Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the issue of resourcing for the housing department of Limerick City and County Council, specifically the need for a dedicated team to drive affordable housing targets forward. Right now, the same staff are trying to keep their social housing targets on track while also having to share time to keep their affordable housing projects up to speed. Clearly, this is neither ideal nor sustainable. I will set out the context for what we are dealing with in Limerick so the Minister of State will understand the extent of the housing emergency. Homelessness figures have gone up to 10,805, including 3,220 children, throughout the State. The number of homeless children in need of emergency accommodation in the mid-west last August saw a 251% increase in the same period last year.

Rents are rising. The figure for Limerick is €1,400, which is way above housing assistance payment, HAP, limits. I took a look at daft.ietoday. Just seven properties are available on daft.ie, three of which are completely out of the price range of any normal family. The HAP allowance is just €650 for a couple with one child but a two-bedroom apartment will cost them €1,500 per month. The HAP allowance for a single person is just €420 but a studio apartment in Limerick will cost him or her €1,300 per month, so there is no reality when it comes to the allowances and the soaring cost of rents in Limerick. We are running out of options for emergency accommodation. Indeed the homeless action teams have told us this. We also have the phenomenon of adult children stuck living their adult lives with their parents.

I think the Minister of State will agree with me that Limerick City and County Council has a huge task on its hands. Looking at the targets towards which it is working, approved homes are at 42% of the five-year target of 2,138 new homes. In other words, the council has a deficit of 1,247. I understand the focus for this year and next year is to acquire more land and gain more approvals to ensure the targets are met, but frankly, the council is nowhere near being able to do that as things stand. Again, the targets are particularly poor in some areas. In Castleconnell, where I live, there are 443 applicants and the current plan is for five new social or council houses. That is an appalling target.

We need significant additional resources within Limerick City and County Council to deal with this. An application was submitted to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for funding for a dedicated affordable housing team in March 2022. It begs the following question. In the middle of a housing emergency, how long does it take the Department to make an approval? I heard from my colleague Councillor Sharon Benson today that, coincidentally, the council received a decision today regarding additional new staff.

Why has it taken seven months to make a simple decision to add resources to Limerick City and County Council? Furthermore, I understand the council made a request initially for 12 additional staff and then reduced it to ten, but what has been granted by the Government is just staffing of four, of which two are already in place, so after seven months of waiting, the decision of the Government is to add just two additional staff members. The Minister of State should bear in mind that once that funding is approved, as it apparently was this morning, we are probably looking at a further six months to advertise and interview and for people to give notice and actually fill those positions.It has taken more than a year, during the worst housing emergency we have ever seen, for a decision to be made and for the relative follow-up to happen.

The Government’s Housing for All plan is not working. Overall targets for new social and affordable homes are falling short throughout the country, and that is no wonder. If every other council is waiting on resources just like that in Limerick, the national targets will continue to be missed.