Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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65. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the immediate and urgent actions that will be taken to address the high levels of homelessness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42665/24]

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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67. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if his Department has undertaken any study to determine the rate of homelessness among students; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40067/24]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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69. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 80 of 19 September 2024, the steps being taken to address the crisis in homelessness in Ireland, given that 14,486 people, including 4,419 children, were in need of emergency accommodation in August 2024; the steps planned to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42869/24]

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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What steps have been taken to address the crisis in homelessness? I will mention the figures again, though I think they are actually a little bit higher than this: 14,486 people, including 4,419 children, are in need of emergency accommodation. In Galway, there are no houses available under HAP and homeless services are at full capacity. I am not given to exaggeration; they are the facts in Galway city.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as ucht an cheist seo. I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 , 67 and 69 together.

Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a priority for Government. Critical to supporting households to exit homelessness is increasing the supply of housing. Almost 12,000 new social homes were delivered in 2023, through build, acquisition and leasing, including 8,110 new-build homes, the highest level of new-build social homes in nearly 50 years. Including HAP and RAS, 21,733 social housing solutions were delivered throughout 2023.

Record State investment of over €5 billion has been made available this year to support the largest State home-building programme ever. Budget 2025 will provide €6 billion in capital to help us deliver more social, affordable and cost-rental homes for our people. Funding in 2024 is also supporting the tenant in situ scheme, with provision to acquire 1,500 homes where a social housing tenant has received a notice of termination due to the landlord's intention to sell the property. This scheme delivered 1,830 acquisitions in 2023 and was a key prevention measure. For private tenants at risk of homelessness who are not in receipt of social housing supports, the cost-rental tenant in situ scheme has also been introduced.

An allocation of €303 million, an increase of €61 million on the 2024 provision, has been made under budget 2025 to provide homelessness prevention services, emergency accommodation and other services for households experiencing homelessness. This is a 25% increase on the 2024 budget allocation. This funding will support the provision of emergency accommodation and supports that households require to exit emergency accommodation to a tenancy.

Housing for All also includes measures to enhance family support and prevention and early intervention services for children and their families through a multi-agency and co-ordinated response. Local authorities and their service delivery partners will work closely with all households in emergency accommodation to support them to secure an exit to a tenancy. With the significant increase in social housing stock, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has asked all local authorities to ensure that sufficient homes are being allocated to exit households from emergency accommodation.

I will come back in on a supplementary.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response but I repeat that homeless services in Galway are at full capacity. When someone comes into our office and we ring up, we are told they are at full capacity. Will the Minister of State deal with that? I appreciate he has brought in measures. I appreciate the tenant in situ scheme. The problem is the housing policy is not fit for purpose. It is making the situation worse. We have a kaleidoscope of schemes that are keeping prices artificially high. HAP, long-term leasing and all of those schemes should be phased out. They are part of the problem.

Galway city has produced no affordable housing. I had the figures before me earlier. I hear the Minister has written to all local authorities on affordable housing schemes. There are none in Galway. The Simon report I referred to earlier told us there are no HAP properties available. I am attempting to keep calm and give the Minister of State the facts in the hope he will try to answer them.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Deputy has raised the issue in Galway city on many occasions in the Dáil in recent years. Galway City Council is the housing authority and, through the ambition of the housing strategy, will be met with funding from Government. That has been the consistent approach we have taken with all local authorities.

Considerable progress is being made in addressing homelessness, particularly the work since 2022 giving us the capability to record preventions and exits separately. Quarter 4 2023 prevention figures represent significant increases on those for quarter 4 2022, with 91% more households, 100% more adults and 116% more families prevented from entering homelessness. That is significant progress. We are dealing with the dual challenge of an increasing population and trying to bring housing of all tenure types onstream at pace and scale.

Housing For All is working and it is making important interventions throughout the country. In some cases, homelessness is on the decrease.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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Rebuilding Ireland has not worked. Housing For All has not worked. They are part of the problem. I spent 17 years at local authority level. We stopped building houses in 2009. It is on the record. Construction was suspended. We introduced HAP on a pilot basis and put it on a statutory footing in 2004. People were housed if they got a HAP property. Now there are no houses available at the HAP discretionary rates or ordinary rates. We have the insulting thing - I do not mean the person but the position - of a HAP finding officer. There is no HAP to be found. Will the Minister please read the Simon Communities reports, which it produces quarterly? I read from one to the Minister earlier. They are very easy to read. They are very succinct and give the key findings. There are no HAP properties in Galway. Homeless services are at capacity. There is nowhere for anyone to go. Earlier, I read out the details of a case of a young man with a six-month-old child in a hotel. To a certain extent he is lucky he is in a hotel. That is the homeless situation in Galway because of the policies. We have a task force which is not fit for purpose.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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There is a problem to which the Deputy has referred. There is need for contact with the local authorities to try to ensure every opportunity is taken to prevent homelessness and not to impede the HAP system on top of everything else. People will become homeless very quickly when the tenancy has expired.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The intention and work of the Government is to end the dependency on HAP. A total of 16,000 families have transferred from HAP to permanent accommodation solutions. That is to be noted. The Government has built more social houses in the past four and a half years than in the past 50 years. I was a member of a local authority for 16 years. I remember distinctly during that time when a decision was made to move away from the construction of local authority housing and into reliance on the private market. I believe it was a retrograde step. That is why the Government and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, have set about addressing and undoing it. That is an important part of it.

I have the figures for the target builds for 2022 to 2026 for Galway City Council and Galway County Council. It is important that the local authorities show ambition. The funding is there. It is front-loaded and there in budget 2025. The local authority needs to show considerable ambition in the delivery of housing throughout Galway city.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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We have time for one more question and response. Question No. 70 was taken with an earlier group of questions.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Question No. 72 has been answered.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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Question No. 71 cannot be taken and Question No. 72 has been answered. The next question we can take is Question No. 80.