Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for coming to the House to take this Topical Issue matter. I agreed to a substitute dealing with it in his place, but it is an added bonus that he is present.

We hear much about homelessness in Dublin. Obviously, as a consequence of its size and population, it has more homeless people than Galway. However, there is a crisis in housing in Galway. Very few social houses have been built there over the past seven or eight years, leaving a significant deficit. Many decent families cannot get permanent accommodation. In all my time in politics, I have never seen as dire a housing situation as that which currently prevails in Galway city.

Every Monday, I hold a clinic in the city which is attended by a large number of people. The extraordinary thing is that more than half of those who come to my clinic each week raise issues related to the housing crisis. In most cases, they are on the HAP scheme or renting and their landlord wants them to vacate. The first thing my staff and I do in such a situation is to ensure that the tenant has checked with a body such as Threshold to ensure the order to quit is valid. We then contact the city council.

These families have no particular issues other than the lack of a house. I have always accepted that many of the homeless people on the streets require significant social backup and may have challenges such as addiction problems. Those are not the people to whom I refer.

There are currently 53 families, or approximately 200 people, in emergency accommodation. We should consider the nature of emergency accommodation in Galway. In the summer time, there are no hotel or bed and breakfast spaces, so the council uses student accommodation that is vacant for the summer. When autumn comes, the student accommodation is required and families are put back into hotels and bed and breakfasts if and when they become available. Of course, in a growing city, that is becoming more problematic. One particular hotel closed and all of the families living there had to move out, some into bed and breakfasts. One of the parents asked me how she could feed her children with a proper healthy diet and not takeaways, given that she could not cook for herself or her family in the bed and breakfast. There is a crisis in Galway. People do not know where to go. In some cases, they move in with family members. However, if the family member is in local authority housing, the local authority has complete control and may decide that they are not permitted to share the accommodation because it would be overcrowded.

When will we ensure that everybody in this country has access to proper, permanent accommodation? We are ruining the lives of young people in particular, who are moving from school to school and place to place. Children are only young once. The dislocation they are experiencing may be causing a social problem the consequences of which we and their families will reap in the future.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. Supporting individuals and families experiencing homelessness is a priority for the Government. Rebuilding Ireland, the Government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, is being implemented to deliver a range of measures to address homelessness and increase the supply of all types of housing - social, affordable and private. By 2021, some 50,000 new social homes - not including those delivered under the HAP - will be provided and housing output generally will be progressively increased towards the target of producing 25,000 new homes per year through all channels available to us. Galway City Council has a target of delivering almost 1,100 new social homes between 2018 and 2021 through build, acquisition and leasing initiatives.

The focus of the Government is to prevent homelessness to the greatest extent possible while ensuring that pathways for individuals and families in emergency accommodation are secured as quickly as possible. Budget 2019 reflects the commitment of the Government in this regard, with an allocation of €146 million for the provision of homeless services by local authorities in 2019, an increase of more than 25% on the 2018 allocation. In addition, €60 million extra in capital funding has been provided for additional emergency accommodation and €1.25 billion for the delivery of new social homes.

Last year, almost €5.9 million was spent on homeless services in the west region, where Galway city is one of four local authorities. This expenditure is expected to increase this year.

Additional capital funding is also being provided to increase the supply of emergency accommodation, reducing the reliance on hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation for accommodating families.

It is a matter for Galway City Council and the homelessness management group of the west region to co-ordinate the delivery of services across that region. Two family hubs, which provide more appropriate emergency accommodation for families, will open during 2019. One of the hubs will open this month, with a further hub, which is a pilot utilising modular homes, will open later this year. These two hubs will provide accommodation for 27 families, who will be supported to identify and secure independent tenancies from there. The Department is also funding a dedicated place finder officer to work with households experiencing homelessness to identify and secure a HAP-supported tenancy in the private rented sector. The place finder service allows for advance payments of a rental deposit and up to two months rent to secure a property.

We also must recognise that many of those experiencing homelessness, particularly among single adults, require additional supports. The Deputy referred to this. In that context, it is important to note that the Government’s national implementation plan for Housing First was published last year. This plan, which is a joint initiative between my Department, the Department of Health, the HSE and the local authorities, sets a target total of 663 additional Housing First tenancies, with targets set for each local authority for the period of 2018 to 2021. Under the plan, 30 Housing First tenancies will be created in Galway city over the next three years, with a further 19 tenancies in Galway county. A tender process is under way in Galway to deliver these tenancies.

