Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The figures on homelessness released yesterday were once again pretty shocking. It is hard to credit that things are still getting worse. Despite the fact that the bulk of this Government has been in power for nearly six years at this stage, things still continue to worsen. I heard the Minister on the radio this morning talking about the rapid-build housing units that were supposed to be the most immediate fix to the problems of homelessness.

While his Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness in June said 200 more such units would be completed by the end of the year, we now understand that is unlikely to happen. The Minister said he has instructed the CEOs of the four Dublin local authorities that he wants 320 units under way by the end of the year.

It is a little bit rich for the Minister to attack the local authorities when the procurement process in the Department seems to be still in the dark ages. It appears to take up to 18 months, and it can take 24 months, for approval for social housing schemes to be put together. I do not know whether it is due to money or drawings but there is an unbelievable delay.

Will the Minister issue a directive to his officials to fast-track the procurement process as that would make a significant difference? There is a major lag in the system and there does not appear to be any attempt to address it. I wonder sometimes whether the money is there at all or if the delay is just due to bureaucracy.

Outside Dublin, there is great potential to build between five and 25 units on small sites throughout the country if the paperwork could be done and the finance could be put in place. There is no end to the number of small and medium-sized builders who would be prepared to build those units. The builders are available and they are not seeking to make crazy money on the projects.

I am amazed by the scheme the Government introduced to provide a subsidy for qualifying buyers of new homes. It seems to be a direct subsidy to the developer rather than to the individual. The Minister said this morning that he hopes to encourage the private sector to get more involved. A carrot such as the subsidy is obviously part of the encouragement. However, one cannot dictate when the private sector will engage with the market, as it will do so when it suits. That is normal, that is business, but the State must take a more direct, hands-on approach if it wants houses built quickly. Direct build is the shortest route to putting houses in place in order that we can bring an end to the housing crisis and tackle the homelessness crisis. The notion of depending on the private sector to solve all the problems is the stuff of fairy tales and it will not happen.

Will the Minister of State indicate whether there are any answers to the delay in the procurement process in the Department itself and why it is taking so long to make progress? Surely, given that it is an emergency, emergency measures must be taken in that area as well?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is correct. The figures for those who are homeless and those who are living in temporary accommodation are not acceptable. No one denies the figures and that is the reason it has become the Government’s number one priority to tackle the issue. It is also the priority of this House to tackle the issue and to reduce the number of homeless people. The action plan has been devised to deal with the problem and I have no doubt it will address the issue. There is no doubt housing and homelessness is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country. That is the reason there has been a total concentration across Government, including many Departments and agencies, to solve the crisis.

There has been an ongoing shortage of social housing supply and the issue has been compounded by a dysfunctional housing system. Deputy Wallace mentioned procurement but there are many related issues both in the private housing sector and in the delivery of social housing. The system has failed in recent years and we are trying to rebuild it and improve capacity both in the delivery of social housing through local authorities and direct build, as Deputy Wallace suggested, but also by getting the private sector delivering housing again.

Homelessness is the tangible and visible symptom of the broken market, and its impact on individuals and families can be profound. Figures published yesterday are based on housing authority reports for a week in September 2016 and identified the following numbers of individuals and families in receipt of State-funded emergency accommodation: 4,283 adult individuals, 1,173 families, of which 1,014 are in the Dublin region, and 2,426 dependants associated with those families. The total number of homeless adults and dependants is 6,709. I said in a previous debate that approximately 140 people are rough sleepers on the streets. More than 1,000 families are in temporary accommodation arrangements which are not satisfactory. That is what we are trying to deal with and we are trying to put in place permanent solutions for them as opposed to temporary arrangements whereby they are in bed and breakfast accommodation and hotels.

Deputy Wallace said he is familiar with Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. The plan, which was launched in July, is not just about the delivery of housing. It also sets out to address the social failing that is homelessness by raising awareness, putting in place homelessness prevention measures, providing better services to those who are homeless, and ultimately, matching the additional supply that will be created to current accommodation needs and ensuring there is a route out of emergency accommodation for every single household.

Rebuilding Ireland provides for early and longer-term solutions to address the very high levels of homelessness, especially the unacceptable number of families in emergency accommodation in hotels. In that respect, Rebuilding Ireland commits that by mid-2017, hotels will only be used as emergency accommodation in limited circumstances. The plan provides for specific additional supports and services for families in hotels while they remain in hotel emergency accommodation. To move people and families on from emergency accommodation into more permanent housing solutions, under Rebuilding Ireland, 1,500 rapid-build units will be delivered by 2018. By the end of this year more than 300 units will be on site or nearly completed, with a target of 800 for next year. There will be a major ramp up of rapid-build houses in 2017, which as Deputy Wallace said are direct-build housing, and they are coming on stream.

