Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am disappointed the Minister for Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, is not here. Is the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, not utterly ashamed of his Government? On the day it was revealed that we have reached a new low with 12 homeless families being told to go to Garda stations, some of whom ended up sleeping in parks, the Government claimed it was doing its very best to deal with this issue and simultaneously chose to vote against a Bill which would stem the flow of people into homelessness by reducing rents to affordable levels and preventing economic evictions. That position exposes the utter hypocrisy of the Government. It says it cares about the families who are in this unprecedented and diabolical situation with children and their mothers in parks. It says it wants to do something about it but when it is given an opportunity to do so, it votes against a Bill that would enact emergency measures to prevent people sliding into this dire position. It does so because it wants to protect the so-called market, in other words the landlords and vulture funds who are evicting people.

I received a telephone call as I was coming into the Chamber from Sinead Murphy, a woman whose case I have raised twice with the Taoiseach. For the second time, she has been placed in a hostel in Dublin city centre that is located 12 km from her four year old daughter's school. The council will not allow her to take an available place in a hotel near her daughter's school in which there are people who want a place in town but are not allowed to take it. This is unbelievable.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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This morning during Leaders' Questions, the Tánaiste stated that everyone wants to see the homelessness problem solved and every possible initiative is being taken. This statement is not supported by reality. According to Focus Ireland, in March last, 77 families in Dublin experienced homelessness for the first time, while in March 2013 five families became homeless. The 4% cap on rent increases introduced by the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Simon Coveney, in December 2015 is not working. Rents are going through the roof and have increased by 13.9% in Dublin in the past year. There are no meaningful measures in place to stop rising rents, curb evictions, help those in mortgage arrears or prevent land banking to meet the needs of the homeless in a manner that grants them dignity and respect.

More than 700 families are living in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation in Dublin city. Many of them are forced to self-accommodate, sometimes spending whole days ringing around to secure a temporary place to stay in a hotel, unsure where the place will be or for how long it will be available. This practice, which cost the State €39 million last year, creates a massive transfer of public wealth to private hands and is also a violation of the human rights of thousands of women, men and children. The Minister of State indicated he hopes to end this practice by July but at this stage we suspect that is unlikely. When will it stop and what then?

According to figures in Rebuilding Ireland, work started on 549 social homes and 204 social homes were completed in the first quarter of 2017. Dr. Rory Hearne, in a recent analysis of Government housing policy, showed that Dublin City Council will build only 560 new social housing units in the next two or three years based on current plans. At this rate, it will take at least 30 years to house those on the Dublin city housing waiting list. Is there any change of plan?

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is unbelievable - can my microphone be switched on please - that, having just discussed a release free of charge of in the biggest robbery in history, and in a country with almost 200,000 empty properties and rents having soared by 66% since 2011, the Dáil voted against a measure that would put a stop to this. Last Saturday, I stood on the Ballyfermot Road to prevent a woman and her two children being illegally evicted. Last night, 30 homeless children were left in Garda stations and parks. What sort of society are we living in? The focus of the Government and media is on the beauty contest between two failed Ministers, one of whom failed us on health in the past and is now failing us in social welfare and the other who is utterly failing us on housing. The Government is disgraceful. I bet the Minister of State that people will be sleeping in parks again tonight.

I refer to the question I asked earlier on the housing assistance payment. I bet the Minister of State that if he were to examine the cases of the families who were left homeless last night, he would find that some of them have been failed by the HAP scheme. The scheme is not working because landlords will not take it. The Minister of State should tell Selina Hogan and families who are consistently being refused accommodation that the scheme works. While the Department will give them the money, landlords will not take HAP payments. The Minister of State cannot gloss over the reality and he should stop giving us pretend statistics. We know what is happening in the real world. The Minister of State probably knows what is happening but chooses to turn a blind eye because he gets well paid for doing so. He should wake up, smell the coffee and do something to support these families and give them a real possibility of securing housing.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I will not turn a blind eye to what is happening. All the statistics and figures the Department provides are fully transparent and available on our website. As I indicated in our earlier discussion, I have no doubt the housing assistance payment does not work for everybody but it works for many people.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister of State should check with the people who were homeless last night.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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We will have one speaker at a time.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I did not interrupt the Deputy. There is a story behind every family, which is fair enough, and I will not place anyone's story on record. However, the HAP scheme works for many people. Approximately 800 people who were homeless last year are now in accommodation as a result of the housing assistance payment. These people are content but the Deputy wishes to focus only on the negative. While I accept that the scheme does not work for some people and this merits discussion, it is wrong to claim it does not work, full stop. It works for thousands of people.

