Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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10. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on whether the crisis in housing shows the need for a massive programme of social and public house building funded by the State and local authorities in view of the failure of the market and various incentives to deal with the crisis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33385/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The Government's Rebuilding Ireland action plan for housing and homelessness is focused on increasing housing supply across all tenures. I believe this is the key to tackling the housing challenge in a sustainable way. The aim is to achieve total housing output of at least 25,000 homes per year by 2020 and all of the available indicators point to a significant increase in activity towards that target. Good progress is also being made in delivering social housing units through build, refurbishment, acquisition and leasing, alongside an accelerated roll-out of the housing assistance payment scheme to meet the needs of some 80,000 households. This activity is being supported through a significantly increased investment programme of €5.35 billion.

While still at an early stage of implementation, there is already strong evidence that the focus on increasing and accelerating social housing delivery is yielding results.  In 2016, the housing needs of over 19,000 households were met through a range of social housing programmes, supported by expenditure of over €935 million.  A further €1.3 billion has been provided in 2017 to support the accelerated delivery of social housing and the achievement of the 2017 target to meet the housing needs of over 21,000 households.  

The need for the earliest possible delivery of social housing is understood by all concerned and this is reflected in the expansion of the social housing construction programme across the 31 local authority areas, by both local authorities and approved housing bodies. There has been an escalation in the social housing build programme and more projects are being added on an ongoing basis. I have, of course, also initiated a focused review of Rebuilding Ireland which I will be aiming to conclude in September to identify what further measures may be necessary to build on the progress already made and underpin momentum in the months and years ahead.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I genuinely wish the Minister good luck in his new position. I said the same to his predecessor because this issue transcends any individual or party represented in this House and we have a crisis beyond a crisis. We have a crisis because social, public and community housing have become dirty words. Social housing has come to mean dysfunctional housing, which is bad. The public housing programme has been a huge success overall. There have been projects that have failed, but housing projects across the State have largely been a success. I am from one in Clondalkin. My family moved from Islandbridge flats to Neilstown which is a huge council estate. It had its problems at the start and still has some, but it is an amazing community that grew together and got out of certain situations.

We can have these great plans, but the reason we have this housing crisis is that, ultimately, social housing has become a dirty word and is being ideologically driven down.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for his good wishes. I do not disagree with anything he said. The history of how we have come to this crisis is that the Government of the time essentially outsourced its responsibility to the private sector for social housing and then, when the market and the sector crashed, people and their needs crashed with them. We are still dealing with the legacy of this and we see it in every new homeless family that presents itself because they cannot, unfortunately, find a solution in the private rental sector today. Many have, but not everyone can. This is why there has been a change by this Government to make sure we are putting more money into social housing delivery, and that is the important thing. That capital funding that has been put in place over the course of the Rebuilding Ireland plan has been ring-fenced for protection. Next year, more than €1 billion will be spent on delivering on and meeting the social housing needs of our people.

The Deputy spoke about social housing being a dirty word. I hope this is not the case because there is a responsibility on the part of Government to make sure that the taxes of every person in this State are spent in a way that can deliver for the needs of people who need our help the most. That is what we must achieve. This does not just mean social housing in the strictest sense; it also means co-operative housing models and the like, and some very successful schemes are already up and running in that regard.

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I hope the action plan is a success but I highly doubt it will be. I am trying to be an optimist, not a sceptic. One thing that has been flagged in Rebuilding Ireland is a parcel of land in Clondalkin, where I live, that is owned by the council. It is an 80-acre site and the plan is to sell it off to a private developer. Anyone in this House who thinks it is logical to sell public land to a private developer during the worst crisis in the history of this State would want to get his or her head seen to. Most of these houses will go to the private market. It really does not make sense to sell off land at the height of the worst crisis in the history of the State to a private developer. This land should be for public housing, affordable housing, cheap rental housing and social housing. It is quite simple, and I am sure the Minister will agree with what I say, but I think Rebuilding Ireland, unfortunately, will just be another dead end.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Eighty acres is a not insignificant amount of land, so I would like to hear more details of the matter after we have finished in the Dáil this evening. What I have seen so far since I began the review are ways in which the local authorities have been quite clever in using land, which is a very valuable asset and can be very expensive, to deliver things like co-operative housing models and affordable buy models for people. I have already referred to the example of Ballymun this evening and the great work that was done there by Ó Cualann and the local authority with financing support from AIB to deliver what will be 47 or 49 A2-rated family homes at affordable prices between, I think, €150,000 and €180,000, depending on the size of the house, the number of rooms, etc.

It is very important we, as a State, make sure we use our resources in the smartest way possible to get the best results for our people. To respond to a question from Deputy Cowen earlier about an affordable rental scheme, this is one of the reasons we decided not to opt for a subsidy model with the €10 million, which we then diverted into other areas, but rather to use land as leverage to get those affordable models in place. We are talking about a range of different measures. There is no one single measure. It is not just about building social houses; it is about affordable buy, affordable rent, co-operative housing and that whole mix of possibilities on a given site.