I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 to 15, inclusive, together.

The Cabinet committee on housing last met yesterday, Monday, 15 December. The committee works to ensure a cross-Government approach to the implementation of our commitments regarding housing policy. This week’s meeting was specifically focused on our homelessness challenge, in particular the national housing plan commitments in this regard, including the development of a homeless prevention framework and a child and family homelessness action plan.

We are making good progress on the delivery of homes to those most in need across the country, with the new housing plan committed to delivering 72,000 social homes over its lifetime. However, as we increase supply, we also recognise that those experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness have a wide and complex variety of needs. We need to ensure that the appropriate services and policies are in place to support them. Housing is our single biggest issue as a country, with profound social and economic consequences. That is why it is at the centre of the Government’s focus.

Along with the largest ever commitment on social housing, the new national housing plan commits to delivering 300,000 new homes, including 90,000 affordable supports to help people who are struggling to have a home of their own. The plan sets out the highest ever commitment of State funding for housing, with €28 billion over the next five years, coupled with additional funding through State vehicles, including the Land Development Agency, the Housing Finance Agency, Home Building Finance Ireland, the First Home Scheme and the Irish Strategic Investment Fund. Housing delivery, along with infrastructure and utility investment to enable delivery at scale, is at the core of the agreed national development plan published in July, and, at €275 billion, the largest ever capital injection in the history of the State.

To build homes at the scale now required, we need improved and more resilient water, energy and transport services. We will see large-scale investment in all of these areas over the coming years. Last month under price review 6, the investment plan for energy infrastructure was finalised, including funding allocations of up to €18 billion to ESB and EirGrid, leveraged by the Government injection of €3.5 billion in equity to these companies. This will enable thousands more homes to be connected to the grid.

We have also published the investment plan for water, which sets out over €12 billion investment in our water infrastructure, the majority of which will support the delivery of our housing targets. In addition, we are tackling barriers to delivery, through the accelerating infrastructure report and action plan, which includes reforms which will support public and private sector delivery of homes at scale.

Housing is at the centre of the State’s investment and focus for the coming years. However, to meet our targets, we will also need significant delivery from the private sector and we have implemented a number of measures and reforms in support of this. We have focused on making apartment delivery more financially viable, reformed our planning process and created a stable policy environment to enable the private sector to deliver at scale.

We are seeing indications now that our measures are beginning to take effect, evidenced by CSO data showing that we have had an increase of almost 30% in homes approved for planning in quarter 3 of this year, in comparison with the same time period last year, with the number of apartments approved up by over 50%. These are clear indications of confidence. Work is under way to zone a significantly higher quantum of land across the country. Now is the time for ambitious execution, and we have set out a clear framework and roadmap for the coming years to do this. I am confident that we can build on our success to date and bring about a very significant scale-up in our delivery of housing over the lifetime of this Government.

I thank the Taoiseach. I welcome today's announcement in relation to the vacant property refurbishment grant and the extension of this grant until 2030. This provides important certainty from a policy point of view in relation to vacant properties. We know they are still a very significant challenge. I also welcome the new initiative in relation to the above the shop grant. Up to €140,000, where multiple properties are involved, is potentially available. That is very significant and the fact that it will be available by quarter 1 of the new year is very important. It is important to look at the local authorities and their resourcing in terms of being able to deal with this grant. I ask the Taoiseach to also look at that. We want these grants to be processed in a timely manner so that we can get on with utilising this currently under-occupied space. The resourcing of local authorities is important and I ask the Taoiseach to look at that.

In my constituency between Shanowen Road and Collins Avenue there are proposals to build new apartment developments. While the additional new housing is incredibly welcome, unfortunately the under-utilised industrial estate there is currently occupied by Santry Boxing Club. Would the Taoiseach agree as well as powering ahead with the provision of new housing, Dublin City Council needs to have a more proactive strategy of making land available to sports clubs so they can avail of programmes like the sports capital grant? Santry Boxing Club is an amazing local facility and will be a great facility for those new homes that will be built. As well as enabling new homes, we need to put in place new facilities, and Dublin City Council needs to be more proactive in making land available to sports clubs.

As the Taoiseach said, the delivery of housing is the number one priority for this Government. That is why it is strategically important that all sectors of the Government support that aim, namely through the national development plan's transport sectoral plan, which was published recently. In my constituency, which the Taoiseach visited, we see it as one of the fastest-growing constituencies in the country, with large developments like Adamstown and Clonburris flying ahead. In its county development plans, South Dublin County Council is setting very ambitious targets for zoning. The key to enabling this zoning and to enabling delivery of those homes is the deployment and development of DART+ South West as a transport programme, to intensify the capacity on that line, not only benefitting commuters in Dublin Mid-West but also Kildare North, Dublin South-Central and Dublin-Central.

