Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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5. To ask the Taoiseach if the Cabinet Committee on Housing has met recently. [7028/17]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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6. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Housing last met and when it is scheduled to meet again. [8366/17]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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7. To ask the Taoiseach when the Cabinet Committee on Housing last met; and when it will meet again. [8421/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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8. To ask the Taoiseach if the Cabinet Committee on Housing has met recently. [8467/17]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Cabinet Committee on Housing last met on 6 February 2017. It is scheduled to meet again on 27 February 2017.

It will continue to meet regularly and consider progress in implementing Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, which is a priority issue for the Government.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I wonder would the Taoiseach go to the Cabinet with a proposal to change the name of Rebuilding Ireland because it is not rebuilding Ireland. The lowest figures for public sector house building were released last week. They were buried under the other problems the Government had last week but I wish to bring them to the Taoiseach's attention in case he missed them.

We thought we were doing badly under the former Minister, Deputy Kelly, with 476 public sector houses built in 2015 but, lo and behold, under the Minister, Deputy Coveney, we got 448 public sector houses in 2016. The rate actually slowed in the last quarter and I wonder whether the Taoiseach has any room for worry there.

Obviously, there were record numbers of homeless people at Christmas and the new year. Yesterday, according to The Irish Times, 700 patients were discharged from hospitals last year into homelessness. Some 8% of those who attended the Mater accident and emergency department were of homeless families. Does the Taoiseach feel a bit of a failure? The Taoiseach's legacy surely matters to him as he draws towards the end. On the issue of housing, one of the most fundamental issues in anybody's life, clearly the Government is not working.

Rents also were shown to be the highest on record since Daft began recording figures. Focus Ireland has stated one-in-three tenants struggle to pay their rent, one-in-nine fears losing their home and 88% want the Government to regulate rents. On the limited measures the Government took in relation to the rent pressure zones, I have a serious question. How will they be enforced? If a tenant who wants to rent out a property walks up to a landlord, he or she has no way of proving whether or not that landlord has abided by the measure.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Cuir do ceist.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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My ceist is this. The single issue that is the problem here is the Government is wedded to private housing. The Government has a distaste for public sector housing, as evidenced by the fact it will not build any. That is the real problem we have in this country.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Tá an Teachta thar ama.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Those reliant on social and affordable housing have no prospect, based on the figures I have seen.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Tá an Teachta thar ama.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The January homeless figures, published by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government yesterday, reveal an increase in the number of people in emergency accommodation. There is an all-time high of 7,167 citizens who are homeless and the number of households in emergency accommodation has increased by 84. In January, 4,760 adults were in emergency accommodation, which is an increase of 117 persons.

The number of families in emergency accommodation has dropped by 33 and the number of children has dropped by 98. However, a total of 2,407 children are still homeless. The Minister has claimed these figures show the success of his policy. On the contrary, they are evidence of a policy that does not have ambition and that is not working. How can a 91% increase in homelessness in two years be labelled a success? One child becomes homeless every five hours in Dublin. This is evidence of a crisis that is deepening.

Once again, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, released the figures late. We need an aggressive purchase programme for vacant homes. It needs to include 1,000 new housing first tenancies this year. The Taoiseach is always claiming that the only way to tackle the housing crisis is to increase supply, in other words, to build houses. When does he expect that to happen?

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I listened with some care to the Taoiseach's replies to Deputy Micheál Martin during Leaders' Questions. I had thought we had an all-party approach to dealing with this issue, because it is the compelling social issue right now.

It is a fact that the last Government allocated €3 billion, an unprecedented sum. However, that was almost three years ago and, for some reason, the social housing that we expected is not being delivered. I know some of the reasons. We had to reconstitute local authority housing departments and so on. Some 430 individuals had to be employed because sufficient staff were not available in local authorities. Is it time now to look at a different delivery system? Patently, money is available and political will seems to be present across the House, but the delivery is not happening.

Let us consider the shocking delay in delivering modular housing. Under the plan 200 homes were meant to have been built by the end of last year with a further 800 by the end of this year. Thus far, 22 have been built and they were all under projects started by the then Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly. It seems to me that some impediment exists in translating the clear policy directions from the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government to concrete solutions.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The soap opera of the leadership struggle within Fine Gael seems to be preoccupying media debate during the past week. Frankly, it is lost on me and I imagine it is lost on large numbers of people who are concerned about having a roof, or not having a roof, over their heads. It is part of the long litany of people coming in to my clinic in dire circumstances day in, day out and week in, week out. I want an answer from the Taoiseach about what I should say to these people. I am fed up talking about this for the past five years.