We are also chasing up vacant units as they provide a quick solution to the problem. A total of 1,600 vacant units will be acquired by the Housing Agency which will be funded with €70 million in capital Exchequer funding to find and acquire suitable portfolios of vacant properties for social housing, including homeless families, directly from financial institutions and investors. More than 500 properties have already been referred to the agency for potential acquisition and thus far the agency has made 181 bids on them, of which 70 have been accepted.

Changes are also being made to the planning process and to the Part VIII provisions on the delivery of social housing to speed up the process. The number of homeless housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies will be expanded from 550 in 2016 to 1,200 in 2017. The 2016 target has been met and we are setting a very high target for next year to deliver permanent accommodation solutions to people in temporary accommodation.

Deputy Wallace asked if the money is really there. The money is there. On budget day, €1.3 billion was announced and confirmed as the spend for next year on housing, which is double what it was for 2016. A total of €5.5 billion of taxpayers' money has been allocated to tackle the issue over the next three to four years by this Dáil following a commitment by Government. The money is there. That is not the issue. It is a case of getting the system up and running again with the capacity to deliver. Deputy Wallace is correct that this is the number one priority and we must deliver on it. The resources are in place. It just takes a little time to get the supply back up to where it should be.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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The Minister spoke about buying vacant units. In June this year the Minister, Deputy Coveney, said to us at the Committee on Housing and Homelessness that he would like to see the State buying up properties. He said he would like us to be proactive and look to acquire properties that are not occupied, in particular. Sadly, that has not happened nearly enough. It goes without saying that currently it is cheaper to buy than to build. Given that we have such a terrible homelessness crisis, buying houses is the shortest route to dealing with the problem, but we have not bought anything like enough housing units. I accept it is vacant units that are sought but if one takes the big blocks of houses or apartments that NAMA has been selling, if the State said it wanted 20% of those, it would be found that there have been up to 10% and 20% of empty units in some of the big blocks sold by NAMA. I do not understand for the life of me why the State has not been buying them. I am confident in predicting that the average selling price NAMA received in the past four years is less than €100,000 a unit. We are spending a lot more building housing units.

If we had bought them, we would not have the homelessness figures we have because we would have had units ready to cater for homeless persons. I appreciate that not all of the units were perfectly located, but some of them were. We have not been proactive. It is not like the homelessness crisis started six months ago. It started years ago. I cannot rationalise it and do not understand it. Obviously, there are other factors involved, but our failure to control rising rents is a serious issue. We are not going to control rent increases in taking this approach. The decision to invite the real estate investment trusts here and charge them bugger all in tax has added to the increase in rents which, in turn, is adding to homelessness. The lack of long-term thinking in the past couple of years has been frightening.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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In recent years sufficient financial and human resources were not available to local authorities and Departments to enable them to tackle this problem which has, undoubtedly, continued to get worse in the past 18 months to two years. Over 2,700 people will exit homelessness in 2016 because we have secured permanent housing solutions for them. More than 5,000 exited homelessness in the two previous years. Many people who became homeless in recent years have come through the system and now have permanent housing solutions. While we are making progress, there is no denying that additional families are entering homelessness. We hope to be able to catch up in that regard and get ahead in the coming months. We are trying to do this by implementing a range of actions across various Departments. I accept that this means the active purchase of properties by local authorities and housing agencies which are being very careful not to compete with others who are trying to buy the same properties.

We are trying to buy vacant properties. We are dealing with all of the lending institutions to identify and buy properties that may have been vacant for a period of time. Some €70 million has been provided to make this happen. Two other new schemes have been announced to give local authorities the finances they need. Under the first scheme, money is being provided to lease vacant properties and help their owners to bring them back into use. Under the second scheme, money is being provided to buy and refurbish houses. A number of new initiatives have been brought forward. Over 500 HAP scheme houses were delivered this year for people who were homeless. That figure will increase to 1,200 next year. We should be in a position, given the funding allocated, to provide over 3,000 housing solutions for people who are homeless. Funding has been ramped up to meet demand.

As the Deputy understands the building industry, he will appreciate that we cannot flick a switch overnight. I do not doubt that when all of these actions have been completed, we will have a construction sector that will be back on a stable footing. We will have a constant supply of housing to ensure we will not be in this position again. A major part of this will involve the delivery of enough social housing to deal with the demand. We cannot have people living in emergency accommodation on a long-term basis. That has to end and we are committed to ending it by June next year. The Deputy is sensible enough to understand this will take a little time. We cannot announce a plan to deal with a problem in July and have it fully solved by August. It takes a little time and we are beginning to get into it now. We will try to stay ahead as best we can.