Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending. He will not need me to remind him that the scale and nature of the housing crisis affecting not just this city, but the entire country, is the greatest social challenge of our time. The Government recognises this and many initiatives have been undertaken to address the issue.

One of the proposals that have been made by the Peter McVerry Trust seems eminently sensible. It aims to utilise the amount of space that is available or vacant, particularly in Dublin city, to house our people. The Minister of State knows as much as anyone the long-term damage that any stint in homelessness of or insecurity of housing can cause, especially to young children, for whom the damage can last the rest of their lives. Ireland has a particular understanding of that.

The Minister of State will accept that the Peter McVerry Trust is a credible and compassionate organisation whose heart is in the right place. It has worked with a number of Ministers in recent years on trying to find practical solutions to our housing problem. It has identified approximately 10,000 units that it believes would be beneficial in addressing the housing crisis. It describes them as over-the-shop units. Added to the estimated 33,000 empty residential units across this city and further afield, this would go a long way towards addressing the issues.

There are other housing projects, for example, the interesting Abhaile Project, which recently won an award for redeveloping the upper storeys of large, four-bedroom or three-bedroom occupancies that had just one person living in them in a bid to alleviate some of our issues.

The over-the-shop phenomenon has been identified by the Peter McVerry Trust as a practical means through which the city council, with support from the Minister of State's Department, can address some of the housing shortages. The trust, supported by the city council, has suggested that approximately 10,000 people could be provided with accommodation in these empty or under-used spaces in the upper floors of buildings.

The Peter McVerry Trust is trying to think imaginatively.It is clear from an audit of the empty spaces that are available in the city at present that the over-the-shop phenomenon would provide spaces and places where housing could be easily provided for families who are in need. How seriously does the Government view the submission made by the Peter McVerry Trust this month to the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government for a national re-use strategy? I am sure the Minister has the submission and has studied it in great depth. It makes huge sense. While the conversation is always about building new units and estates, which is understandable, that process is quite lengthy. Obviously, it is necessary to go through the planning process and that can be quite exhaustive and difficult.

The case we are making here is to look at existing buildings, units and spaces that are under-utilised. We believe there are 10,000 of them in Dublin city alone and we ask the Department to take the submission from the Peter McVerry Trust seriously, engage with Dublin City Council and begin the process of utilising these units to house our people.