Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Tomorrow, it will be 11 months to the day since the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, launched the Rebuilding Ireland strategy in an attempt to address the spiralling housing and homelessness crisis. While it set out some ambitious goals, it highlighted again the Government's total ideological reliance on the private rented sector as a provider of housing. One of the Minister's many promises, which has been reiterated consistently over the year, was that by mid-2017 emergency hotel and bed and breakfast type accommodation for families would only be used in limited circumstances and would have largely been replaced by suitable permanent family accommodation through the delivery of additional housing solutions. Part 34 of Rebuilding Ireland includes a whole section on moving families out of hotels and recognises that accommodating family units in hotel arrangements is inappropriate for anything other than a short period of time. The document states an intention to move the existing group of families out of hotel arrangements as quickly as possible and to limit the extent to which such accommodation has to be used for new presentations. Deputy Coveney has continued to repeat that message over the past ten months, as has the Minister of State, Deputy English, setting 1 July as the target.

Over recent months in particular, I have received, like other Deputies, increasing numbers of calls from very stressed and distressed parents wondering what will happen to their families in the next six weeks. These are families who have been living in cramped hotel rooms for six, 15, 18, and 24 months and who are desperately hoping to be permanently rehoused. They are now waiting for a call to tell them whether they will be moved to the next temporary accommodation. They are hoping their children's school and support needs will be taken into consideration. The figures for April are late. The most up-to-date figures available are from the week of 20 March when 1,069 families, including 2,134 children, were homeless in Dublin. Of these, 712 were single-parent families. Another 187 families, including 429 children, were spread across the country with 118 of them headed by single parents. A large proportion of the Dublin families are from the constituency which I am very proud to represent, Dublin Bay North. Families have rightly pointed out that if they were in the private rented sector, they would be given notice of a moving date. With just six weeks to the Department's deadline, when will these families be told what their future accommodation will be?

At a briefing organised by my colleague, Deputy Boyd Barrett, earlier this week, my parliamentary assistant asked Mr. Mike Allen of Focus Ireland whether his organisation has any indication of what is happening, given that Focus Ireland is providing support to homeless families. It seems communication on the matter has been dire and Focus Ireland's understanding now is that only new families entering homelessness will be diverted into the so-called hubs and those in hotel accommodation will remain there until housed. Is this true? Will the Minister of State confirm this evening that only families who become homeless after 1 July will be diverted from hotel and guesthouse accommodation? What will happen to the thousands of children and adults now living in that accommodation?

When we first heard about the hubs idea, which are basically homeless hostels for families, I asked the Minister, Deputy Coveney, a number of parliamentary questions to try to ascertain the type of accommodation these hubs might be. Unfortunately the Minister evaded answering the question. He said the answer to the family homeless crisis will be increases in rent supplement and housing assistance payment levels. As the Minister of State knows, HAP is largely unavailable, in my experience, to families in homeless accommodation or coming out of homelessness. When will the Minister of State stop allowing landlords and developers to hold our country to ransom? Family homelessness has been a multi-million euro business for hotels, with €40 million paid in 2016 alone. How many houses would we have built for this? This is why I will support the motion later this evening on a FEMPI-type programme to end family homelessness.

It is utterly disgraceful that families in hotels and guesthouses have been put under grave additional uncertainty in recent months and up to the end of June. They have already endured incredible disruption and damage to their children's lives due to the closing down of social housing by the current and previous two austerity Governments.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. It is not an ideological issue that we are relying on the private sector. We recognise we cannot provide overnight enough social housing to be able to deal with the situation.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Minister of State could start a housing programme.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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We have a housing programme that has started, and Deputy Broughan is well aware of it. We have secured the largest investment ever in the State, secured by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, to invest in this area. The Deputy referred to the previous two Governments. If he checks the records he will see the provision of social housing was wound down before Fine Gael came into government and before the Deputy's former party, the Labour Party, came into government.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I am blaming the two previous Governments.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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We did not do it. We have done our best to ramp it back up again. Just to be clear on the record, it was not a Fine Gael decision to stop-----

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I was told at the time there were 25,000-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will have another opportunity.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I just want to be clear, and I want to put this on the record because I am sick and tired of being told it is my party which stopped social housing. We did not. We are the ones who are putting social housing front and centre in what the Government and local government is doing. I have been around the country with local authorities telling them that we expect, and we want to continue with this, them to be the lead agencies for social housing. This was stopped by other parties in government but it was certainly not Fine Gael. Deputy Broughan knows that and I ask him to please stop saying it as if it were true that it was us because it was not us. We are doing our best to put it back as quickly as we possibly can.

Having said that, I still thank the Deputy for raising the issue and providing the opportunity to update the House on actions being taken to address homelessness, in particular family homelessness, including our goal to ensure that hotels are only used to accommodate families on an emergency basis and in very limited and exceptional circumstances from the end of June.

The Government is fully committed to addressing the issue of homelessness. Under this Government there has been a focused and co-ordinated approach to tackling homelessness across Departments and agencies. As we know, Rebuilding Ireland was launched in July 2016, more than nine months ago, as the Deputy said. It is a whole of government plan developed in close co-operation with other key Departments and agencies, under the oversight of a dedicated Cabinet committee chaired by An Taoiseach. The committee meets every month to discuss all of the issues and I attended the meeting on Monday. The plan sets out the path to achieving the critical national ambition of ensuring that all our people have access to quality and affordable housing and to ramp up what local authorities are able to deliver through new builds, voids and purpose built social housing.

The long-term solution to the current homeless issue is to increase the supply of homes. Accordingly, Rebuilding Ireland is designed to accelerate all types of housing supply, including social, private and rental. During the lifetime of the plan, some 47,000 new social houses will be provided, supported by Exchequer investment of more than €5 billion, and housing output generally will be progressively increased towards the target of producing 25,000 houses per year through all channels. We hope to hit this target ahead of our five-year plan.