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister of State should stop exaggerating.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Since Christmas alone, more than 600 people who presented as homeless have secured HAP tenancies and are in a much better position than they were previously.

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue and welcome the opportunity to clarify the position regarding what was a very distressing situation for all concerned. The Government is absolutely committed to addressing the issue of homelessness. There is now a focused and co-ordinated approach to tackling it across multiple Departments and agencies.

As Deputies are aware, Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan on Housing and Homelessness launched in July last year provides a multi-stranded, action orientated approach to achieving the Government's key housing objectives and tackling homelessness in a comprehensive manner once and for all.

It is important to make clear that statutory responsibility for the provision emergency accommodation to homeless services rests with individual housing authorities. The Department's role 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. Consequently, it does not play a role in operational issues.

When a family presents as homeless out of hours in Dublin, the dedicated family homeless action team will work with the family to secure hotel accommodation for the night, with a more detailed assessment of the family's requirements taking place the next day. The family homeless action team is provided through Focus Ireland, which is funded by the four Dublin local authorities to provide this valuable service.

Regarding the events that occurred in Dublin city on Tuesday night, 24 May, I understand that the demand for emergency accommodation was at unprecedented levels and there was a scarcity of available hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation. As a consequence, Focus Ireland was unable to source hotel accommodation for all of the families that had been referred to it that night. Dublin City Council's central placement service maintains a number of contingency spaces for families that are intended for use only in absolute emergencies when families present out of hours and no commercial accommodation can be secured. I understand that, when the homeless action team was unable to source hotel accommodation on Tuesday, these contingency spaces were brought into play. Given the unprecedented demand that night, however, these spaces were soon fully utilised, with a number of families remaining unaccommodated. Accordingly, and in line with agreed working arrangements, Focus Ireland referred the remaining families to Garda stations as a last resort and with a view to their safety.

I understand that the issue of contingency capacity for families was on Dublin City Council's agenda prior to Tuesday night and that the council had been working to increase the volume of its contingency spaces to 14 family units. Unfortunately, this additional capacity only came on stream on Wednesday night. While that was a day too late for the families in question, it is of some reassurance that this additional capacity now exists within the system.

I have made it clear that I do not consider hotel accommodation to be appropriate for families for anything other than a short period. The Minister has been clear on this as well and has committed to end the use of hotels. The events of Tuesday night highlight that a reliance on hotel accommodation is not only inappropriate, but precarious. It was with this understanding that Rebuilding Ireland included an explicit commitment to ensure that, by mid-2017, hotels would only be relied on for emergency accommodation in limited circumstances. To meet this objective, there has been a focus on meeting families' long-term housing needs through housing supports such as the enhanced HAP scheme and general social housing allocations. Significant outputs are being achieved in this regard and housing authorities achieved more than 3,000 sustainable exits from homeless accommodation into independent tenancies during 2016, which was a record level of exits in a calendar year.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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This morning, Mr. Mike Allen of Focus Ireland stated that emergency accommodation would not solve the crisis and, specifically, that we needed legislation to stem the flow of families into homelessness. A few hours later, we had a Bill in the Dáil that would have done precisely that - stop economic evictions and reduce rents to affordable levels - but the Government and Fianna Fáil voted it down to protect the landlords and vulture funds. How can the Minister of State live with himself when families are degraded to the level of sleeping in parks, when young children are put in danger and when people are neglected in this way and the Government still votes down measures that could do something about the situation? How could the Taoiseach write to me to say that the Government is making progress when the numbers in emergency accommodation have increased by 462% since Fine Gael entered government in 2011? It should be ashamed of itself. This is unbelievable.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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There are still no effective rent controls or taxes on landbanking. Airbnb is making the housing crisis worse and operates in a strange place legally. Last year, An Bord Pleanála upheld a Dublin City Council ruling that an apartment owner in Temple Bar needed to apply for planning permission if the owner wanted to continue renting the property out via Airbnb. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, promised to address the issue. In August, there were 4,931 Airbnb listings in the city area, the bulk of all Dublin region listings. By February, that number had increased to 6,729, or 36%. It seems that having long-term tenants is a mug's game these days. One man recently told RTE that he was subletting 40 rooms on Airbnb after renting them from landlords around Dublin and that it was a lucrative business. The apartment at the centre of the An Bord Pleanála case reportedly made €79,000 in one year.

