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

We have been relaunching them.

As a nation we must do all we can to ensure a sufficient supply of homes accessible to all of us. We hear of the homeless and the homeowner but we cannot forget those in between, the low and middle income householders who do not qualify for social housing but who are priced out of the private market. These are the hidden numbers. We are surrounded in the housing crisis, with homelessness to the north, a lack of supply to the south, unaffordability to the east and social housing to west. We are at war with a housing crisis and Fine Gael's strategy will not win it.

Fianna Fail focused on practical steps to support home ownership in budget 2019. The overall capital budget for housing increased from €1.065 billion in 2018 to €1.34 billion in 2019, a 25% increase. This includes social housing and homeless capital funding. Since Fianna Fáil entered the confidence and supply agreement, we have forced the housing capital budget to increase from €430 million in budget 2016 to €1.34 billion today, which is a €900 million increase. Only €20 million was allocated to an affordable housing scheme in 2018 with no units delivered or regulations even signed off on. Fianna Fáil has established a revamped scheme worth more than €100 million per annum over the next three years. This will deliver approximately 7,500 units at an average price of €200,000 for ordinary income workers because right now they cannot afford a home of their own.

Local authority delays in procurement and the four-step approval process for social housing is crippling delivery. We tripled the discretion of local authorities to build homes without going through administrative hoops. Local authorities can now build to a cost of €6 million or 30 homes through a fast-track process. This is an issue I have raised on numerous occasions in the cross-party housing committee where we all work hard together to find solutions and to sort out these issues. Housing cannot become an issue on which we all blame each other.

Since coming to power, Fine Gael has launched Construction 2020, Social Housing Strategy 2020, Rebuilding Ireland 2016 and capital plans in 2012, 2015 and 2018. These six separate plans exclude the numerous relaunches involved. That is more launches than local authority homes built in several counties so far this year. Together let us find a way to get these houses built without talking about it so people can turn the keys in the door and call a house a home.

The most recent figures show a record total of 9,681 people homeless in Ireland. There are more than 85,000 people on the social housing waiting list with a further 37,000 on HAP leaving the number at 122,000 compared to 50,000 in 2005. There are countless more who do not make the statistics because they are living with family, stuck with nowhere to go despite working long days and trying to get by. We need to build more houses and increase the supply to stabilise rising rents and get people off lists and into homes. When we build these houses we need to focus these new units on wraparound services so that we do not lose people later.

I welcome what the Minister of State said. The housing committee meets regularly and we know the greatest issue is the lack of supply. In my area, organisations such as Clúid, Respond and Tinteán seem to play a major role in building and working with the local authority but the Department and the Government are not building. There is no question the Government is not building as much as it should. I can give the Minister of State examples, which I have outlined to him many times.

Mortgages are provided for under Rebuilding Ireland but applicants have to come up with 10% of the house price. The Minister of State said more than 1,000 cases have been assessed but how many people have received their money? I can give the Minister of State ten such cases. I have definitely applied for 50 and I am six months waiting. I compliment him because he is dedicated to working on trying to get this issue sorted because we have a crisis and there is no point in saying otherwise but there are issues about which he did not speak

We have our five pillars, about which we speak every week at housing committee meetings. I want to raise an issue that should have been dealt with two months ago. People do not qualify for local authority housing lists. This has not changed. We have people on the list and we have people falling through the net who do not qualify for the HAP or to get on the local authority housing list.In my neighbouring county, 32,000 are eligible to go on the local authority housing list. In my area, the number is 27,500. It is so unfair that we are not getting an increase. I ask the Minister of State to consider the caps for all local authorities because rents have increased so much, as he can see.

The other issue the Minister of State did not consider or mention is rent pressure zones, RPZs, which I am always raising. It is so unfair that there are RPZs in certain areas when other areas just do not qualify. I said to the Minister that we need to consider the zones throughout the 31 local authority areas because the system is unfair on the local authorities that do not qualify. What is the position on staffing for local authorities? This is important.

Overall, we all have massive hurdles to cross. As a member of the housing committee, I acknowledge how hard the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, work. We have many mountains to climb, however, and need to build many more houses. We are working with the private housing agencies, including Clúid and Respond, but we need to build. That is the only way.

The Minister of State referred to HAP. I have significant reservations about it and how it is working because it is not working to its potential. We need to examine this. I thank the Minister of State.