Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

155. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to provide an update on the funding for inner-city flat complex regeneration in Dublin. [17587/26]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

As the Minister knows, some of the worst quality rental accommodation in the State is the inner-city flat complexes owned by Dublin City Council built in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. There is widespread damp, sewage problems, overcrowding and decades of poor maintenance. While Dublin City Council has a comprehensive and ambitious plan to address those issues, the Department continues to put far too many barriers in its way. Will the Minister provide an update on funding applications and approvals specifically for the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s inner-city flat complex regeneration proposals?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Within the programme for Government 2025, Securing Ireland's Future, a commitment was specifically made to continue to accelerate social housing regeneration schemes in Dublin. This commitment is reiterated in the new housing plan, Delivering Homes, Building Communities. Where local authorities propose the complete redevelopment of flat complexes such as O'Devaney Gardens and St. Teresa's Gardens, my Department is making a number of funding channels available to local authorities and approved housing bodies for such regeneration, including the social housing investment programme, the affordable housing fund, the capital advance leasing facility and cost-rental equity loans.

For flat complexes proposed for refurbishment and remedial works, my Department is making funding available through our estate regeneration programme. Dublin City Council has completed a number of regeneration projects, including 72 units at Dominick Street east and 100 units as part of Dolphin House regeneration.

The council has contractors on site for a number of other regeneration projects, such as Constitution Hill and Dorset Street and mixed-tenure redevelopments including the Donore project at St. Teresa's Gardens, An Droichead Órga at St. Michael's Estate and the Montpelier development at O'Devaney Gardens. These three mixed-tenure regeneration projects will deliver over 2,000 homes once all phases are completed. I have provided funding approval for a number of regeneration projects where the council is working on the design, planning and tendering, including Dolphin House phase 1b, School Street, Constitution Hill and Glovers Court.

My Department is working with the council on a remedial works programme for four existing blocks in Pearse House. A funding proposal is with my officials for review, with a decision to be made in the coming weeks.

The Department is also working with Dublin City Council on a proposal for remedial works on three blocks in Oliver Bond House and for the future regeneration of the remaining blocks. The Department remains committed to the regeneration of flat complexes in Dublin city and will continue to support well-conceived regeneration projects put forward by the city council.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Minister is developing a terrible habit of spending most of his time talking about everything other than the actual question, which relates to the currently tenanted flat complexes, such as Oliver Bond House, St. Michan's House and Pearse House, where the Department is preventing, blocking and delaying the approval of funding. Initially it was because the national planning framework required that density be increased, and following the intervention of Dublin City Council and many of us on this side of the House that policy shifted. The current policy is that there can be no decrease in density as part of bringing these older flat complexes up to standard. That is simply not possible. We cannot ensure that the hard-working, rent-paying residents in Oliver Bond House, St. Michan's House, Pearse House and others get 21st-century minimum standards for rental accommodation without reducing density. There is no urgency or understanding, in my view, of the scale of the problem. What we want to know is when funding will be released so that the State, the largest landlord in the country, has the highest possible standards for its rental accommodation when, right now today in Dublin, the worst rental accommodation in our city is rental accommodation the State owns and the Minister is refusing to fund.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Broin and I am surprised at his comments. The national regeneration and refurbishment programme is the largest regeneration programme in terms of funds in the history of the State. The remediation of local authority social housing estates and flat complexes in the country's most disadvantaged communities is one of my key priorities. This includes those defined by the most extreme social exclusion, unemployment and other issues in these local communities. That said, given the critical shortage of housing across the State, unnecessary or unjustified reductions in density are not supported where such reductions result in a significant loss of homes. We cannot stand over or justify this. The local authorities know the Department's position. We are moving at speed but we need the local authorities to put forward plans that meet the Department's requirements for what we will fund, which is regeneration but not losing homes. We cannot afford to lose homes in the current situation of a housing crisis.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The only surprise that will be expressed following this debate is the surprise of the residents in the inner-city flat complexes listening to a Minister who clearly does not understand the scale of the problems. Someone living in an overcrowded flat that was built to 1930s or 1940s standards, which is riddled with damp, stinks of sewage and has a range of problems from rats to crumbling façades, needs to have that apartment fixed. This is not a question of density; it is a question of providing the funding so the State's own social rental homes meet minimum standards. If the properties were in the private rental sector, the local authorities would inspect and enforce. If these properties were in the AHB sector, the tenants would take their landlord to the Residential Tenancies Board. Right now, because of what the Minister has just said, because he has admitted what the barrier is, we are forcing social housing tenants, council tenants and working and rent-paying tenants to live in substandard and what are effectively illegal properties. When will the Minister wake up and realise the scale of the problem and release the funding to do one thing and one thing only, which is to bring these homes up to modern standards?

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I very much do understand the scale of the problem. The funding is available to address every one of those issues and they need to be addressed because it is totally unacceptable that people are living in these types of conditions, but it has been made about-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

"But". That is the problem. It is the "but".

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It has been made about density instead of being about regeneration. We fully support and will fund the regeneration. It needs to happen. It could have happened by now. We want it to happen at speed-----

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

But the Department is not approving the funding applications.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Because the local authority made it about density instead of regeneration.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No, the national planning framework makes it about density.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

This needs to happen and it needs to happen quickly.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

We told you. There is a national planning objective, legally binding, in the national planning framework.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

It needs to happen in terms of ensuring people have the quality homes, updated homes and upgraded homes they deserve to live in, instead of it being made about density, which Deputy Ó Broin has made it about and so has the local authority in the past.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No. Your national planning framework made it about density. What utter nonsense.