Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

1. To delete all words after “Seanad Éireann” and substitute the following:

“notes that:

- the lack of housing supply is causing serious distortions in the property market;

- the dramatic increase in rents and the failure to increase rent supplement supports have put many individuals and families at serious risk of homelessness; and

- 90,000 persons are currently on the social housing waiting lists around the country;

further notes that:

- the rent caps under the Rent Supplement Scheme and the Housing Assistance Payment scheme are too low for adequate accommodation in the current rental market, particularly in urban areas;

- levels of investment in new social housing units envisaged under Construction 2020 and the Social Housing Strategy 2020 are inadequate to meet the demand for social housing and to significantly reduce waiting lists;

- the €2.2bn in social housing spending over the next three years is at the same spending levels as 2009 despite the number of persons on social housing waiting lists being 33% greater this year;

- the €1.5bn in actual exchequer funding over three years will yield around 10,000 social housing units, far short of what is actually needed;

- to date, only 518 housing units under the control of NAMA have been designated as social housing and transferred to local authorities, despite the fact that ten times that amount has been identified by NAMA as suitable;

and

calls on the Government to:

- utilise €1bn from the Strategic Investment Fund to immediately initiate a local authority home building programme;

- urgently review rent caps under Rent Supplement Scheme and the Housing Assistance Payment to take account of current market trends and increase rent allowance limits to meet the market value of rents in the private sector;

- allow families on waiting lists to move into vacant homes and defray the costs of refurbishing them from future rent;

- develop Voluntary Housing Associations to a scale where they can access credit and start to build on their own initiative; and

- establish NAMA transfer units in local authorities to accelerate the transfer of NAMA properties that have been identified as suitable for immediate use as social housing units to local authority control.”

I thank the Labour Party for tabling this important motion on the ongoing crisis in the housing sector, both private and State. My party has consistently highlighted the failure of the Government to take real action to meets its own pledges - not ours or historic pledges - to end homelessness in 2016. We believe the Government's ambition is unachievable with the resources that have been made available. Meanwhile, a vicious combination of harsh social welfare cuts and escalating rents in Dublin have driven increasing numbers of people onto the streets. This is not just Fianna Fáil's analysis. The Irish Timesreported that Fr. Peter McVerry described the Government's plans to provide 35,000 new social housing units by 2020 and end homelessness by 2016 as "fantasy" at a two-day housing conference attended by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, which ended yesterday. Fr. McVerry stated that families are being forced to sleep on the streets due to concurrent crises in the private rental and social housing sectors, and he dismissed the Government's ambition to eradicate homelessness by 2016 as unachievable with currently available resources. This is an individual whose opinions on housing are highly respected.

I note the Minister has committed to providing €1.5 billion in guaranteed up-front Exchequer investment from 2015 to 2017. That is welcome. The Government also intends to develop a new housing public-private partnership worth €300 million and to make available up to €400 million in public investment in a new housing finance entity to leverage further substantial private investment. This is a very ambitious programme but it seems those who operate at ground level do not believe the Government's promise to attack the issue.

In a spirit of positivity, I will make some suggestions that might be helpful. There has been much talk about rent control. Senator Hayden pointed out that rent control was found to be unconstitutional in the 1980s. However, the Senator also referred to the various regulatory regimes that operate in other European countries. The Government should investigate these regimes. The old system was replaced with flexible limits which balanced the interests of landlords and tenants. I am interested in hearing the Minister of State's comments in that regard.

On the issue of releasing land for housing, this should be based on the campaign slogan for the post offices, namely, use it or lose it. There is merit in the argument that planning legislation should include strong and enforceable incentives to ensure land that is bought for house building and that has planning permission is used within a set timeframe. There has been talk about doing this but there was little action. Particularly in Dublin, where the crisis is more acute, it would go a long way if we unlocked lands held up by greedy developers who are waiting for land values to rise further. We went through this previously and the lessons should have been learned.

Clearly we need to build more houses. Not-for-profit housing associations could play a greater role in building houses for vulnerable citizens, primarily because they are able to access public funding that would be off the State's balance sheet via the Housing Agency. I understand South Dublin County Council is examining a proposal to establish a housing trust, which would in effect be an arm's length building company able to borrow money from the Housing Finance Authority.

Rents should be made more affordable and, therefore, rent caps should be increased. The Minister for Social Protection has expressed opposition to increasing the rent allowance on the grounds that it would drive up rents. However, the rent allowance has not been increased over the last 12 months whereas rents have increased significantly in the Dublin area. It is not necessarily a case of one following the other in that regard. I welcome that the Dublin region homelessness executive is working with the Department of Social Protection to give community welfare officers the ability to increase rent supplement on a case-by-case basis.

A recent article in The Irish Timesasked the interesting question of whether NAMA can help to solve the housing crisis. It is possible that will go some way towards doing that. When NAMA began its work in 2010 it inherited a stock of approximately 15,000 housing units. Senator Landy noted that 2,854 of these units were deemed unsuitable or were located in areas for which there was no demand. However, I understand all of these units have since been sold or let to the private sector. Even though they may not have been attractive to local authorities because of their location, somehow the private sector has picked them up. Demand for more than 2,000 units was confirmed by local authorities, while a further 500 were still under consideration as of last year. NAMA was one of more than 50 groups attending meetings with the Minister, Deputy Kelly, last week to explore measures aimed at alleviating homelessness in the capital.

In regard to new builds, I am pleased that recent revisions to Part V provisions in the Planning and Development Act 2000 require that 10% of any development must be social housing, as distinct from the original provision which allowed developers to wriggle out of their obligations by giving cash to local authorities. I hope this new requirement will be strictly enforced.

In regard to NAMA's continuing involvement in alleviating the housing crisis, I understand the Government has given it a residential mandate that will involve construction of 4,500 units in the greater Dublin area by next year and possibly an additional 20,000 across the country in the next five years. If one applies the 10% rule to these numbers, it will mean a further 2,500 social housing units. This would make NAMA an important player in delivering the Government's plans to have 35,000 units ready by 2020. NAMA's involvement in building these properties means that cash strapped local authorities will not have to bear the up-front capital costs of construction. That burden will rest with NAMA and it will enter into long leases with approved housing bodies, which will have an option to purchase the properties concerned two thirds of the way through the lease. To finance this work, NAMA intends to package the leases and sell them on to pension funds with an attractive net yield of approximately 5%. That is very positive and I would like the Minister of State to elaborate on NAMA's role in alleviating the housing crisis.

Ultimately, however, the reality of this Government's commitment is that more than 90,000 households are on social housing waiting and 2,600 people are homeless, of whom 200 are sleeping rough. It has not yet delivered on its promises and there is a moral obligation on it to achieve the objectives it has set out.