I am asking the Taoiseach for his support to do all we can to prioritise and bring forward, where possible, the delivery of Dart+ South West as a long overdue infrastructure requirement to not only allow catch-up on public transport in my area but also to plan for the future.

Last February the Government announced its intention to remove the requirement for planning permission for log cabins and modular homes in backyard developments. By the end of the Christmas recess, it will be nearly a year since we heard that announcement. One-off houses in rural Ireland can benefit if we allow log cabins and modular homes to be built not just in backyard developments. They are also one of the few affordable houses out there for young people in rural Ireland whom I speak to. I could give numerous examples of log cabins and modular homes across north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny that are at threat of enforcement proceedings because they do not have planning permission. Enforcement should not be ongoing until we know what these regulations say. In addition, the development contributions for one-off rural houses should be scrapped again. They are simply a privilege for building on your own land. First, will we see these planning regulations that will exempt log cabins? Second, will this go beyond backyard developments and allow them in rural areas? Third, when will we see the regulations?

I call Deputy Ruth Coppinger. One question.

I also send my solidarity to the Jewish community in Sydney following the appalling attack.

I am sure the Taoiseach agrees with me that cities should be liveable and should have culture as well as venues where people can meet, socialise and enjoy themselves. Will the Cabinet committee on housing and local government discuss the issue of The Complex, a very important cultural space in our capital where artists are currently housed but have been given an eviction notice for the middle of January? A protest on this will come to the Dáil tomorrow. I have attended meetings and other get-togethers in The Complex. In fact, it was the venue for the launch of one of the presidential campaigns. Dublin City Council is open to buying The Complex but only if it can be given 80% to 90% of the funding. We need to intervene to buy this for €10 million. It would be €80 million to buy or to build a similar space.

I ask the Taoiseach to consider issuing an upfront fund to local authorities, but to Mayo County Council in particular, in order that they can turn around the vacant properties they have without having to go through the bureaucratic nightmare of applying for funding from central government on a house-by-house, unit-by-unit basis. Can the Taoiseach imagine what it is like to be a homeless person in Mayo watching council houses remain empty month after month while nothing is done? I will give him an example from a young mother in my constituency:

I am homeless, living in a friend's house. I've just had my first baby. She's now a month old. She was born at 36 weeks. I've been in and out of hospital the whole of the pregnancy with stress and anxiety. I developed diabetes also. I was rushed to a Dublin hospital for a week from bleeding and pains. I had a terrible experience. A lot of this stress has been brought on because of my homeless situation.

That is the case for many people.

I too join in the condolences on the attack that happened on the Jewish community in Australia.

I also support the plea for funding for The Complex.

Regarding the Cabinet committee on housing, across the country AHBs have signed turnkey deals that then collapse. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, there was a recent scheme that had the contract signed, everything was above board, they were all ready and, at the last minute, when they were looking for funding, the Department denied the funding for 40 turnkey units. If we are to bring medium-sized and small developers into the market, this risk cannot be acceptable. We will not get the funding from the funding schemes, and it is putting all the risk on the developers. The homes are built, the deal collapses and the investor walks away. We want these small-scale developers to meet the housing targets. I have hundreds of people in my constituency looking for affordable housing, and this cannot happen.

I want to raise the issue of child homelessness. In October there were 5,274 children in emergency accommodation. More than 150 of those were in my county, Meath. There is an expectation that at Christmas there will be more than 5,000 and that almost 1,000 of those will be in emergency accommodation for their second or third Christmas. Are there specific measures the Government will take in advance of Christmas, now a handful of days away, to minimise the number of children in homelessness this Christmas?

We all know the issue that exists in relation to housing, whether it is homelessness, the lack of supply, those who cannot get houses, whether from a rental point of view or a purchase point of view, and those languishing on social housing lists. However, we also have to look at the issue of estate management. I do not believe the local authorities, like Louth County Council, have the necessary powers when dealing with chaotic tenants. They may need supports, but even beyond that, we have seen outright criminality and drug-dealing. We know that AHBs have greater levels of power even in relation to the nuclear action of eviction. That should be the last thing that is looked at but, at the end of the day, it is a requirement. I have worked alongside the Louth local authority, the Garda and others in dealing with some situations and we have attempted to move people sideways to deal with the issue. Some very good work has been done, but we do not have the necessary tools, and that is the problem.