My Department will continue to work closely with all local authorities, including those in Galway, to prevent homelessness to the greatest extent possible, to ensure that adequate emergency accommodation is available for those who need it and to support all individuals and families in emergency accommodation to secure long-term sustainable housing solutions.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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When one is working at the coalface, one often finds that the Government complicates things that are quite simple. I wish to make a comment on the place finder officer and ask the Minister for his response. According to the city manager, or the chief executive of the city as he is called now, there are not enough houses in Galway to accommodate everybody in the city. That is not to mention the 40,000 the Minister is planning to bring into the city. God knows where we will house them. Regardless of how many place finders are finding places, if there are always more people looking for accommodation than there is accommodation available, the best place finder in the world cannot solve the problem. That is my experience. It is not the fault of the people because the houses and accommodation do not exist.

The people I am talking about today do not have the social problems the Minister mentioned. Most of the people who contact me are families with children whose tenancies came to an end for legitimate reasons and not due to anti-social behaviour. They have good tenancy records but just cannot get housing.

In addition, when one drills into the figures one finds in the mix that people from the Traveller community face major barriers regardless of their history of good behaviour or how decent they are. The vast majority of the people who contact me are fantastic people. They face massive prejudice in society. All types of sociological reports say it exists. It is nearly impossible for them to compete in the open market for rented accommodation.

We have been hearing for years about how many houses will be built. There is no point in buying houses because that is one in and one out of the system and does not provide extra housing, and Galway is short of housing. How many additional social houses were built in Galway city in the past five years and are available as accommodation now?

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I recognise the concerns the Deputy is raising and he is right to raise them. It is right to speak about what is happening with homelessness outside of Dublin. Dublin gets much of the attention because it has a significant problem, particularly when it comes to families in emergency accommodation. However, that problem is experienced in other parts of the country as well.

I spoke about the two different challenges we are facing with homelessness. One relates to people who are rough sleeping or adults in emergency accommodation who have more complex needs. The other relates to families who because of housing insecurity and the inability to find a home find themselves in the unacceptable situation of being in emergency accommodation. I have tried to simplify delivery. One of the things I wanted to do in Galway was merge the two local authority areas so when it came to matters such as housing there would be one force, unit or dedicated group with political responsibility to drive it. That was rejected by Members of the Dáil, but that has not stopped me from appointing a task force to the two authorities to drive delivery across both local authorities. The problem does not observe the local authority boundaries.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I represent both the city and the county.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Perhaps the Acting Chairman will allow me to reply without interruption.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Let us get this right. I represent both the city and the county and the problem I raised today is in the city. It is a great deal more acute in the city than in the county.

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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I cannot allow the Deputy to speak again. He is breaking the rules.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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The point I am making is that the problem is not only in the city but also in the county.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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It is ten times more acute.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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Part of the reason it is more acute in the city is that some of the people with problems in the county find themselves in the city. We have heard this directly from the people who provide the services on the ground. I have been to the area and I have met people from the NGOs that provide emergency accommodation services and the local authority officials. I am aware of the issues. That is why I appointed a task force to deliver newly built social housing in Galway. That has not been happening to the degree that is required. New builds were built last year. We publish the figures every year on our website. I do not have the five-year figures with me now. New homes were built last year in Galway, although not enough. That is the reason there is a task force to manage both local authority areas.

With regard to emergency accommodation, we have increased the money for services for the homeless. There will be two new hubs in Galway this year because families are in emergency accommodation in hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation when they should not be. One of the hubs will open this month.

We also have the place finder service. That service helps families who find it difficult to access accommodation for a variety of reasons. It is not their fault. The place finder helps to identify and secure the accommodation and can help with the rent and deposit where that is required. It is a very important service and it is being utilised.

The Deputy referred to people looking for Traveller accommodation or people from the Traveller community seeking accommodation-----

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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They are looking for houses.

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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There is a prejudice in this regard. That is why we have a dedicated piece of work in the Department looking at this as well as a dedicated budget line. However, we do not use just that budget line. We also use HAP and normal social housing delivery. We are doing different things to try to help. I recognise that we must do more and that is why the task force is in place and there are extra hubs and extra funding.