John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is appropriate we are having statements on Housing for All at this juncture. I always welcome the opportunity to talk about the progress that has been made with the Housing for All plan, which is building on the strong foundations which were laid in previous years. The plan is working, despite what some say. Is it happening quick enough? Of course not, and of course everyone in the Government would like to see the delivery of more homes more quickly. There are constraints in the market in terms of the ability of developers, councils, approved housing bodies, AHBs, and the Land Development Agency, LDA, to be able to scale up the delivery of houses. However, in 2013, we were building fewer than 5,000 homes, and we are going to build nearly 25,000 homes this year. All the indicators are positive.

At the end of June, the numbers of home completions were up, commencements were up, permissions were up, house purchases and first-time buyers were all up and mortgage drawdowns were at a record level. There are positive indicators of what is happening, but of course none of us on this side of the House will rest on our laurels and say we are doing enough. We must continue to strive to deliver more homes for individuals and families throughout the country. That has to happen across all of the delivery streams, whether it is social housing, affordable purchase housing, cost rental housing, as the Minister of State cited, or private sector housing. No one delivery method is going to resolve the housing crisis we are in. We must maximise delivery across all of those methods.

Tackling the scourge of vacancy and dereliction is a passion of mine, as I know too it is a passion of the Minister of State. We have had a number of hearings recently of the Oireachtas joint committee with local authorities, which have been feeding to us what is working well and where improvements can be introduced. One of those is in the area of vacancy and dereliction. Today, two councils were before the committee, namely, Waterford City and County Council and Limerick City and County Council. Both of those are leading in certain areas. Limerick is leading in the area of compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, where more than 100 units have been placed under CPO in the past three years. What they have done that other local authorities have not is to put funding place to underwrite the purchase of those homes. This is something which is in the Housing for All plan, which the Government has committed to, and which we need to see rolled out so that other local authorities can take the risk in that space to be able to take on the CPO process.

My county of Waterford leads the way in terms of the repair and lease scheme, where in excess of 150 one- and two-bed properties in urban locations have been delivered, whereas there are nine local authorities in the country that have failed to deliver a single unit. Something is wrong there. What is working well in Waterford is they have used the carrot-and-stick approach. They have used the stick of the CPO and they have used the carrot of the repair and lease scheme. They have engaged extensively with the market, with the owners of these properties, with the estate agents, with the local builders and they have actively put a team together to deliver on that scheme. That needs to be replicated in every local authority. One of the impediments that some of the bigger local authorities in Dublin and Cork have cited is the figure of 60,000 and the need to increase that threshold to be able to bring in units in Dublin and Cork in particular.

We have also introduced planning exemptions for the likes of former public houses to be transformed into residential units without the need to go through the planning process. There are examples of that in my county of Waterford. This is a common-sense proposal which was brought forward within committee and implemented by the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, as well as the Minister of State, Deputy Burke. That goes to show the collaborative approach there is in delivering on schemes.

In the time I have left I want to focus on the two issues of home ownership and capitalising on the expected underdelivery in the private rental build market over the coming years. There is an opportunity for the State to step in as a result of the reduction in the PRS sector. We need to instruct councils, the LDA and approved housing bodies to engage actively with the owners of sites that have planning permission. There are a significant number of those in Dublin in particular and we as a State need to activate those sites. We need to forward purchase those developments, or a significant percentage of them, for example 50% or 60%, to underwrite the developments and take them into ownership for cost rental homes through the Land Development Agency. The ability to do that is there because of a slight reduction in terms of the market space.

Another measure that can be introduced in tandem with that, which local authorities have cited at the joint committee, is the reintroduction of the enhanced leasing scheme. I know there are some in opposition who are opposed to that on ideological grounds, but nobody can tell me it is not better to have an individual or a family in a secure, 25-year, long-term lease than it is to have them in a hotel, in emergency accommodation or in unsecured housing assistance payment, HAP, property. Nobody can say it is not better. Yes, there is the issue of value for money and all of the rest of it, but my priority is getting people in secure homes. That is another way we can reactivate some of that, which the Minister of State and his Department should take on board.

On home ownership, this Government is steadfast and my party is steadfast in our commitment to home ownership. We introduced the help to buy scheme. There are many who are opposed to the help to buy scheme. In fact, I would say it is one of the main distinguishing factors between the Government and the Opposition. We want to support young people to get their foot on the property ladder. We have a scheme in place that provides up to €30,000 to allow them to get their foot in the housing market. The Opposition wants to abolish that scheme. It has helped more than 860 people in my county. It has helped in excess of 36,000 people nationally to get their foot on the ladder. We have introduced the first home shared equity scheme. As the Minister of State said in his statement, there have been more than 600 approvals thus far. We are delivering on the local authority affordable purchase scheme, including in my county, where 117 units are open for application today. Families moving into those homes will have an equity stake taken in the property by the State, which will reduce the mortgage amount they have to get to get their foot on the property ladder.

We are therefore doing a lot. Are we doing enough? Of course we can do more, we want to do more and we will do more as a Government because this crisis and putting an end to it is the top priority of this Government. It is something all my colleagues on this side of the House are passionate about. Yet, we do not want to talk down the good work that is being done. We can work collectively and collaboratively to bring forward other proposals, but let us not talk down the good work that is being done in the area of housing.