Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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The Minister of State is aware there are now more than 9,000 people homeless in this State, that is, officially accessing emergency accommodation, although many more are also homeless. The excuses last week by the Minister were unreal and absurd and would be funny, were it not so tragic. The reason the Minister gave for the increase was that more beds having been brought into the system means that suddenly, there is a huge clamour from homeless people identifying themselves to take up those beds. The Minister seemed to be oblivious to the fact the people were homeless even before they took the beds.

The Minister of State and the Minister assured us that the rate of increase has stabilised. When I questioned the Minister of State the last time, he told us the figures were not bad by international standards. Can he please stop this absolute insult to the public? It is now four years since I took part in the first protest against homelessness and evictions - four years that this crisis has been raging at its peak and it continues unabated. I imagine the key reason for the increase in figures is the same reason this happened last January and the January before that. Landlords, who develop a bit of a conscience before Christmas, do not want to evict families at Christmas and they let them stay until January, when, suddenly, a huge number of people have to find new accommodation.

Just over a year ago, if the Minister of State recalls, Solidarity brought forward an anti-evictions Bill. We wanted to outlaw some of the illegal methods that landlords are using to evict people, which is what is making people homeless, such as the sale of a property, a family member moving in, or the latest one, which is renovations that suddenly need to be done, particularly in apartments owned by vulture funds but also those being used by other landlords. The Government steadfastly refused to adopt any of those measures and families continue to be made homeless.

There were some extremely concerning issues in respect of the problems we saw during the bad weather last week. Everybody will have read that some people had to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act for their own safety to be taken off the streets. I have very mixed feelings about that. I can understand the desire of people working in the homeless services for people not to die on the streets. However, we can see how ill-fitting the services must be to many homeless people's needs that they would take such desperate measures and would risk dying in the unprecedented cold of last week. It says a lot.

I particularly want to focus on where homelessness has increased. There are 1,517 families in emergency accommodation and more than 700 of them are in Dublin.

If the Government was serious about the housing crisis, a task force would be set up for the three or four key problem areas where homelessness exists. It is not the same everywhere. It is worse in some places, including Dublin, Limerick and other key cities. The task force would target those areas for social housebuilding or acquisition. Then we would not be here scratching our heads as if it was a mystery.

One company, Cairn Homes, is hoarding a massive amount of land in the Dublin area. The Minister of State could consider asking it to get on with housebuilding in that area. I will provide more detail on this matter in my next contribution.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Coppinger for raising this issue again today. We have had many discussions on this over the past year or two. The Department publishes data on a monthly basis for the number of homeless persons accommodated in all forms of emergency accommodation funded and overseen by housing authorities. We record and publish those figures in order to make policy. We base our policy changes, interventions and allocations of money on facts. That is our job. Any comparisons we make are based on being able to formulate policy on the basis of information and facts. These reports are based on data provided by housing authorities and are produced through the pathway accommodation and support system, PASS, the single integrated national data information system on State-funded emergency accommodation arrangements overseen by housing authorities. The monthly reports outline the number of individuals accommodated in emergency accommodation over a designated survey week, including a breakdown by local authority.

The report for January was published last week. It shows that 5,837 adult individuals used State-funded emergency accommodation nationally during the survey week. This included 1,517 families with 3,267 dependants. As the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, outlined to the Dáil last week, the increased number of homeless adults reflects the 200 permanent new beds put in place in the Dublin region towards the end of 2017, as well as the emergency beds added as part of the cold weather initiatives undertaken over the winter period. The Minister knows well that the Deputy says people are already homeless but when he says these new beds are in the system, he is referring to factual data. These people were recorded who might not have been recorded before. That is all he is saying. He is not saying that they have come out because he has provided the beds. The Deputy knows that is not what he said.

These beds would have been fully in use during January. The introduction of the new beds has brought increased numbers of rough sleepers into the services provided by the local authorities and their non-governmental organisation, NGO, partners. While the increase in the numbers is certainly regrettable, it is clear that rough sleepers are better off in emergency services receiving the necessary supports and assistance than they would be rough sleeping. We have seen this more than ever over the past ten days when extraordinary efforts were made to ensure that accommodation was available for all rough sleepers during the extremely cold weather. I take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the local authorities, the NGOs and in the Department for the incredible work they did in taking care of our most vulnerable citizens. They went beyond the call of duty as they tried to encourage people to come in.

The Deputy referred to people being sectioned. They are not being sectioned by a politician, a Minister or a housing officer. This is done by a doctor on medical grounds.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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I know.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy should not try to give any other impression. It is done properly. The laws are there. People are well protected. It is done in extreme circumstances and a medical professional makes that call, not anybody else.

Returning to the January homeless figures, the increase in family homelessness in Dublin, where family homelessness is most problematic, was not anticipated to this extent. We have always said it is extremely high, far too high when we are talking about over 9,000 people. We never try to play that down. We always say it is far too high and our work will not end until we deal with those numbers in total. The Minister has asked the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to investigate the matter further and prepare a detailed report for review by the Department.

