I am happy to allow the Minister of State to answer Deputy Boyd Barrett's question.

I thank the Minister of State. My apologies for being late. Unfortunately, I have just come from a meeting to try to finalise amendments to another Bill for which amendments have to be submitted by 11 a.m. tomorrow, in spite of the fact that Second Stage of the Bill has not even started, let alone finished and, apparently, we will only be given a very short amount of time. As regards the Bill before the House, we are dealing with two issues on which I suspect most Members present are in agreement, that is, the fair…

May I make a final response? I will not labour the point but our job is not just to say whether we are for or against what the Government is doing. Deputies Cian O'Callaghan, Boyd Barrett and I spend a lot of time in committee. We take our job as legislators very seriously. Even when it comes to the things the Government is doing that we support, we want to make sure the language and the text is right. For example, when rent pressure zones were first being introduced, that was done in such a rush that the mathemati…

You are the boss.

As the Minister is aware, the homeless figures released by the Minister’s Department for April saw yet another significant increase in adult and child homelessness in respect of emergency accommodation funded by the Minister’s Department. There were an extra 91 adults and 133 children, which is a month-on-month increase from March to April of 224 people. We are now back above the significant mark of 10,000 people being in this position. Based on the current trajectory, we could hit the figure of having 11,000 peopl…

Monday is the second anniversary of the formation of this Government and of the Minister being elevated to his portfolio. In these two years, homelessness has increased by 16%. Since the Covid-19 related ban on evictions was ended last April, we have seen a 24% increase in the official figures for homelessness. We are perilously close to having 5,000 single adults in emergency accommodation, which would be the highest figure since records began. We have also had an alarming increase, not under the auspices of the M…

There is still some confusion and inconsistency among local authorities regarding tenants in situ . Following requests from many of us, I welcome that the Minister has amended this provision. The Minister could go one step further and issue a circular to say that, given the escalating level of presentations, the Minister is insisting that local authorities purchase properties where tenants receiving HAP or rental accommodation scheme, RAS, payments are in situ . I think some local authorities will apply criteria th…

As the Minister knows, two of the most important affordable housing development for the city of Dublin are the Dublin City Council led social and affordable cost-rental project in St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore and the requirement under the strategic development zone for Poolbeg to deliver an additional 15% affordable homes on top of the 10% Part 5 allocation. There is significant concern about the delivery of any genuine affordability, in particular in Poolbeg, and due to ongoing delays with St. Michael's Estat…

The concern with St. Michael's Estate is that, while the planning application will go in at the latter end of this year, and that will take time, there will be potential cost increases if the post-planning, pre-construction phase of that development is elongated. In some cases projects of this size can take up to two years to get to construction. I have said before that it would be sensible for the Minister to meet with Opposition spokespeople in advance of planning being granted, not to discuss the planning applic…

I have two specific propositions. As for St. Michael's Estate, I think the development could be greatly progressed if the Department were to firm up the commitment to have a single point of approval within the Department for mixed-tenure projects. That was one of the considerations to come out of the review. This is the ideal project on which to test that. There needs to be a senior official who has the ability to drive the decisions rather than waiting for others. Also, we need to look at the cost appraisal and th…

Two developments where affordable housing has been significantly delayed are in Boherboy Road in Cork and Kilcarbery Grange in my constituency. The Boherboy Road development was substantially completed at the end of the year but the properties have still not been put on the market for affordable purchasers. The Kilcarbery Grange development was put on the market recently but eligible applicants have been refused mortgages by the banks on the grounds that it is a Government affordable housing scheme. Is the Minister…

I thank the Minister. It is significant that we are talking about very small numbers of homes in both locations and, in fact, in the case of a number of the homes that the Minister cited in Cork, while they may be completed this year, it is unlikely that they will be purchased or occupied until next year. That is, however, a separate matter. My understanding of the problem that has been experienced with the sale of the property in Kilcarbery in south Dublin is a little more substantive. Individuals had mortgage app…

With respect to the pipeline in my own constituency, the pipeline of affordable homes is not very strong. It is anaemic to say the least. There will not be 100 affordable homes in Rathcoole because Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil councillors voted to de-zone the land. We may get some social housing in there, but greatly reduced from what was originally planned. Likewise, while we have just approved a Part 8 decision in Clondalkin for much-needed affordable homes, there will only be about 50 there and Kilcarbery will only…

I understand the Minister received in December a copy of the review of the social housing income eligibility threshold from the departmental officials. This is a matter that requires an urgent decision. More and more people are being done out of access to social housing supports. More and more people are having their social housing supports withdrawn. We even have a situation where people in emergency accommodation who breach the limit are being written to and told their emergency accommodation will be denied. When…

I thank the Minister of State. My problem is that he did not answer the question. The information he has given us is very useful although I think everybody in the House knows it. The question is very simple. When will the review be published? What resolution of this is the Minister considering? People are being taken off the housing list week on week. I have been contacted about two cases, not in my constituency, where the income of people in emergency accommodation has increased and they have been given letters te…

I cannot stress enough the urgency of this. I will take the example of a couple in my constituency who are €500 or €1,000 above the social housing eligibility threshold. If they were to avail of the cost rental that is coming through Tuath in Kilcarbery, they would be spending almost 50% of their net income on rent. Cost rental does not work for that cohort. What that tells us is that we have to raise the thresholds. I absolutely appreciate it will take some significant assessment to determine to what level it is i…

They were not voids. The vast majority were not voids.

Answer the question. It is a simple question.

The Minister of State does not have the answers, if we are honest.

The Ministers just provoke us too much.