Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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8. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on whether his plans to deliver social housing via the private sector are adequate in view of the increasing numbers of those in homeless services and those awaiting housing; his further views on whether they will result in homeless figures reducing and secure tenancies being provided for those awaiting homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8951/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The lamentable saga of the Government's failure to deal with the escalating housing and homelessness emergency continues. I put it to the Minister that his housing proposals, figures and plans are, at best, a mirage and, at worst, entirely bogus. They are based overwhelmingly on dependence on a private sector incapable of delivering, in the new lingo, "housing solutions".

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government has been in place only less than a year. We have had a new housing and homelessness strategy in place since last summer, only approximately seven months ago. Since then, we have committed nearly €5.5 billion to providing a very significantly increased number of social houses. We will build approximately 26,000 of the 47,000 that will be coming in. We will provide the others through acquisition and long-term leasing arrangements. There is nothing bogus. There is no fantasy. There will be a dramatic increase in the amount of social housing that will be provided through building, long-term leases, bringing voids back into use and acquisitions. Last year alone we spent €203 million buying more than 1,000 properties that were largely vacant to bring them back into social housing use. We launched the numbers, and the Deputy should look at where they are going to be built and the timelines for them. A total of 8,430 social houses to be constructed are at various stages in the pipeline.

I share the Deputy's frustration. We need to increase dramatically the number of social houses available to local authorities to house people on housing lists and get families out of emergency accommodation in hotels and individual rough sleepers into Housing First models with the supports they need. It cannot happen overnight, and most people understand this. There is a sense of urgency in my Department and in most local authorities to ramp up capacity significantly and to get building, and it is happening. We have increased the funding for housing by 50% from last year to this year and all the money will be spent on construction, acquisition, bringing voids back into use and strategically using publicly owned landbanks in a much more proactive and aggressive way to get more social houses into the system. That is what I am responsible for and it is happening.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Fine Gael has not been in government for one year, but for six years. During the past two weeks, it has broken three records, namely, the highest number of homeless people, even with a child becoming homeless every five hours, the highest rent increase since daft.iestarted keeping records, and the lowest number of council houses delivered in any one year. In his document, the Minister mentioned the 8,000. I looked through the document and noticed that I know the person who lives in one of these houses that are supposedly new constructions in Shankill. Strangely, the person has been living there for years. It was not a new construction but the refurbishment of a house for a family with a severely disabled child who have been awaiting it for years. It is the same family.

The new lingo is "housing solutions". Given that most of those housing solutions are rental accommodation scheme, RAS, or housing assistance payment, HAP, solutions, the Minister is double counting. In many cases, individuals are being bumped from one RAS tenancy to another and then another, and this is being counted as three or four housing solutions although it is the same family not getting a housing solution at all.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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What really matters here is the number of new additions to the social housing stock. Based on the Minister's figures for last year, there were only 2,192 new additions to social housing stock. There were approximately 2,500 refurbishments, which brings it up to 4,000. This means 75% of the 18,000 social housing solutions are private rental units leased for two, four or ten years. Deputy Boyd Barrett is right. The figures from the Minister's Department show a chronic over-reliance on private sector solutions, not a significant increase in social housing.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett is missing a number of issues. He quoted rapidly increasing rental figures. We responded to it in legislation and with the new rental strategy in December. There was a problem and we are responding to it. He was wrong when he said a record low number of social housing units was delivered last year. That is not right. There was a significant increase on the previous year. I am interested in getting people who need homes into a secure tenancy or a home while we ramp up construction capacity in delivering thousands of projects throughout the country.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Some 12,000 two-year HAP tenancies are not secure.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Last year the target for social housing solutions was 17,000. We provided 18,300. This year the target will be more than 21,000. Many of them are HAP tenancies, but there is nothing wrong with that.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The majority of them are HAP tenancies and they are not secure.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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They are secure. They are much more secure than the alternative.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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HAP and RAS are not housing solutions. They are not secure.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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They are.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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They are.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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RAS is slightly more secure than HAP. Laurie, who is severely disabled, and Fergus have been in three of these tenancies during the past two years. They have been bumped from pillar to post, given that the landlord can pull out any time.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The landlord cannot pull out any time.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Gemma is on her second RAS tenancy and will be evicted in August. How many more housing solutions will she have? All of those are counted as housing solutions. We have double counting. The Minister's proposal up to 2021 is to have 65,000 HAP tenancies, all private sector, 5,000 RAS and approximately 23,000 leasing solutions, none of them secure. They will make a lot of money for the landlords and IRES REIT, which is making a fortune.

None of them will be secure and they would cost about €1 billion a year by 2021, even if the Minister's plans succeed. They are not secure public housing, or social housing or anything of the kind.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett seems to think that it is possible to provide housing solutions overnight for everyone on the housing list by building houses for everyone in some kind of fantasy world. That is not the way it works.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have heard that story for six years.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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No. We are now committing to building 26,000 social houses throughout the State with approved housing bodies, AHBs, and with local authorities. We are putting long-term tenancies in place for many other people and we are making a significant number of acquisitions. If we bring voids - vacant properties that are not being used - back into use and if they become used, then that is an addition to the social housing stock that is now being used.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Putting an adaption onto a unit is not building a new house.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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People are voting with their feet with regard to HAP tenancies. I believe an extra 12,000 or 13,000 people came in to HAP tenancies last year-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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People had no choice-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Please, allow the Minister an opportunity to respond.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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HAP tenancies are a significant improvement on the alternative-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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-----but to move from the rent supplement.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's time is up, we must move on.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Can I answer the question?

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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You can, but I am not going to delay.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Someone who has not even asked the question is interrupting me.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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If they are not prepared to listen-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I am listening.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Please, listen to the Minister.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The social housing solutions we need to put in place for individuals and families are across a series of different schemes and support programmes. Some the provision is in the private rental market and HAP tenancies are significantly more secure than previous options such as rent supplement and so on. Ultimately, the core issue is that while we increase our social housing stock, we must put solutions in place to provide significant security of tenure and this is why HAP has been a success in the past 12 months.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is not secure.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Boyd Barrett has no answers.