One of the most infuriating parts of the housing crisis is the tens of thousands of properties that have been left idle and decaying throughout the country. Youghal's potential to be on a par with Kinsale for economic prosperity and tourism has been thwarted by the epic scale of dereliction that has been allowed to take place there over many years. Likewise, Castlemartyr and Midleton have many prime-location properties left like deserted husks where boutiques could be flourishing or community hubs or accommodation created. In Holland or Germany this would not be tolerated. Landlords would have to sell up or repurpose a vacant property within a reasonable period or face losing it. The Government's softly-softly approach to vacancy and dereliction is clearly not working, and our towns and villages are haunted by this policy failure. We need to see swift direct action by our local authorities with landlords who blight our streets with decaying properties and a much more urgent pursuit of derelict site levies. The collection of derelict site levies by Revenue is welcome, but why is the Government waiting until 2027 to implement this?

The housing crisis has had varied and wide ramifications in Irish society. One of them is a serious fall in the fertility rate in this State. There has been a 30% fall in the number of births annually. There has been a 20,000 fall in the number of births annually since Celtic tiger times. Some 69% of people aged 25 years or under are living with their parents. Well over 40% of adults who are under 30 are living with their parents. That is changing the very nature of Irish society. The ability for adults to form relationships to have children is being deleted for hundreds of thousands of people. This is having massive ramifications. Schools are now noticing that there is a fall in the number of children being enrolled. An unbalanced demographic structure has serious consequences for our workforce and our pensions. Planning, permitting, licensing, tendering and judicial reviews here are among the slowest in the whole of the European Union. While the Taoiseach's Government has announced plans, they are not ambitious enough and I do not believe they will be implemented in a timely fashion.

There were quite a number of questions there, beginning with Deputy Séamus McGrath. I welcome also the good initiative we have announced today, namely the extension of the vacant refurbishment grant to 2030, but specifically on the commercial properties and the €140,000 plus a €5,000 grant for assistance to support the owner to design a project. The Deputy is right in saying that we need to make sure that the local authorities prioritise this - in other words, that they put a project manager or whatever in charge of this operation in the towns and the cities to make this a reality. It needs to be driven with someone who is accountable and who is doing this every single day, in my view. I will talk to the Minister about that.

We need to alert all the business committees in towns and cities because people need to know. If you combine it with the living city initiative, there are real prospects of, once and for all, getting activity in towns and city centres to address dereliction and allow for change of use. Due to changing patterns of trade and so on, many commercial uses are no longer sustainable, so there is an opportunity for increased numbers residential units in towns and cities.

Deputy McAuliffe raised the topic of the Santry Boxing Club. I was recently with the Land Development Agency, LDA, on the southside, where an existing boxing club has been incorporated into a housing development. A new boxing club is being built in the housing development. That is the way to go. Is the local authority involved in the specific development to which the Deputy referred? It is. The local authority should look seriously at that example. Amenities matter in communities and society. They give young people opportunities. It seems to me that some accommodation must be made for Santry Boxing Club. The other example was a good initiative. The name of the boxing club escapes me now, but the people will have a first-class boxing club as a result of the development. It might be a bigger development. In fairness to the LDA, it saw that needed to be done. The Deputy might give me the details.

Deputy Shane Moynihan spoke about the interdependence of the national transport plan in terms of infrastructure and housing delivery. Housing delivery will depend on infrastructure delivery. I am acutely aware of planning considerations. South Dublin County Council is looking at 10,000 to 18,000 new zonings for housing. That will be dependent on DART+ South West. I have had meetings with the Minister for public expenditure and the Minister for climate and transport, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to ensure we can underpin the development of DART+ South West. We can make progress on that to give the certainty that the council, Deputy Moynihan and the people in the area require.

Deputy Connolly asked about quarterly tables for social housing. He asked about applying such an approach to affordable housing. I will talk to the Minister. It is a fair point. The councils control a bit more for social housing, but outputs should be across the board. The first issue is to highlight those councils that are not performing. It becomes fairly obvious in a league table scenario which councils are not performing. The actions can take a number of forms. We have to work through the actions. There could be disincentives or limited finance. We have to work through that, but there must be consequences or direct action from the State to override councils that are not performing in respect of housing more generally.

Deputy O'Meara spoke about log cabins and modular homes. I hope that the Minister will in February have a list of exempted developments. I understand it has expanded significantly. There have been a lot of submissions from Government Departments and agencies, particularly those with acute issues, including health, for example, where we need urgent public services. The Minister recently indicated to me that it would be February that we will have completion of that. It is fairly complex and much bigger than we originally anticipated.

The rural housing guidelines need to be published. I have asked the Minister to prioritise that. I fully accept what the Deputy is saying about the potential for enabling and helping young people in rural Ireland to afford housing at a reasonable cost when it comes to buying or renting. We will keep an eye on that. We will look at the development levies over time in respect of rural buildings on people's land although services of one kind or another are required.

