We have to work very hard with local authorities to help them to deliver faster on the land they own. I agree with this and I have made and restated that point here. It is a priority for me as Minister. The Deputy mentioned the Oscar Traynor Road site. Four times, that site has gone out for expressions of interest. It is a fine plot of ground that could house hundreds of people. It is frustrating for me when I see these things taking so long. The Deputy mentioned the serviced sites fund. The fund can be used better…

I thank Deputy O'Callaghan for the question. Addressing homelessness, as we mentioned at a committee meeting earlier, is an absolute priority for me and my colleagues in government and, no doubt, everyone in the House. The programme for Government commits to reducing and preventing homelessness and provides details on how the Government will approach this challenge. The national implementation plan for Housing First was published in September 2018. The plan, which includes an overall target of 663 tenancies in the …

I will get the date of publication and send it on to the Deputy. The Housing First data are published quarterly and are as up-to-date as we can get them. It is expected that services delivered in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Dublin will be extended to the south west, mid-west and west. That is the plan. We have to ensure the requisite services, particularly health services, are in place. I mentioned earlier that I chair a regional drugs and alcohol task force. I see on the ground the importance of ensuring we have HS…

I cannot give the Deputy a commitment today. I have engaged intensively with the HSE in this regard. One of the first things I did when I was appointed Minister was set up a homelessness delivery task force. It meets every week and is made up of the stakeholders such as the homelessness NGOs and the tenancy advocates, as well as senior officials in my Department. From that has evolved a formal team set up between my Department and the Department of Health. I want to see that engagement at a much greater level. I ag…

I thank the Deputy for his question. Every single death in this regard is tragic and a loss to a family, as well as the support network looking after those individuals and the many committed volunteers working in homeless services. Tackling homelessness is an absolute priority for me. Since taking office, as I just said to Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, I have met a wide range of stakeholders and have established the high-level homelessness task force which I chair. I have also engaged regularly with the Minister for Hea…

I agree with the Deputy. I am focused on doing whatever we can to ensure that the deaths in our homeless community are reduced as much as possible. It is obvious that we need to do that. That is why the first measure I took was establishment of the homelessness task force which I chair. Addiction services are important, as are mental health services and health teams. We have seen through Covid that the better response to the more vulnerable in our community, particularly the homeless sector, with better health outc…

That is something we do in the context of every death that takes place. The issue of quantifying such deaths is that there is then a push to comment on each individual death. We have to respect the privacy of the individual and his or her family, as well as the fact that in many instances there are issues other than homelessness, such as serious health issues. We have to be cognisant of that. I understand how people feel when they see someone dying on the streets in a modern country like Ireland. It is not somethin…

I thank the Deputy for the question. The Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Covid-19) Act 2020 provided a temporary moratorium on tenancy terminations, other than in exceptional or limited cases, and on all increases in rent during the period from 27 March to 1 August 2020. The emergency measures aimed to assist in restricting the movement of people to suppress the spread of Covid-19 and applied to all tenants irrespective of their financial circumstances. The Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020 ta…

The facts simply do not bear that out. The Deputy voted against these protections in July this year that we brought forward to put protections on tenancies. These were not just temporary protections relating to the pandemic but also in relation to dealing with rent arrears, the extension of the rent arrears notice, the fact that if a landlord issues a rent arrears notice, it has to go to the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, and the fact that the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, is now linked into the proc…

If the Deputy has any information or facts around landlords who are trying to circumvent regulations, he should bring it to the attention of the RTB. Since the RTB was empowered to initiate sanctions against landlords, it has processed information in relation to 704 tenancies and this has led to commencing investigations on nearly 200. That is what needs to happen. That is why we need to beef up the RTB as well, not just giving it the additional powers but the additional resources it needs to carry out its work and…

I thank my colleague, Deputy Brendan Smith, for raising this matter and agree with him completely. It is a frustration for all of us to see housing stock that is not in use and that is why, in July this year, I announced €40 million in funding and a targeted approach for all 31 local authorities to bring voids, which are vacant stock, back into use. We set each of the local authorities a target and asked them to make their submissions to the Department. I am pleased to tell the Deputy that 2,411 properties have alr…

I thank the Deputy. He has raised the important point that the voids programme provides local employment. The programme provides housing for local people and a lot of the work involves smaller local contractors. The scheme that the Government brought forward in July created 750 jobs across the country. We need that to be sustainable into the future. I mentioned earlier that we need to revise how local authorities assess properties before they are re-tenanted. That needs to be done and I am asking officials to do it…

To conclude, it is a priority. We want to build more new homes. Covid has had an impact on output this year. I mentioned to colleagues earlier that between 16,000 and 18,000 house completions will happen this year, half, or even less, of which will be local authority completions between acquisitions, leasing and builds. There is even greater pressure to use the existing stock we have in a better way. The frustration people feel when they see empty homes although they have been waiting for eight, nine or ten years o…

Did Deputy Murphy ever vote for a development plan?

Does the Deputy oppose the supply of 597 homes?

Does the Deputy oppose the provision of 597 homes?

I thank the Deputy for his valid question. All of us hope that we do not have to move up further through the levels. Work is ongoing with regard to other measures that may have to be taken in the future, particularly if it was a level 5 event. I earnestly hope that will not be the case. I know the Deputy is aware of the protections that are in place under the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020. Even though some do not want to accept it, there has been a significant tapering off of terminations of tenancie…

The Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, published its quarterly report on 2 October and within that are some of the facts that pertain to the positive effect within the market of the new protections and the new legislation the Government brought forward. As a result of the legislation we are now able to track the number of 28-day warning letters for rent arrears issued. We were not able to track that previously but it is now in law. We can do it because once a warning letter is issued the landlord must copy it to the…

From the medical advice that we are given there is no question that people moving through society during a virus pandemic enhances the risk of its spread. That is the reason measures were taken by the previous Oireachtas and why further measures have been taken here to protect tenants. It is something that we will watch. Significant permanent changes were made in the Residential Tenancies and Valuation Act 2020 relating to arrears, assistance and notification periods, which is very important, and also to determinat…

I thank Deputy Ó Broin. Funding local government is a serious issue and something all of us want to ensure because they have had a very tough time. I take this opportunity to thank the staff in the 31 local authorities across the country who have gone above and beyond the call of duty during this pandemic. Our citizens saw the commitment of the women and men in local authorities to serving their communities. That is admirable and, therefore, I want to make sure our services are not diminished in any way. Earlier at…