Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree, it needs to go national and that is the plan. The commitment was to have 300 in Dublin in the first instance. We are well on target to go beyond that. Again, under the HAP scheme, specifically for homeless people, there have been over 800 housing solutions found and we are trying to work directly with homeless people to find them homes and then put the services around them. Some of those rough sleepers require a lot of additional services to ensure that Housing First works. I know Senator Kelleher understands this. That is what we are trying to work on. The commitment is there and we know it will work.

I answered a question about rapid-build accommodation earlier. It is not where we wanted it to be. We were hoping for 200 units, there are 22 secured with people in them. However, there are 350 up and running. We should have an additional 650 before the end of this year, so there should be 1,000 in total. That is our target and we will do more next year. That is only one scheme. It is another funding area and we want to deliver on that as well.

Senator Kelleher mentioned the €6 million commitment that is meant to come from the Department of Health. We have flagged this with them. There is €3.5 million ring-fenced. They have promised it for 2018, we are still not giving up on it. We will look for more for 2017. We have flagged this as an issue and are seeking more funding. It is definitely committed for 2018. We will try to increase the €3.5 million for this year as well, because I think we will need that. We are still in the first half of the year, if we can show that we can spend it wisely and put it to good use, it strengthens the case to secure the rest of the money. The Senator is correct that it was committed; it is an action that was not fulfilled. We are saying it is not there and we are trying to work on that as well.

The Senator asked about the National Homeless Consultative Committee meeting. I must check the position on that. I would have assumed it was meeting but I am not sure. I will check. On the dual residency requirement, that should not be causing a problem but I will check the position and come back to the Senator.

On voluntary bodies, the one-stop shop is being implemented with them and new legislation to give them greater protection will be brought through the House during the month ahead. I will bring that legislation forward myself. We recognise that the voluntary bodies have a major contribution to make to address this homeless crisis. They have done great work. There are approximately 550 voluntary housing associations. The will not all be in a position to do the kind of projects we want. Some of them are just one-off projects, while others are for two or three units. There are probably 15 or 20 main players who want to up their game and do more and we want to facilitate that. By putting regulations and legislation around that, it protects them, and puts them in a stronger position to do partnerships and raise money. We are committed to do that and people will see a lot more activity there.

In some cases, local authority members would rather that local authorities were doing more but we are saying that the reality is we need both. I would say to local authority members - and Senators will probably be in touch with them more than we are - that they should engage a lot more with the approved housing bodies because we want to see the relationships strengthened between the local authorities and those bodies. That is provided for there. Councillors can engage more and strengthen that relationship and conversation and feel more a part of the process.

On the rental strategy, I agree that it is a step forward. I accept it does not have everything that Senator Kelleher wanted. I have the document that Senator Kelleher gave me and we are constantly trying to enhance that. On the positive protection scheme, security of tenants and receivers, the legislation is being worked on in the context of recognising receivers as landlords. In our view, and I would have argued at the time, there is protection there but it needs to be clearer and strengthened again. We are committed to do that and we will work with Senator Kelleher to bring it forward in the months ahead. There are a couple of other key specific areas in respect of which I will sit down with Senator Kelleher to see what we can do.

I think I have answered the question on vacant properties quite well. Senator Kelleher mentioned a couple of issues, such as compulsory purchase orders and leasing orders. We are looking at those. The Housing Agency has taken all the suggestions on board and is compiling a report for us. It is the lead agency in bringing the report to us. We hope to have it in the next couple of weeks, when we can activate and build on what we are doing already. It would be a win-win situation for everybody if we could activate vacant properties. It would be the best use of taxpayers money because they already have services and infrastructure, so we want to do that as best we can.

I am not happy with the spend on Traveller accommodation in recent years. It has not achieved what it ought to have achieved. I accept that the money was greatly reduced. The budget has increased by 70% for this year. My job, because it is mainly my area, is to ensure that the money is spent. I have sent a very clear message to all local authorities that we have to up our game in respect of Traveller-specific accommodation. I would not be happy that, in some cases, people are shirking their responsibilities. That is not going to continue.