Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy English for coming to the House today. I will start on a positive note. It is important to acknowledge the huge amount of work that has been done. The Minister of State referred to the fact the Government is building on work done by Senator Paudie Coffey. I am delighted the Government has not forgotten all the effort the Senator put into this area. There are so many documents about housing at this point. I looked at a document yesterday that Senator Coffey had circulated previously. I thought that perhaps the Government had forgotten it so I am glad the Minister of State acknowledged the Senator's contribution.

I want to focus on some of the achievements to date. I have read the report and the Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. I am also a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. I wish to concentrate on Pillars 1, 2 and 3. We know that there have been approximately 2,700 sustainable exits from homelessness, up from 2,322 in 2015. A homeless fund of €98 million is in place for 2017. We know that 206 additional beds are now available in supported temporary accommodation across the four local authority areas in Dublin. While I do not want to be Dublin centric, I wanted to mention that issue because there was a particular crisis there. We also know that 810 tenancies have been created for homeless people under the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme, with which many people will be familiar. At present, 22 rapid-build homes are under construction. I am not too sure if any have been occupied as yet. The figure for rapid-build homes varies every time I ask for information. There are plans to build up to 350 such homes at some stage, although some questions remain in that regard.

I also acknowledge that €1.2 billion in current and capital funding has been provided in 2017. We now have a housing delivery office, a housing procurement unit and other supports which were established under the Rebuilding Ireland plan. If I am wrong in anything I have said, the Minister of State can correct me, but these are the positives that I see happening. Regarding Pillar 3 - building more homes, we see that 23 major urban delivery sites have been identified, with the potential to deliver up to 30,000 new homes - a very significant number - in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin.