Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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461. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government his views on comments in the ninth report of the Special Rapporteur for Children that the State is failing to deliver on the right of children to adequate housing and protection against forced evictions and that consequently it is in breach of its international obligations due to the numbers of children in emergency accommodation. [40305/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the Ninth Report of the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection submitted to the Oireachtas on November 18th 2016.

In relation to housing, the Special Rapporteur refers to the work of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which reviewed Ireland's compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights during 2015. In their report, the UN Committee expressed concern at the housing situation in Ireland, and noted in particular the limited supply of social housing and the level of homelessness amongst families and children. The Committee went on to urge Ireland to adopt policies to tackle these problems.

It is important to note that the report in question reflected the position at the end of 2015. Since the UN Committee's observations were made, the Government has published the Rebuilding Ireland Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness. Under that Action Plan, launched in July 2016, urgent action is being taken to deal with the challenges that currently exist in the housing sector and which were referred to by the UN Committee. The Plan sets out a clear roadmap to achieve the Government's goals to significantly increase and expedite the delivery of social housing, boost private housing construction, improve the rental market, and deliver on the commitment to see housing supply, in overall terms, more than double to some 25,000 new homes every year by 2020.

The Action Plan has a particular focus on meeting the housing needs of the most vulnerable members of Irish society. It is recognised that accommodating family units in hotels is inappropriate for anything other than a short period of time and a very clear target has been set to ensure that by mid-2017, hotels are used only in very limited circumstances for emergency accommodation for families. With regard to social housing, 47,000 new social housing units will be provided by 2021 under the Action Plan, at a cost of €5.35 billion.

With reference to evictions, I believe that there are now robust legal protections in place across all tenure types to ensure that families are not removed from their homes without access to appropriate redress. Security of tenure in the social housing sector is well protected by the provisions of the Housing Acts 1966 to 2014. Social housing tenancies are lifetime in nature and evictions can only take place in very limited and prescribed circumstances. Social tenants have a right under legislation to appeal any decisions made to evict. However, I know that local authorities are committed to working with their tenants to resolve their housing problems with evictions seen very much as a last resort.

In relation to the private rented sector, key concerns for households relate to rent uncertainty and associated security of tenure concerns. The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 introduced a right to a four year tenancy (recently increased to 6 years), with limited grounds for a termination where a tenant has been in occupation for six months continuously and no notice to quit has been served. Amendments introduced in the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 strengthen the protections around tenancy terminations by providing for measures that will guard against, for example, landlords falsely declaring that the property is needed for a family member, or that it is going to be sold. In addition, the Act provides for graduated increases in the notice periods that must be given to tenants of the termination of a tenancy so that a landlord must now give a tenant up to a maximum of 224 days' notice for tenancies of 8 years or more. The Act also provides, inter alia, that the minimum period between rent reviews for tenancies is increased from 12 to 24 months. In addition, the Act increased the minimum period of notice of new rent from 28 days to 90 days.

The Strategy for the Rental Sector, which I published in December 2016, is building on this work by introducing a Rent Predictability Measure, to cap rent increases at 4% per year in designated Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs). RPZs have now been given a statutory basis via the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016. The measure was introduced with immediate effect in the four Dublin local authority areas and in Cork city. RPZs are to be designated for a maximum period of three years by which time it is anticipated that new supply will have come on stream and pressures will have eased somewhat in the areas concerned.