DÁIL ÉIREANN AN COMHCHOISTE UM THITHÍOCHT, PLEANÁIL, POBAL AGUS RIALTAS ÁITIÚIL JOINT COMMITTEE ON HOUSING, PLANNING, COMMUNITY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Déardaoin, 22 Meitheamh 2017 Thursday, 22 June 2017 Tháinig an Comhchoiste le chéile ag 2 p.m. The Joint Committee met at 2 p.m. Comhaltaí a bhí i láthair / Members present: Teachtaí Dála / Deputies Seanadóirí / Senators Pat Casey, Victor Boyhan, Ruth Coppinger, Colette Kelleher,* Barry Cowen, Jennifer Murnane O’Connor. Fergus O’Dowd, Eoin Ó Broin. * In éagmais / In the absence of Senator Grace O’Sullivan. I láthair / In attendance: Deputies Richard Boyd Barrett and Dessie Ellis. Teachta / Deputy Maria Bailey sa Chathaoir / in the Chair. 1 JHPCLG The joint committee met in private session until 3 p.m. Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness: Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Chairman: At the request of the broadcasting and recording services, members are re- quested to ensure that their mobile phones are completely turned off or switched to airplane, safe or flight mode for the duration of the meeting. It is not sufficient for members to put their phones on silent mode as this will maintain the level of interference with the broadcasting sys- tems. Apologies have been received from Senator Grace O’Sullivan. Senator Kelleher is here in her place. The purpose of today’s meeting is to discuss the third quarterly progress report of the Ac- tion Plan for Housing and Homelessness and emergency accommodation. I welcome to our meeting today the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. On behalf of the committee, I congratulate him on his new appointment. We wish him well and look forward to his ongoing engagement with this committee. I also welcome the Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Lo- cal Government, Mr. John McCarthy, along his departmental colleagues Mr. David Walsh, Ms Mary Hurley, Ms Nina Murray and Mr. Eamonn Waters. I now call on the Minister to make his opening statement. Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (Deputy Eoghan Murphy): I thank the Chairman for her good wishes and I thank the committee for the op- portunity to appear here on one of the first sessions since my appointment as Minister. I see today’s meeting as a chance to hear at first hand the committee’s views on how we can build on the significant progress being made to implement the Government’s Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, as well as discussing the third quarterly progress report. I would also like to take this opportunity to briefly outline what I see as my own priorities for action on housing over the coming months and how I envisage the undertaking of the targeted review of Rebuild- ing Ireland, as signalled by the Taoiseach last week. I am joined today by a number of officials from my Department, as already welcomed by the Chairman. The first quarter report focuses primarily on actions identified for delivery during the first three months of the year, detailing progress under 47 actions across the five pillars of the action plan. In addition, an updated social housing construction status report has been published, set- ting out the position at the end of the first quarter of 2017. Before I run through the highlighted actions in the first few months of this year, however, I will briefly set out some of my own pri- orities over the coming weeks and months. As we approach the first 12-month milestone for Rebuilding Ireland next month, it is timely and appropriate that we take stock of how implementation is progressing, assess the impact of the new investments, policies and initiatives, and consider where we need to focus and redouble our efforts to address the remaining supply and affordability issues. In this regard, it is impor- tant to bear in mind that some of these actions, for example, the infrastructure investment of €226 million, will take some time to make an impact on the building of new homes. What is most important is that the appropriate environment be created to ensure that the housing output that we need comes on stream. As the Taoiseach outlined in the Dáil last week, the Govern- ment’s commitment and mandate to create and foster a republic of opportunity is also an op- 2 22 JUNE 2017 portunity to reflect on the substantial progress already made in delivering more homes to buy or rent, in opening up lands for housing development, in making better use of the empty homes we have, and in supporting those most in need of accommodation. In acknowledging the progress that has been made, I in no way underestimate the challenges remaining. Resolving these challenges remains a top priority for the Government and we must continue to push the boundaries of ambition in what we are doing, whether that is in accelerat- ing and expanding our social housing targets, encouraging and facilitating landlords to offer more and more affordable homes for rent, or maximising the potential re-use of vacant homes in our cities and towns. I am undertaking a prompt, overall review of the Rebuilding Ireland ac- tion plan, focusing on where we can strengthen the measures already in place and identify new initiatives that would add value. I want to be clear that this is not a question of starting again from scratch. The Government clearly signalled back in July 2016 that Rebuilding Ireland had to be a living and evolving plan and that it would be important to refine and review the overall objectives and measures in place as we progress along the implementation journey. This is exactly what we are now doing. All of the evidence and trends point to the fact that the number of new homes being planned, constructed and finished is increasing. Our focus must, therefore, be on maintaining this mo- mentum and on accelerating delivery of more homes to meet current and future demand. I do not want to pre-empt what new or enhanced measures might come out of the review, but I would welcome the views of members here to inform the work that we will be doing over the coming weeks. As members will have already received the latest quarterly update reports, I will give just a brief overview of some of the key areas of progress across the five pillars of the action plan during the first quarter of 2017. As the committee knows, a key priority of Rebuilding Ireland is to address and prevent homelessness. A range of initiatives is contributing to the work in this area. While the over- all ramp-up in social housing delivery is playing an important part, progress is significantly underpinned by a number of specific initiatives, particularly the housing assistance payment targeted at homeless households. I had an opportunity over the past few days to see some of the homeless services in Dublin at first hand, visiting a Dublin Simon Community medical detox and recovery unit, supported emergency accommodation in Carmen’s Hall, and a new project delivering long-term accommodation for homeless individuals and families being provided by the Peter McVerry Trust. This morning, I opened 28 new social housing units which Focus Ire- land has built on Harold’s Cross Road, targeted at homeless individuals with long-term needs, including older people and people with mental health issues. Just over 3,000 sustainable exits from homelessness were achieved last year, an increase of 31% on 2015. Over 200 additional emergency beds were provided. Significant additional re- sources are in place under budget 2017, which will enable the achievement of a further increase this year of sustainable exits from homelessness. In Dublin, the homeless HAP scheme saw more than 400 tenancies created in the first three months of the year, assisting both in prevent- ing homelessness and in providing a pathway out of homelessness for individuals and families already in emergency accommodation. Rebuilding Ireland recognises that accommodating families in hotel arrangements is inap- propriate for anything other than a short period of time. The target set to limit the use of such accommodation to exceptional circumstances by mid-2017 is a challenging one. This is partic- ularly the case as the numbers presenting as homeless between March and May of this year was three times the normal rate of new presentations. While it is a challenging objective, progress 3 JHPCLG is being made. At the end of April the number of families in hotels and bed and breakfasts in Dublin had reduced from 871 to 695. This number will continue to reduce. I expect that the data from the end of May will show a further reduction in this number as additional substantial progress continues to be made week by week. As well as addressing the long-term housing needs of homeless families, housing authorities are also pursuing the delivery of additional and enhanced supported temporary accommodation that is more suitable for the short-term accommodation needs of such households than com- mercial hotel arrangements. These custom-developed facilities will offer family living arrange- ments with a greater level of stability than is possible in hotel accommodation while move-on options to long-term independent living are identified and secured. Such arrangements will also facilitate more co-ordinated needs assessment and support planning, including on-site access to required services such as welfare, health, housing services, cooking and laundry facilities, and appropriate family supports. I had the opportunity to visit one of these new family centres this week, the new Mater Dei facility. It is nearing completion and will provide much improved short-term accommodation for 50 families.