Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I thank him for his comprehensive response. I have just come from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government of which Senator Murnane O'Connor is also a member. We have had some ongoing dialogue.

I acknowledge the enormous work and focus of the Minister and the Ministers of State at the Department. They have worked together very strongly as a team. They have been supportive. I acknowledge the work of the public servants and the senior officials in the Customs House, who have gone way beyond the call of duty. We have meetings off-site, down in the Customs House as well as our standard meeting and I have found them to be exceptionally helpful. That has made our work a lot easier. It is not all gloom.

The problem with some politicians in both Houses is that they are hung up on an ideology about social housing versus private housing. A multifaceted approach is needed. At the end of the day, we want people in homes. I personally speak for myself when I say this, I do not have a hang-up where these homes are coming from or who is providing them once they are good decent homes that tick the boxes in complying with the standards and regulations and are affordable. We need to give people homes.

It is important to say that historically all politically parties and none have had their hands on this housing brief in the past ten to 15 years and have failed to deliver. There has been a wind down in local authorities for the past 15 to 20 years in the direct building of social housing. To be fair, we must acknowledge that and that it takes time to crank it up and to get new housing. For those who do not sit on the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government, we had the first quarterly report on this issue last week. There are five pillars to Rebuilding Ireland and the information was set out in tabular form.The pillars are as follows: 1, addressing homelessness; 2, accelerating social housing; 3, building more homes; 4, improving the rental sector; and 5, utilising existing houses. When one looks at it in tabular form, it appears quite simple. There are 166 key action items. We have had a report on the progress of each of these in tabular form. We raise questions. It is represented by people on all the political groups. It is worth saying that. Yes, it will take time but let us not get hung up on the ideology of who is providing these homes. What we want are homes for people. I want to acknowledge what has been done because I want to be fair. I am not part of the party political establishment but I see the work that is happening. I was on a local authority for 20 years.

People ought to be fair and focus on Rebuilding Ireland and what it is about. Rebuilding Ireland is about increasing construction of social housing. I support that. I would like to see more homes being built by the 31 local authorities. That is reality. It is about construction in the private sector. Affordability is very important. Affordability in rental, in construction and in the purchase of homes is important. It is about partnerships with the private sector. Let us not run away from that. It is also about partnerships with the social sector and advocacy with the trade union movement and everyone pooling together, tapping into our experience and resources and getting new homes for people. There is also focus on homes for the elderly and people with disabilities, people who rent homes and accommodation for students. It has great potential.

I will now turn to a number of things that we might do differently or that the Minister of State could consider. We should identify why local authorities have so much idle land. That should be audited. We need to establish if local authorities do not have the competence, the will or the money to bring housing on stream and address that.

We must re-examine NAMA and ask if it has a potential role to deliver existing housing stock for social, affordable and rental housing to the State. I want the Minister of State to find that out and update the information. Has it a role as an agency in its own right. NAMA says it has vast resources, it reckons it will clear €32 billion in debt this year. Where are its resources, what is this money? Can it be another agency to deliver houses for our people?

We, as politicians, need to hear what was agreed at the housing summit. All 31 local authorities were set a target for delivery. Was it broad enough? Are we stretching chief executives of local authorities to deliver more houses? I want to know what the target is. I want the Minister to empower city and county councils across Ireland because they have a role to hold their executives to account and ask them if they are delivering. We all know councils. We want to empower the councillors to stand up in their local chambers and say, "Management what is happening, are you delivering"? We need to ask the same in the Seanad, the Dáil and in committees. Our democratically-elected councillors need to know what targets were set by the Minister at last week's summit and they need to be empowered so that they can hold management to account on it.

It is important that we have housing solutions. I like that word. Senator Coffey referred to it earlier. Let us find housing solutions. Let us not get hung up on ideology.

Finally, we need more data regarding the Part VIII planning process across Ireland and how it delivers social housing. We want to see at what stage each Part VIII is at and I ask that the Minister of State instruct officials in his Department to publish a detailed report on each of the Part VIII projects. He could circulate all councillors on the matter. We need to empower councillors and part of that lies in information. We must give councillors more information about the delivery in local authority areas and empower them to ask management if they have the resources, willpower and determination to deliver these houses.

I thank the Minister of State and acknowledge him for the work he has done in this area.