Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is my second time to address the Minister today. I know how hard he works and it is important that we all work together to ensure homelessness can be sorted. It is a year since the Government launched its Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Recent trends include the lack of progress on new social housing construction, continued rent inflation, reduced rental supply and house price inflation in 2017. The figures in the Government's social housing construction report suggest fewer than 800 new social homes will be constructed in 2017, when the action plan targets 5,000. Only 24% of housing units in the construction pipeline are actually on site, meaning it will be 2021 before the full total of 10,072 units come on-stream. This compares with targets, which are, frankly, too low, of 26,000 new units by 2021.

The Government strategy is to rely almost exclusively on the private rental market to provide all social housing through the housing assistance payment, HAP, and rent supplement. I addressed this with the Minister this morning. I have massive concerns about this. Of course, the very negative downside to this strategy is that no new housing stock is being added and that existing housing stock is being taken from the private rental and owner-occupier markets.

In terms of total housing supply, Ireland now needs to build 40,000 to 50,000 new homes per year to make a dent on the increased demands and make a noticeable impact on affordability. Clearly there is a market failure in housing and new interventions are required to stimulate supply, but the Government seems reluctant to make any interventions in the housing market and seems to be determined to stick to its message that all will be well by 2019, when it expects the output of new housing to reach 20,000 units. This attitude has to change if the real challenges are to be tackled.

The number of families and children living in emergency accommodation continues to rise. Meanwhile rents continue to rise at a dramatic rate. While house prices are rising quickly, they are still 40% below their 2007 peak, whereas rental prices have long surpassed their peak, with average rents now more than 12% above 2008 levels. The rent pressure zones should be nationwide. All local authorities should have them. The emergency housing crisis needs to be addressed. With regard to the cap to qualify for local authority housing, if people do not get on the housing list they either need to get support through a mortgage from the local authority or be able to go to their local credit union and get a loan. We need to ensure people do not fall between the local authority housing lists and paying private rent every month of up to €1,000 or €1,500, which they just cannot afford.

I want to ask the Minister about NAMA. What is the status of NAMA? I do not know and I hear different things. Is it holding on to properties and sites and not releasing them for social housing? Can we have a full update on what exactly is happening with NAMA? I would appreciate it.

I urge fast action. The current social housing policy needs to be changed. We need to look at why it is not working. We need common sense, decisions and plans. I and my Fianna Fáil party colleagues urge a sense of urgency. Many times over, barriers have been placed to housing the most vulnerable in our country and these barriers need to be removed. We have empty houses, delays and long waiting lists. Years pass and people's lives change, as do their needs. These barriers become our enemies because of this timescale. People are waiting and waiting. It is like an enemy. I often say that plans are great but that by the time we get to their fruition more problems exist. We have a homelessness crisis and our biggest enemy is time. Nobody needs to die on our streets and we need to work together fast to ensure it does not happen again. We need to deliver positive outcomes for people and we need to do it now and not down the road. We have committee meetings every week and I know from working with various Departments there will be change, but slow change. The people unable to qualify for local authority housing lists are crying out for help and I do not think they receive it. I ask the Minister to ensure everybody is entitled to a home and that we give the people of Ireland a chance to ensure they have a home they deserve.