Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a useful debate. There is clearly a great deal of knowledge in this room about this issue. I thank Senators Dolan and O'Sullivan. I know Senator Kelleher quite well and given her experience with the various organisations she has worked for, it is a good example of the Seanad adding value to a debate around a sector that needs a comprehensive policy response. Having former Ministers for housing in the House also significantly helps as well.

We have a housing strategy, which will be launched next Tuesday afternoon, I hope, as long I get it approved by Government on Tuesday. It will not perform miracles or deal comprehensively with everything but it will be a good start as a response to a series of pressures linked to housing and shortage of supply, as well as a response to the systems that are not delivering at a pace that they need to deliver at, whether that is housing for people with disabilities or the myriad other groups to which the State needs to respond at a faster pace than it has been able to do to date. Obviously, resource issues need to be resolved and finalised before that strategy can be launched. I hope we will have an opportunity to take statements in the House next week after the launch. I would like to come in and talk through some of the sectors and get some feedback. I will be the first to say that strategy is not the finished article and we will add to it as needed. This will be a moving strategy for the lifetime of the Government, however long it lasts. We will add and subtract, amend and change, and improve as we go along when people make suggestions. There has been a good deal of stakeholder consultation, including with some in the disability sector, and I will try to take on board as much as I can. I will be happy to come to the House next week to debate this strategy if the schedule permits in order that Members can see the detail, comment and add to it.

Addressing the needs of people with disabilities is well established in housing policy. The publication of the national housing strategy for people with disabilities and related implementation framework in 2011 and 2012 was a significant step in the right direction. These documents have guided policy considerations and delivery of housing for people with disabilities since then. The commitment in the programme for partnership Government "to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are incorporated into all future housing policies" reflects the priority the Government attaches to this issue. We will consolidate and build on the significant work to date and ensure that momentum is enhanced and sustained into the future, and that commitment will be further reinforced in the action plan I am launching next week.

The national housing strategy for people with a disabilities was a turning point in how the housing needs of people with disabilities would be addressed. The strategy and implementation framework, which were published jointly by my Department and the Department of Health, were developed as part of a coherent and integrated framework for the delivery of housing for people with disabilities. The strategy sets out the broad framework aimed at promoting and mainstreaming equality of access for people with a disability to the full range of housing options available suited to individual and household need, and to support them to live independently in their own homes.

The strategy’s approach is twofold. It supports people with disabilities who live in the community and who may require more specific supports to enable them to remain in their own homes or move to more suitable accommodation as their needs change. Second, it gives effect to the housing provisions outlined in the Government’s mental health policy, A Vision for Change, and the report of the working group on congregated settings, to which a number of Members referred. Both policies provide for the transitioning of people with disabilities from institutional care to more appropriate community-based living arrangements. It would be no harm to benchmark how we are doing versus other European countries in this regard, as suggested by a number of Senators, in addressing some of the challenges we are facing. Senator McFadden, in particular, made a strong contribution on this issue.

Implementation of identified actions in the strategy is being driven primarily by the Housing Agency by means of a dedicated subgroup, which comprises representatives from my Department, the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive, local authorities, the Irish Council for Social Housing and various disability representative organisations. Since it was established in 2012, the subgroup has overseen and progressed a range of priority actions, including: the development of national guidelines for the assessment and allocation process for housing provision for people with disabilities; the establishment of housing and disability steering groups within local authorities, which were welcomed earlier; and the preparation of draft strategic plans for local areas to help identify and address the housing needs of people with a disability over the next five years.

The local plans are currently being collated by the Housing Agency into a draft national strategic plan and will be submitted to my Department shortly. Progress in implementing the strategy is being overseen by an implementation monitoring group, which is chaired by my Department and includes representatives from the Department of Health, the HSE, the Housing Agency, the National Disability Authority, the Irish Council for Social Housing, the County and City Management Association and disability representative organisations. We have a strategy, a plan to make it work and we have an implementation monitoring group to make sure it happens.The implementation of the strategy is an excellent example of the collaborative working arrangements between my Department, the Department of Health, the HSE and relevant stakeholders in recent years. Key to this approach is the inclusion and contribution of representatives from the disability sector and others, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody involved. This partnership approach, involving cross-departmental and inter-agency co-operation, recognises that the provision of suitable housing is only one element of supporting people with disabilities in living fully inclusive lives.

The programme for Government commits to the preparation and publication of an action plan for housing within the Government's first 100 days. The action plan is being drafted and is nearing finalisation with input from a number of key Departments. It will also draw on the work of the special Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness and its recommendations. The action plan will be delivery-focused and will build on the considerable work already carried out or under way. It will include actions to boost supply of all types of housing in the immediate, medium and longer term. The plan will have a particular focus on those having most difficulty in accessing the housing and rental market at the moment, and will include the needs of specific groups, such as people with disabilities. In this regard, the action plan will affirm and underpin support for the continuation of the national housing strategy for people with disabilities beyond 2016.

