Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill referred to the budget. As he said, this is our last Order of Business before the budget announcements next Tuesday. The motion we will take after the Order of Business will re-order our business for Tuesday. Colleagues will wish to know that we will have statements on budget 2016 after the Order of Business on Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Many colleagues will wish to raise some of the issues they have raised today in that debate.

Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill raised, in particular, the issues of housing and homelessness. I could not match Senator Aideen Hayden's response to him in terms of its eloquence and her expertise in this area. The great expertise in housing policy that she brings to the debate is acknowledged across the House. I echo her words that the origins of the housing and homelessness crisis lie in the failure to deliver any social housing whatsoever during the lifetime of the previous Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats Government and, as she mentioned, the rowing back on Part V of the Act, which would have enabled the provision of 25,000 extra social houses. The ideology of light touch regulation, in particular, bailouts and backhanders is what led us to the crisis. We must be clear about this. As Senator Aideen Hayden said, the Government is committed to the most ambitious social housing programme in the history of the State. The social housing strategy 2020 which was published in November 2014 will deliver an ambitious target of more than 110,000 social housing units by 2020.The priority given to the strategy is evidenced by the additional €2.2 billion announced for it in budget 2015.

A number of colleagues referred to the homelessness crisis, which is, undoubtedly, serious, disturbing and distressing, as we all will acknowledge. I would like to address a number of practical steps being taken to address it, about which colleagues will wish to hear. The problems and the high rates of homelessness arise from the chronic lack of supply of housing which is causing knock-on problems for the property market and wider society. As Senator Susan O'Keeffe pointed out, religious orders that have vacant properties have been invited to provide them. However, other steps are being taken at Government and local authority level. In particular, there is a policy of returning void units to use. Many of us may be surprised by the number of such units that could be brought back into use. For example, Dublin City Council has reported 633 vacant units to date, with a projected total of 765 to year end.