This is a criminal development in the middle of the housing crisis. Starting this month, home owners in central Barcelona are only permitted to rent out one place on Airbnb. How is the Department getting on with its plans in this regard?

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Deputy Wallace stated that having tenants is a mug's game, but it is sometimes the same in the context of HAP. Someone joins HAP and, after a year, the landlord issues him or her a notice to quit in order to sell the property, mar dhea. Our Bill would have stopped such properties being sold except in exceptional circumstances. This is happening on a large scale because landlords can make profit as the price of houses increases.

The Minister of State should not pretend that the homelessness crisis will be sorted by the type of diatribe that is written on both sides of this page. It means nothing. The Government gives us this answer every day and every day there are more families facing homelessness. The Government's solution is to stick them into the Bargaintown premises in Coolock, which is like something in which refugees in Athens would be housed. Stick them in Bargaintown and tell them it is temporary when it is actually permanent because the Government does not have a permanent solution to the housing crisis.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Permanent solutions can only be provided by increasing the supply of housing. It is as simple as that, regardless of how one looks at it. We must increase supply. I will not go through all of the interventions that the Government and Department are making to achieve that, but much more housing is coming on stream this year, including through the use of vacant properties. Housing authorities are also pursuing the delivery of additional and enhanced supported temporary accommodation that is more suitable for the short-term accommodation needs of such households than commercial hotel arrangements, which have existed for years, while move-on options to long-term independent living are identified and secured. This includes the procurement of properties that are suitable to serve as new family-focused supported temporary accommodation and the reconfiguration of existing private emergency accommodation to provide improved family facilities and supports.

Capital investment in the region of €25 million is being made in a range of projects to provide custom developed facilities that will offer appropriate temporary accommodation for homeless families. These will come on stream in May, June and July. I have visited some of those facilities. I accept that they are not a permanent solution, but what they offer is a hell of a lot better in terms of services and accommodation needs-----

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Than Fairview Park.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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One speaker, please.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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-----than commercial hotels. They are a worthy investment for people who declare themselves homeless.

In April, we saw for the first time in many months a reduction in the number of families in commercial hotels. While the overall number in emergency accommodation showed an increase last month, the number of families in hotels and bed and breakfasts in Dublin reduced from 870 to 695. We are continuing to work closely with the Dublin local authorities to ensure that this downward momentum continues as we work towards achieving our mid-year target.

Since Christmas, more than 600 people have presented as homeless and have been found solutions in HAP housing. Many people are finding other accommodation as well, but we are dealing with the day-to-day presentations, the number of which is still quite high, while also trying to deal with people who have been in hotels for 12 months, 18 months or longer than they should have been. We are making progress. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has set a target and we will achieve it. People will not be in hotels by mid-2017. That is what we are trying to do. The Deputies mentioned a number of the places in question, but I urge them to visit some of the new family housing units and see what they provide. They are not full-time-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Some 12 km or 15 km away from a school is no good.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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No more cross-talk.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I did not interrupt anyone. The units are not meant to be permanent, but they are much better than the temporary solution that existed previously.