the situation and I will outline the circumstances of some of the families who are in Lynam's Hotel. Annette, who is 26 years old, is staying in Lynam's hotel with her 18 month old daughter, Kayleigh. They were made homeless in March of this year and since then have been on the move between hotels and bed and breakfasts. This is completely inappropriate for a young child, as they live in a single room with no way of getting bottles heated or storing milk and the family is obliged to rely on fast food. Annette has been on the housing list since 2009. She was in private rental accommodation until her landlord decided to sell and gave her 28 days' notice to quit. She was asked to leave the hotel today and has been told she can go to the Gresham Hotel for 40 days but that if it gets busy, she will be obliged to leave there as well and be moved on somewhere else.

Another family - Anna, her husband and five children - have been living in separate rooms in Lynam's Hotel and when schools are open, she must bring her kids back out to Dublin 15 each morning to attend school. Anna had a baby in February. She works part-time and is a participant in a community employment scheme. Her husband works full-time on a zero-hour contract. This family has no cooking or laundry facilities and no security. They are being offered another hotel miles away in Newlands Cross, again with no facilities and no guarantee that they will even get adjoining rooms for the children. They have been on the housing list for eight years. They have been obliged to put many of their belongings into storage and into the homes of family and friends and even were required to sell off some of their furniture because they had nowhere to keep it. Leanne Heffernan is another resident there who is in the Gallery today. She has two children and has been treated despicably by the State for a long time. Leanne was a 12 year old victim in what became known as the Mr. A case in 2006, when there was public outrage after gaping holes in the law led to the release of her attacker. At the time, the current Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, described the then Government as a "headless gang of bunglers" for letting down this young victim. Today, she is being victimised again by the State by what one could describe as a different Government of bunglers.

These families are being destroyed. They currently are living hour to hour with very little information, no support and no key worker from the council, which they were promised ten days ago. They seek some form of secure accommodation in order that they can work on getting themselves permanent homes. This is impossible for them under the circumstances as at present it takes all their energy to try to find ways to wash clothes, get decent meals for the children, get them to school and worry about where they will be next week. This system has broken down completely and is letting these families down badly. Moreover, as I have outlined, for some it is by no means the first time they have been let down by the State. I acknowledge that Dublin City Council is in negotiations currently with the receivers to try to get more time and find adequate alternatives but if the Minister of State is serious about dealing with this problem - the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has stated he wishes to end hotel accommodation within the next year - this is an opportunity to do something positive. The Government should intervene today in those negotiations with the receiver, who is acting on behalf of NAMA, and instruct the receiver to lease the building to Dublin City Council.

6 o’clock

It is not adequate accommodation, we all know that, but these families would at least have some sense of security and would be able to work on getting themselves out of their situations of homelessness. We must ensure that Dublin City Council leases the property so that we can give them that sense of security. That is the very least we can do to ensure these families are not shunted around between hotels and bed and breakfast establishments across the city.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Pringle for raising this issue and I apologise for being late.

As the Deputy will be aware, the housing action plan, Rebuilding Ireland, which was launched this week sets out what we are trying to do in this area. We are trying to end the type of situations highlighted by the Deputy. I understand that the Deputy wants an urgent solution to the issue he highlighted but what we are trying to do in terms of the plan is deal with housing issues for everybody so that we can prevent homelessness into the future.

It is widely acknowledged that accommodating families in commercial hotels is inappropriate for anything other than a short period. This is not acceptable and we must do all we can to prevent it. One of the many objectives of the Government's new action plan for housing and homelessness launched earlier this week is that by mid-2017 hotels will only be used for emergency accommodation in very limited circumstances and not at all, if possible. The intention is to is to move the existing group of families out of hotels as quickly as possible and to limit the extent to which such accommodation is used for new presentations. The plan provides for early solutions to address this challenge, including the provision of the provision of 1,500 rapid-delivery units, some 1,600 vacant units to be sourced by the housing agency and the transition of homeless households from emergency into independent tenancies through the Dublin region pilot of the housing assistance payment. Some 550 tenancies are to be delivered in 2016 and 1,200 in 2017. The plan also contains a range of additional services and supports which will be put in place for families in emergency accommodation, such as the families mentioned by Deputy Pringle, including dedicated workers, home-school community liaison, free public transport for family outings and for journeys to school, access to crèches and advice on cooking and nutrition. Ultimately, however, the key to addressing family homelessness is to supply more houses.