My Department, through the capital assistance scheme, CAS, provides important funding to approved housing bodies to provide funding for priority groups, including people with a disability. In July 2015, under the CAS, funding totalling €151 million was allocated to deliver 1,057 new accommodation units through construction and acquisition. The former Minister of State, Senator Paudie Coffey, was very involved in that. This investment shows a strong commitment to meeting special housing needs for those who may require particular supports, including people with disabilities. It is my intention to continue to provide funding for an ambitious construction and acquisitions programme under the capital assistance scheme into the future.

Implementation of the HSE congregated settings report is supported by my Department, which is represented on the HSE-led working group. In order to accelerate progress in transitioning individuals from congregated settings, my Department is providing ring-fenced funding of €10 million in 2016 under the capital assistance scheme. This is specifically for the provision of housing for people with disabilities who are moving out of congregated settings into community-based living arrangements. Separate to this, CAS funding is also available to provide housing for people with disabilities in the community more generally. The capital assistance scheme draws on the knowledge and capacity of the approved housing body sector to provide high-quality housing suitable for people with a disability, and it will continue to be well funded, as part of the Government's new action plan for housing, to deliver for those who need social housing provision.

My Department also provides funding to local authorities under the housing adaptation grants for older people and people with a disability in relation to private homes and, separately, funds adaptations and extensions to social housing stock to meet the needs of tenants with a disability. I take on board what people have said in respect of those two schemes. Total funding under the adaptation grants scheme has been increased in 2016 by 10% to an overall funding availability of more than €56 million. Some 7,600 households benefited under this scheme in 2015 and, with the additional funding provided, it is expected that this will increase to about 8,000 homes in 2016. I am conscious of the significant social benefit accruing from this scheme in terms of facilitating continued independent living by people with a disability in their own homes; therefore, in line with the programme for Government, I will give further consideration to increasing this funding in the coming years. I also understand how important it is that grant schemes such as these can be readily accessed by those who need them. My Department will continue to work with local authorities to review the delivery of the schemes and streamline the application processes.

I am satisfied that the current regulatory framework for the assessment and allocation of households in need of social housing support, coupled with the guidance issued, provides what is necessary to ensure that the particular needs of households who have someone with a disability are effectively assessed and prioritised quickly and appropriately. The allocation of social housing support to all qualified households is a matter for individual housing authorities in accordance with their allocation schemes. A housing authority may prioritise certain classes of household for allocation on the basis of severity of need as they see fit, and households who have a person with a disability may be given a priority ranking.

The results of the 2016 summary of social housing assessments will, when available later this year, provide updated data for the number of people on housing waiting lists, including current information on the level of households with disabilities in need of social housing support. I take it from the motion tabled that the number is still significant, somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000.

In preparing its housing strategy under the Planning and Development Act 2000, each planning authority must have regard to the most recent summary of social housing assessments and also the need to ensure that a mixture of house types and sizes is developed to reasonably match the requirements of different categories of household. This includes the special requirements of elderly persons and persons with disabilities. They must also have regard to relevant policies or objectives of the Government, including the national housing strategy for people with disabilities. It is a matter, therefore, for a planning authority, in making a Part V agreement, to ensure that the units provided in any given development will satisfy its housing need. A decision on whether a certain percentage of Part V units should be reserved for people with disabilities is a matter for each individual local authority in accordance with its own housing strategy.

I wish to reinforce what a number of people said earlier. There will be no going back to a situation in which developers can buy their way out of Part V obligations. That is not going to happen, and we are going to create an acceptance and an understanding and, hopefully, a non-issue of the fact that a certain percentage of every new housing estate will be allocated for social housing, affordable housing, special needs housing or whatever. If we cannot manage that as a society, the comments made by Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáinring true. We need to create an understanding, an acceptance and a reality that when one drives into a housing estate one does not notice the difference between social housing and private housing but sees an estate that is diverse, with a mix of different family types and sizes and challenges and all the other things that people face in their lives. I am determined to do that in the context of our housing strategy. I do not want to build acres and acres of social housing to try to meet a need and facilitate the building of acres of private housing in some other part of the city where the two communities are not integrating. The stigma that gets built up around that needs to be addressed head-on.

In regard to the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, we are committed to doing that. It is in the programme for Government and we will try to make that happen as soon as we can. As the former Minister of State, Senator Paudie Coffey, has pointed out, we will support this motion. It is a good motion and is timely in the context of the Government's response to housing need next week. I look forward to coming back to the House to work through the detail not only in respect of the disability elements of the housing strategy but the broader strategy itself. I thank all Senators for their comments. I know we are not discussing bins today. The debate has been constructive and helpful and I will try to take on board as much of it as I can.