It is intended that the long-term housing needs of those currently homeless, including those families currently accommodated in hotels, will be met through housing supports such as the enhanced housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, and general social housing allocations. Significant outputs are being achieved in this regard. Housing authorities achieved more than 3,000 sustainable exits from homeless accommodation into independent tenancies during 2016, a record level of exits in a calendar year. It is untrue to say HAP does not provide a useful solution to help some of those families who are homeless-----

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Not in our area. It is fantasy.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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That is not what the Deputy said. He did not say in his area, he said it is not working and he is wrong in that.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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It is not working for a lot of the country.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy is wrong as 3,000 left last year. Accommodating family units in hotel arrangements is inappropriate for anything other than a short period of time, and I totally and utterly agree with the Deputy on that. Accordingly, Rebuilding Ireland makes explicit the commitment to ensure that by mid-2017 hotels will only be used as emergency accommodation in limited circumstances.

The need to limit the use of commercial hotels as emergency accommodation is particularly relevant in the Dublin region, given that approximately 85% of all homeless families are in the Dublin region. It is the Minister's intention and my intention that families be transitioned from hotel arrangements as quickly as possible, and to limit the extent to which such accommodation has to be used for new presentations. The mid-2017 target is a necessarily ambitious one, and one to which the Government remains fully committed. We must be ambitious in addressing this social issue, and while we acknowledge it is a challenging objective, given the continuing numbers of those presenting as homeless, I am pleased to see progress being made in this regard.

I am confident the April homelessness figures, once finalised, will show a significant reduction in the reliance on hotel accommodation for homeless families, which is the key.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Minister for Finance and the Taoiseach are leaving jobs today. The reality is Fine Gael was involved in the complete cessation of any kind of a reasonable social housing programme. We can go back to one of the Minister of State's predecessors, Mr. Jimmy Tully, who ensured during a very poor time that 25,000 or 30,000 houses were built in this country in the early 1970s. The Minister of State has not answered the question. What is the future for these families? Will it be, as Focus Ireland understands, that only families newly becoming homeless are those who will not be sent to hotel accommodation? The Minister of State is not ending the uncertainty and the disruption for the families here this evening, unfortunately. He is not addressing the key point.

The Minister of State spoke about HAP and certainly the experience in Dublin Bay North, and I believe in all of the other high rent areas of the country, is that HAP is not working, particularly for people facing homelessness and people trying to come out of homeless accommodation. Every letter I get from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive states citizens and their families are eligible for HAP-type accommodation, but these same people have sent out dozens of emails and attended dozens of viewings of apartments and houses and when people find out they are coming out of homeless accommodation there is no tenancy available. That is the reality. The HAP system is just not working for the people I represent. One suggestion is the Minister of State might ask why Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council are not directly responsible for organising to provide HAP accommodation rather than asking hapless and very vulnerable homeless families to do it for themselves.

I notice the modular housing, which has been referred to a lot by the Minister, Deputy Coveney, is now scheduled to become permanent accommodation, despite the problems we had in this city back in the 1970s and 1980s with modular-type quick build housing. I welcome the small suite of measures in Rebuilding Ireland, but it is far too little and too late for the thousands of adults and children I represent and other Deputies represent. Quite clearly, we need a much more drastic solution. Unfortunately, the Government will not give it to us.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy raised several issues. Some rapid build construction houses are being sold privately for more than €500,000.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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I know that.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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They are not modular homes. They are proper houses that will last 60, 70, 80 or 100 years. Do not try to give the impression they are not that.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Did the Minister of State ever work on site?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I did actually, probably more so than most people here.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Okay.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I know what I am talking about. I have seen rapid build and every type of build. The Deputy can trust me I have watched rapid build houses being built and sold for more than €500,000. Do not try to give the impression they are some sort of a pretend house, and not a real house or a permanent house, because that is not what they are. They are a genuinely good house.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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We had problems before.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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There are many different types of rapid build construction. The Deputy said HAP is not working. It is only one of the solutions, and family hubs and purchasing houses through the Housing Agency and using houses through the sale and lease back scheme, are all options that bring in more houses, but the Deputy keeps insisting that HAP is not working. To me, HAP is a better scheme than the previous rental systems.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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It is not working for homeless people.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Can I finish please?

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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If the Deputies want a bilateral they can have it outside.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I would love it. That would be great. I will provide some figures for last year from the housing authority.

It is worth noting that nationally in 2016, over 1,200 new social housing tenancies were awarded to homeless households. Furthermore, we expect that those families currently accommodated in hotels will primarily have their housing needs met through the housing assistance payment, HAP. The Deputy said that no homeless person is getting the HAP. I am pleased to say that last year, more than 800 HAP tenancies were created for homeless households in a pilot in the Dublin region, so factually, the Deputy is not right. He might be aware of some cases where there are difficulties. I am not saying the HAP works for everybody; I am saying that the facts speak for themselves.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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It does not work for many of my constituents.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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More than 500 tenancies have been achieved to date in 2017. They are people presented new to being homeless and were found accommodation through the HAP scheme and other schemes.

With regard to the family hubs, I have been in them and I ask the Deputy to go and have a look at some of them. I visited the Respond! hub and the Mater Dei facility, which will be ready in June. They are very good facilities for families. If a new family presents as being homeless and if we cannot get them a house through all the various schemes and through the HAP, the family hubs will be used for them as well.

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister's time has expired.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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In some cases, people who are in hotels might first transition to a family hub-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you. We will move on.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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-----but the intention still stands that by the end of June this year-----

Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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Minister, we are moving on.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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-----those people in hotels will be out of hotels.