Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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57. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide a response to the report of the Housing Commission. [24567/24]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Last week the Minister was forced to publish the report of the Housing Commission following leaks to RTÉ. Of course, it is no surprise that the Minister would not want to publish it in advance of the election given its stinging criticism of the Government's record of ineffective decision-making, reactive policymaking and risk aversion - all undermining affordability - a failure to treat housing as a critical social and economic priority, and one of the highest levels of public expenditure for housing yet one of the poorest outcomes. There were key recommendations around the housing deficit and a dramatic increase in the delivery of social and affordable homes. I invite the Minister to give his response to the report's publication.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Report of The Housing Commission was submitted to me on 8 May, as the Deputy will be aware. I thank the commission for its work and the commissioners for three years of detailed work to look at a longer term strategy on housing.

I established the commission. This is the first Government to do that and take a longer-term view. I have no difficulty with contrarian views within it because, even though Deputy Ó Broin might not accept this, all of us do not possess all the knowledge on every housing issue and it is important that we deal with stakeholders.

The report runs to more than 400 pages including appendices, 83 recommendations and 500 actions and sub-actions. While a comprehensive examination of the report will take time, it is immediately clear the radical shift the commission recommends is well under way through the Government's Housing for All plan and other measures. Indeed, a preliminary assessment of the report, which I have published, suggests almost 80% of the commission's recommendations are already either done or at varying stages of implementation.

All aspects of the report will be considered in detail.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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That is delusional.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Is the Deputy to ask a question later on?

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I am.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Good.

In the meantime, I have asked the Housing Agency to conduct a comprehensive analysis of costings, timelines and priorities. This will allow for a fuller consideration of the policy matters raised than would otherwise be possible, given the report does not cost actions or, indeed, specify timelines for implementation.

The Commission's report, together with the Housing Agency conclusions vis-à-vis costings, timelines and priority actions, will help inform consideration of the forthcoming Housing for All action plan update, which I intend to bring to the Government with my proposals for next steps in the autumn.

One example I will give the Deputy - there are many - of recommendations the commission has made that are already in place, is the 20% social and affordable provision, which we have already changed. I reversed that decision that was made by a previous Government.

That is in place now, among many other measures, including the support and use of equity schemes for first-time buyers. I published that as well. I have published a plan and a report, which we are implementing. I published this report. That is in stark contrast to the Deputy, who has published nothing.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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Not only is the Minister's response delusional, it is positively Orwellian in its attempt to describe a report that is critical of the Government as somehow endorsing it. In fact, the Minister has provoked the ire of one of the commission members, Mr. Michael O'Flynn, who was on the "Today with Claire Byrne" show last week. Not only has he been deeply disappointed by the Government's response, he suggested that it has insulted the commission by suggesting that recommendations for the radical changes it is proposing are already being done. Maybe the Minister does not understand the recommendation about 20%. The commission is not calling for 20% of private housing to be social and affordable. It is saying it wants 20% of all housing stock to be social and affordable. That would mean, on an annual basis, half of all new homes would have to be social and affordable within the timeline outlined in the report.

Let us be clear. The Minister would not have published this report if it had not been leaked. He sat on the right to housing report for ten months and was forced to publish this report. Specifically, however, will he give me his response to the commission's claim that the housing deficit it outlined was deliberately excluded from the Government's original targets and, as it stands, will be excluded from its current revision because the methodology for the ESRI has not changed?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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No, absolutely not. I thank the commission for its work. I have thanked it publicly for that. In fairness, the report I received on 8 May took years to prepare. Lots of work the commissioners did in the subgroups requires more than two weeks' consideration. I published the report because part of it was leaked and I thought it much better that people could see the full report. That is the right thing to do. I do not see any disagreement in that regard. I have no issue with that whatsoever.

I outlined the next steps to the Deputy. On the area of affordable housing, the chair of the commission, John O'Connor, again on RTÉ, said that we have brought about a step change in affordable delivery, that we should stick with it, and that the most important thing now is consistency of approach because we are ramping up that affordable housing delivery. The Deputy will see that the report indicates many members of the commission disagreed with each other on various things. That is also a good thing. People have different perspectives. We have a minority and majority report on the referendum where there are also differing views, which all need to be considered in the round as well. I already outlined many of the actions, and I published the commentary and recommendations, which are either done or are in train. I do thank the commission for the work it has done.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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The truth of the matter is the vast majority of what is in the report has not only not been initiated by the Government but is at radical variance with it. I will deal with two matters. When the Government was developing the targets for its current plan, it deliberately excluded pent-up demand. When the ESRI undertook its survey to inform the Government's plan, it was not allowed to look at pent-up demand. That is the deficit. Right now, the ESRI is undertaking a similar study. Pent-up demand is not included in that. Will the Minister instruct the ESRI to include unmet pent-up demand in order that we have accurate data to underpin that study?

Second, the commission is recommending that 20% of all housing stock be social and affordable. Does the Minister agree with that? Is it something the Government will support so that when we get its new target, whenever it will be in the autumn, it will also include a dramatic increase in the delivery of social and affordable homes? It is clear from this report that not only is the commission saying the Government is not delivering enough homes, its delivery of social and affordable homes is nowhere near what is required to meet need.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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When this Government came in, I was very clear with people, and we published Housing for All as well, that we were dealing with a legacy issue of ten years of very significant undersupply of housing. There is absolutely pent-up demand. What have we done since then? Up to quarter 1 this year, we delivered 110,000 new homes. That does not include the thousands of vacant homes we brought back into use. That is real progress. Not everyone is feeling that yet, but we see it throughout the country. We see new housing developments in every town, village and city. In April, there were 18,000 new housing starts in that month alone. Some 53,000 new homes have been started in the past 12 months.

We are reviewing the housing targets. I have been very open about that. There has been a deficit because of ten years of undersupply. We are making progress on that. We will revise the targets and publish them in the autumn, taking into account the very good work the commission did. We will also look at the ESRI work when its survey and analysis comes in. That will help us frame the new housing targets to the end of the decade.