Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister. I apologise for not sitting beside him but for talking to the back of his head instead. As we have Covid restrictions in place here, I do not expect him to turn around. Like the Minister, I thank all of the front-line workers in local authorities, housing charities, trusts and emergency accommodation, in Threshold, the Residential Tenancies Board and Intreo offices. They have been working night and day through the pandemic to support people living on their own, renters, people looking for housing and people at risk of homelessness. The Department has been supportive of the community call initiative, working with members of the Garda, local authorities and GAA clubs, including St. Oliver Plunkett Eoghan Ruadh, Na Fianna and Naomh Fionnbarra in my constituency, and right around the country. That community call has been a lifeline to people living on their own. It has been championed and supported by the Minister's Department and by all the volunteers who have so generously given their time. Their work is mammoth. It is truly valued. I want to start by expressing my appreciation for their efforts.

Since the Minister took over, he and his Department have demonstrated a keen desire to support renters, the homeless, small businesses and local public services. That is noticed and appreciated. Homelessness is still a stubbornly intractable problem. There are more than 8,000 homeless people in the country. I was delighted to see the quarterly report published on Friday showing a significant reduction throughout last year, especially in the last quarter, with a 75% reduction in the number of families accommodated in commercial settings, which is welcome.I appreciate the Minister's commitment to keep driving that to a point where all families live in a place that they can call home.

There is a problem with single homelessness. The Minister knows this. I have heard him speak about it. I know that he is determined to address it. In my own constituency of Dublin Central, and indeed within the north east of Dublin Central, the HSE estimates that there are 1,500 homeless people. That is the equivalent of a small village. I appreciate that the Minister recognises that challenge. I welcome the €220 million that his Department has allocated to support homelessness, which amounts to around €12 million per quarter. In addition, the fact that the Minister himself chairs a task force on the issue gives reassurance. The €40 million that the Minister provided to the local authority for the voids brought 2,500 vacant, boarded up local authority units back into use. I encourage the Minister to keep pushing with that programme. I note the initiative that he took in respect of the call for housing and the permission that he has given to local authorities to actually acquire housing and to invest, as they have done in Dublin, in the prevention of homelessness. I encourage the Minister to extend that model outside Dublin. At the joint Oireachtas committee on Friday, we heard from homeless service providers in the Munster region. They cited that as an initiative that they would like to see being extended, and also the housing assistance payment, HAP. What the Minister has done in respect of the homeless HAP in Dublin has had an effect and has helped secure housing for people who are on the homeless list. I ask the Minister to look at the provision of the homeless HAP outside of the city in respect of renters. The Minister took action to prevent evictions and rent increases, and to provide renters with supports through the Residential Tenancies Board and the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS. All of that is welcome and has helped avoid people becoming homeless. I also welcome the fact that the Minister extended mortgage relief and the break for local authority mortgage holders. However, I ask the Minister to speak to the Minister for Finance and ask him to bring in the commercial banks, and support mortgage holders who have commercial bank loans.

In my last couple of minutes, I wish to talk about how we can fix this problem from a systemic perspective. The Minister inherited a Department and a crisis around housing supply and affordability. That crisis was not created over the last ten weeks or ten months, but over a period of ten years. I know that the Minister recognises that and is bringing forward an affordable housing plan, but it is critical that that plan deals with affordable purchase as well as affordable rent. I am greatly encouraged by the Minister's proposals to make the Land Development Agency a non-profit authority that is going to be dedicated to using public lands to deliver social, affordable and public homes for people on modest incomes. His cost rental proposal, that will see a situation in which tenants will only pay rent to cover the cost of the building, maintenance and management of their homes, is fair. It gives young people the hope of being able to rent an affordable home.

The Opposition has spoken much about the shared equity scheme. I do not know where it is getting its information. It seems to be talking about a scheme from the UK. It is very quick to rubbish it. I understand the scheme to be one that recognises the unaffordability of rental for young workers and workers on modest incomes, particularly in Dublin. The Minister knows this. In case anybody needs convincing, the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland, SCSI, issued a report last week which documented the unaffordability of the construction of new apartments in the capital city. The shared equity scheme is designed to help renters escape the unaffordability trap. It must be made available to help renters. The Minister and I both know that affordable housing was abolished back in 2011. There have been no new affordable homes built in the city in the last ten years. Anybody who is renting today, or has been renting over the last five years, and who is in a position, with their deposit together, but is unable to get a full mortgage, wants that shared equity scheme. They want to be able to buy a house next month or in six months' time. They do not want to have to wait the three years that it is going to take for the construction of new homes. I encourage the Minister to bring forward the affordable housing and Land Development Agency Bills.For those who are opposed to helping renters escape the trap of unaffordable rent, I would ask them to listen to the Minister and to examine his proposal. His bona fides and my party's bona fides and commitment to ensuring that working people on modest incomes will have access to affordable homes to both purchase and rent are unquestionable. I ask them to support the Minister.