I fundamentally agree with Deputy Coppinger that cities should be liveable and that there should be strong social support and creative cultural amenities. The Deputy said the local authority is depending on someone else. Other local authorities tend to get on with it and are in a position to facilitate either the acquisition or purchase of a building without having to do the simple equation and getting the Department to pay out for every single acquisition. The Minister for public expenditure has taken an interest in this issue. I will check the current lie of the land in respect of the Complex. I know Deputy Heneghan also raised that issue.

To Deputy Conway-Walsh, I say that there is no reason why voids should take so long. There has to be some framework of control for the Department. We discovered recently with the tenant in situ scheme that houses were being bought with people living in them. Those houses are bought by councils and suddenly there is €80,000 or €100,000 going into the house. The original objective of that was to stop people going into homelessness. When a local authority house becomes vacant, unless there is something majorly wrong structurally, it should be occupied within a month. We have given huge money to local authorities for voids over the past five years. They should get on with it. They let the houses lie idle for too long. It is inexcusable. In some councils, there is inertia. I have seen it. People leave very good houses for one reason or another, the shutters go up and the houses are left there for three or four months. Those houses should be reoccupied once the electrics and everything else are grand. If we have to get around to repairing them, we can at least give someone the house. That is my view. I get impatient about it from time to time, to be honest. I hear what the Deputy is saying. If you give an upfront grant, there is no guarantee it will be spent on voids, and that is the problem.

I do not have the details of the 40-turnkey units to which Deputy Heneghan referred. Are they in Dún Laoghaire?

Yes.

Has the Deputy moved across?

I am national now.

The Deputy has a wide compass. He is national now. I ask him to give me the details and I will follow through. It should not happen. I do not know the background to that.

I appreciate the Deputy's comments about the Jewish community in Ireland and the impact that what happened in Bondi Beach has had on the Jewish community globally and in Ireland. The murder that took place was quite shocking. Others were injured. The Deputy also referenced the Complex.

Deputy O'Rourke spoke about child homelessness. The meeting of the Cabinet subcommittee on housing yesterday was entirely about different aspects of homelessness. We had good presentation of data. The data illustrates that there is a wide variety of reason why people become homeless. There are different factors. There is a high rate for singles in homelessness as well as children. There are different elements to the issue. An increasing amount of those who leave direct provision end up homeless. Family reunification comes with that. The link between migration and housing has grown, but is not the only factor. Family separation is a factor. Different factors give rise to homelessness, and specifically child homelessness. The Minister has specific measures. He achieved €100 million in the budget to acquire social housing and housing more generally to take more families out of emergency accommodation and get them into either local authority houses or acquired homes. There is a specific programme ahead now.

Have I dealt with everyone? I have not.

Deputies Ó Murchú and Tóibín.

How could I forget Deputy Ó Murchú? He spoke about estate management powers to deal with what he described as "chaotic tenants". There are powers. I am not sure that the AHBs have different powers. They just have a different way of operating.

It is about eviction.

They have a different way of operating. They lay it down from the beginning.

It is easier for them to evict people.

Local authorities have struggled with this for quite a long time. My own belief is that persistent misbehaviour and so on should mean you lose the tenancy. That is what should happen. It is hard. We know of housing estates that have awful tensions, difficulties and challenges. I would be glad to work with the Deputy on the issue. I will talk to the Minister about it.

Deputy Quaide spoke about the thousands of houses that have been left lying idle. We give responsibilities to the local authorities. Deputy Connolly talked about league tables. There is a league table showing which local authorities did what in respect of derelict sites. It is very telling. There are two or three that did an exceptional job. If they can do it, why cannot others? It begs the question of whether there is, or has been historically, inertia in local authorities about the Derelict Sites Act. Revenue will now be charged with it. That will bring about a change and better behaviour. The reason for the length of time, and I hope it can be accelerated, is the mapping. I have challenged officials from the Department of Finance and Revenue about this issue. I have asked why the maps are not there already and why they would take so long. Apparently, at the time of the land tax and others, the mapping was not as comprehensive as people would have expected.

That is the issue there. I think it is a game-changer and will be a game-changer.

Deputy Tóibín is making a link between falling fertility and the housing issue. Again, there are a number of variables, I imagine, responsible for that. The bottom line is we do need to provide more housing more quickly to as many young people as possible. It is a social need. Every young person in the country has a right to aspire to owning a home, and many do aspire to owning a home, or some young families being able to rent a home at an affordable cost. We are building substantially more houses than we did five years ago. We are doing about 30,000 odd now compared to 20,000 in 2020. We need to go to 50,000 and we need all hands on deck in that respect. I do not think enrolments are going down in schools yet, I think they are going up.

They are; 30 schools are falling this year. And childcare.