In forming the current Government, we were determined that this challenge would be addressed, fully and finally, and so it was positioned as a key element in the programme for a partnership Government. The publication this week of Rebuilding Ireland, well within the timeframe of 100 days set out in the Government programme, underpins our commitment to ending the housing shortage and addressing homelessness. My Department's role in respect of homelessness involves the provision of a national framework of policy, legislation and funding to underpin the role of housing authorities in addressing homelessness at local level.

In accordance with section 37(2) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, statutory responsibility for the provision of homeless services, including accommodation, rests with individual housing authorities. All housing authorities have wide and flexible statutory powers to assist or make arrangements for the accommodation of homeless persons. This means that operational issues, such as those raised by Deputy Pringle, are a matter for the relevant housing authority, in this case, Dublin City Council. I am informed by Dublin City Council that the hotel in question is but one of many being utilised to provide emergency accommodation to homeless families. I also understand that the hotel in question is, as pointed out by Deputy Pringle, in receivership and that vacant possession is being sought by the receiver as part of that process. I am informed that Dublin City Council is seeking to negotiate an extension of the date for vacant possession with the receiver. This would allow the Dublin Region Homeless Executive additional time to put appropriate alternative arrangements in place for the affected households. These arrangements include sourcing alternative accommodation and support services for the families, such as key workers, which as Deputy Pringle said were promised but have not been delivered. I will make inquiries with regard to that matter and will communicate with the Deputy tomorrow. I am hopeful that these discussions will reach a favourable conclusion shortly. I am conscious that Saturday is the deadline for some of the families and I have asked Dublin City Council to keep me informed of developments in the matter.

On the Deputy's proposal that the hotel be leased, I will discuss that with my departmental officials later this evening. There is logic to the idea. We are trying to look at all available solutions in the weeks and months ahead. While we are confident that we can deal with this issue and have everybody out of hotel accommodation in a year, the latter is 12 months away. We need to find other solutions. I will inquire if the Deputy's proposal is an option. I am not sure if it is but I will raise it. It is certainly worth checking out. As I said I will communicate with the Deputy tomorrow in respect of the key workers and so on.

Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response, the most important part of which is his commitment to raise these issues. It is important he does so. While the earlier part of the Minister of State's contribution gave a nice overview of the plan and strategy seeks to achieve, for these families the strategy will fail unless we act now to ensure that this hotel is leased to Dublin City Council. The onus is on us to do that. NAMA is a State agency. The receiver was appointed by NAMA. That the receiver can demand vacant possession and families will have no choice but to vacate is a disgrace. This cannot be allowed to continue. I urge the Minister of State to contact NAMA this evening and encourage it to address this issue immediately. Some families have been told they have to leave the hotel today and others have been told they must do so by Saturday. We should be sending a clear message to those families to stay where they are, that this issue is going to be resolved and that the hotel will be leased to Dublin City Council. This will at least provide them with some form of stability for a while during which time they might be able to source alternative accommodation or it will give the new plan time to work so that such issues can be resolved for families.

I look forward to hearing from the Minister of State tomorrow. I hope the news will be positive. If NAMA fails to agree to lease this hotel, we should tell these families not to leave in any event. We need to put it up to NAMA. We cannot allow this to happen.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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As I said, I will do what I can and I will report back to the Deputy tomorrow. I will check whether what he has proposed is an option. This issue has been flagged for some time and it should have been resolved before now. I know that Dublin City Council is trying to negotiate directly. We are still expecting a solution in that regard. I will update the Deputy in that regard tomorrow too.