Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we should, as a matter of urgency, have a debate on the issue of homelessness and the wider issue of housing supply. We can sit here and talk about the reasons for the housing situation in Ireland and if I were to look back to 2008, for the sake of argument, I would be able to point out that we were building more houses in this country than were being built in the whole of the United Kingdom. We had 200,000 vacant units in 2008. From approximately 2000, we failed to implement Part V of the Planning and Development Act. Had we done so, we would have had 35,000 more units of affordable housing, 18,500 more units of social housing and we would not have had the crisis with which we are faced today.

It does not behove any of us, having seen the programme on RTE last night, to cast insults and abuse around because that is of no benefit whatsoever to people living in emergency accommodation, sometimes in the most dire of circumstances. However, I want to say that this Government has ring-fenced funding for homeless services in each successive budget since it came to office in 2011. I am very proud of the Labour Party's record on that. I am proud that the former Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, ensured that we did not cut funding to emergency homeless services. In fact, it was increased by €10 million towards the end of 2015 and the allocation for 2016 is €70 million, up 56% since 2014. We have also made other improvements in the system. Some 700 people left emergency services in 2014 and approximately 1,000 did so in 2015. The bottom line is that very few families spend more than six months in emergency accommodation. Half of all allocations now go to homeless families. In addition, the housing assistance payment makes support far in excess of rent supplement available to homeless families in order that they might obtain accommodation. We have introduced a two-year rent freeze. Anyone who saw the programme about homeless families on RTE last night would note that most families have ended up being homeless as a result of rent increases. The two-year rent freeze, when it takes effect - which will take some time - will have a positive impact in removing the numbers of families falling into homelessness.It is a very important point to make and I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me the opportunity to make it.

The Tenancy Protection Service, which operates in Dublin and Cork and is being extended to the counties around Dublin, has protected 1,500 families in the Dublin region alone from falling into homelessness. There are real questions about supply. I would like to echo the words of Cathal Morgan from the Dublin Region Homeless Executive on modular housing. It will not solve the problem, but it will make a massive contribution and I ask people to support it. There are 22 families in homeless accommodation today who should not be there, because of the measures taken by some people who regard themselves as acting for their communities and prevented homes from being completed.