The Deputy gives the impression that people become homeless solely for economic reasons and that they have all been evicted. That is not the case. There is a story behind every person or family that is homeless. Sometimes it is to do with rent, sometimes not. There are other reasons. It is not always down to landlords and evictions. It is wrong to give that impression as well. When we get all the analysis and facts I will have no problem teasing through them. There are different categories of people.

Addressing homelessness is an absolute priority for the Government because we recognise that emergency accommodation is not the place for over 9,000 people to be and certainly not the place for young children to be raised. We agree with the Deputy on that point. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government's Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, contains a wide range of measures which are being delivered by the Government. Of course, addressing homelessness requires increasing the supply of houses. We are determined as a Government to increase the stock of social housing by 50,000 homes by 2021 under Rebuilding Ireland, with funding ring-fenced to achieve this. The Government has also increased the level of funding available to local authorities to ensure that they are in a position to provide effective supports and assistance. In 2018, a budget of €116 million is being provided by the Government for homeless services. This is an increase of 18% on the 2017 budget allocation, which was also increased, rightly so because we have to provide the money to tackle the emergency while we are dealing with the new supply of housing and bringing on stream new houses which we are doing. Last year, through a combination of all the schemes, over 7,000 new social houses were made available which were not there at the start of the year. That helped us find homes for over 4,000 people. There are thousands more who need a similar intervention this year. We will do that through the various arms of the State, including the Department - that is what we are there for - and local authorities, and with the support of NGOs.

Given the increasing number of families presenting to homeless services, as well as the continuing use of hotels, early in January the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, commenced a rapid hub programme that will see 400 additional family hub places this year.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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It is incredible that I the answer to my matter on homelessness does not contain one mention of building any new homes anywhere, particularly not in the capital city. In December, there were 6,097 individuals homeless. In January, there were 6,428. This means that, within one month, almost 400 people in one city were made homeless. I suspect that it is for the reason I suggested. It always increases because landlords decide to end leases and make families homeless.

I pay tribute to those who were employed to go out and who volunteered to do so, groups such as Inner City Helping Homeless and the Muslim Sisters of Éire, whose videos I saw during the weather report. What is the Government going to do? I mentioned Cairn Homes, which is sitting on lands zoned for 14,100 homes, 90% of which are in the greater Dublin area. However, this company completed only 418 houses - taking up 3% of its entire land capacity - in 2017. The average selling price was €315,000, hardly affordable to the average person. Cairn predicts that it will increase the asking price for its next 400 houses to €374,000. Its gross profits quadrupled in 2017. Hoarding land during a housing emergency is akin to hoarding food in a famine. That continues because capitalism allows companies of this sort to control large amounts of land. The biggest hoarders of land in the State are the local authorities. It is interesting that the Minister of State did not mention any increase in the number of homes that will be built in the cities where they are most needed. Ideologically, the Government has turned its back on public housing. That is a real tragedy for those who are suffering most acutely. The money is there to build public homes that are affordable and social homes. There has been a huge increase in the amount of wealth at the top of society. There are also the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, and the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, funds.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I cannot cover all the issues relating to housing in two or three minutes. The Deputy's Topical Issue matter specifically mentions emergency housing and the over 9,000 people who are homeless. It does not go into the supply of housing. I am happy to do that too in my answer.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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So it is not related.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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They are very well related but I could not give detail of both because there was not time.

Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity)
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Is there no connection between homelessness and the supply of housing?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Of course there is a connection. We have been saying that for the past two years. That is why many of our plans in Rebuilding Ireland are aimed at bringing the supply of housing back up. Last year, and the Deputy might not like to admit this, there were an additional 7,000 social houses in use through all the schemes. They were not there the year before that. This year again, because the supply of housing is up, there will be almost 8,000 new social houses available through the various schemes. We are making progress but it is not enough. I totally and utterly agree with the Deputy on that but it takes time to get the supply of housing back up. We estimate this year there will be over 20,000 houses in total built in the country. That is our estimate. It could go beyond that. The building sector reckons there will be approximately 23,000 houses. That brings in a new supply of housing which will help deal with all the different housing problems, the cost of rent, the number of houses available and social housing. Supply is key. I am happy to dwell on that in other debates but there is not the time to do it all today. There are measures there and we are working with all the stakeholders, those who own land and those who do not to try to bring forward and activate those sites through various schemes with success in some areas.

I agree that other sites are not being developed but we are dealing with that too. The vacant site levy kicks in this year such that people will be charged for sites that are inactive, this year and next year. On the Deputy's point that we need to utilise public-owned lands, we are doing that. All of the local authorities have brought forward plans on how they propose to use their landbanks, which could be used to deliver approximately 50,000 houses over the years ahead. We will work with and fund the local authorities to ensure those lands are activated and to bring forward a combination of social, affordable and private housing.

Family hubs, which I mentioned earlier, are better accommodation than hotels. Last year, over 4,000 people were found a home and over 1,200 families have left hotels. I agree with the Deputy that there are still far too many people in hotels but we hope that through new initiatives this year we will be able to take people out of them because, I agree, they are not a place to be.