This week a mother of two children came to me. She is trying to overcome addiction issues and she is clean. Yet the emergency services tried to shove her back into emergency accommodation in town where there are active drug users. Instead of going in to that environment, she is now elsewhere. We mentioned Luggala earlier. I will not say exactly where the woman is, but she is camping in a national park in the Wicklow Mountains rather than going into the hostels in town provided by the emergency services and the local authorities. That is the position. This mother is separated from her children because she has nowhere to go and she is up in the Wicklow Mountains rather than going to hostels.

I do not have time to enumerate some of the other abominable cases that come to me. What do I say to that woman? I appeal to the Taoiseach to tell me. Nothing has changed and I am running out of any hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel for these people.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There are 4,000 vacant units in Dublin city alone and approximately 15% of housing stock is classified as vacant. That is nearly three times the level that is considered natural. This is one emergency issue that could be dealt with. We are in an emergency but one does not get the sense that it is being treated as an emergency. I agree with the comments of Deputy Howlin to the effect that there is a problem with execution and delivery. Only 22 modular homes have been built. It is a scandal. They were heralded as the great white hope two years ago and it was going to be a great thing. However, we have seen no delivery on the ground.

Earlier, the Taoiseach referred to the European Fund for Strategic Investments, known as the Juncker plan. The Department of Finance has a policy not to avail of that facility.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Stability and Growth Pact prohibits it.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It does not.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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It does.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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No, it does not. It is a public private partnership facility. Andrew McDowell, who advised the Government, has now gone over.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Six months-----

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Howlin is no longer-----

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am looking for solutions.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am too. We use it for health centres but not for housing. We have a strategic investment fund but we are not building council houses at the level we should be.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The credit unions are offering €5 billion.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The credit unions are offering money. We have gone to the Government with the issue of credit unions.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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What about NAMA?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Instead of getting a loan at a lousy rate from the main banks, into which they must make all their deposits, the credit unions are willing to invest that money in the provision of housing. However, those in government simply do not want to get up and get it sorted. Meanwhile, we have this thing going on about leadership. Those Ministers ought to show some leadership in their portfolios given the crisis at hand.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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We are eating into the next slot.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am unsure whether people actually hear me. Reference was made to social housing. It is not true to say that the Government is opposed to social housing. I have before me a figure of 8,430 homes currently being built. If Deputy Coppinger wants to know where they are, the Minister will send her the exact details of the sites, locations and so on.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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I know where they are.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Some 1,829 homes are already on-site with a further 91 projects throughout the country. These figures are available to Deputies.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Anti-Austerity Alliance)
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Only 440 were built last year.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Some 61 projects are at practical completion stage. They were begun in 2016. The Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government as well as the Minister and a Minister of State are dealing with this. They are working hard. There is a housing delivery unit in the Department. They have changed all the processes and expedited the opportunity for local authorities not only to get money but to get back building houses. There is evidence of this in the various stages, including capital appraisal, pre-planning, pre-tender and tender reports. Some 2,687 social homes are at stage one, 1,279 are at stage two, 490 are at stage three and 1,493 are at stage four. This is real progress, given that we started from a position where nothing was happening. It is not a question of provision of money. It is a question of having the processes and the mechanics actually working.

Deputy Howlin raised a point about rapid build and suggested only 22 had been built. By the end of this year, a total of 1,000 rapid-build houses will be finished.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Is the Taoiseach referring to modular houses?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The housing assistance payment scheme dealt with 18,000 solutions last year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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That is simply re-categorising rent allowance.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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A total of 2,800 people left homelessness completely.

Deputy Martin raised a question about the credit unions and the money they have. The Minister of State met representatives from the credit unions yesterday and today. We are waiting for a decision from the Central Bank, which is the regulator of the credit unions, as Deputies are aware. The Government is happy to take and use the money from the credit unions, but it requires the imprimaturor approval of the Central Bank. We are keen for this to happen. Of course, as Deputies are aware, we cannot magic these houses into existence. We must have a process that works. That is why €200 million was put up for access to sites that were inaccessible. This is to be used to cross a river, provide a bridge, open a thoroughfare or whatever else. We are catching up from a base where nothing was happening.