Minister says local authorities must build houses

Local authorities must return to building houses, the Minister for Communications has told the Dáil.

But Alex White sidestepped calls from the AAA-PBP party and Fianna Fáil to acknowledge that the homelessness crisis was an emergency.

The Labour Minister said Fianna Fáil environment spokesman Barry Cowen wanted to throw around the idea of emergency legislation so that he could use the word "emergency" as often as he could.

Mr Cowen had questioned where the Government’s proposed 150 modular housing units would be located and if planning permission would have been secured within the four months now set as the target date.

‘No solutions’

Mr White accused the Opposition of having no solutions or proposals “other than attack”. He insisted that the Government was addressing the problem and had announced additional funds of €2.2 billion for the social housing strategy.

AAA-PBP deputy Ruth Coppinger said, however, that that funding was for three years.

Mr White accused Ms Coppinger and her colleagues of hypocrisy for opposing in Dublin City Council the immediate roll-out of 115 urgently needed units of modular housing.

Mr Cowen said 130,000 people were on the housing waiting list, and that 2,600 local authority housing units around the State were empty while the Government had cut refurbishment funding.

He said that between 2007 and 2010 some 14,500 units were built on foot of Government policy. In the first three years of this Government, he said, it built 107.

Serious problem

Mr White said the Government accepted there was a serious problem but was addressing it. There was a €37.16 million funding allocation for the Dublin region this year and discussions were ongoing about further 2015 requirements.

Urging the Minister to acknowledge the crisis as an emergency, Ms Coppinger said there were two women in the public gallery who were homeless.

One of these women, the TD said, had nowhere to go on Wednesday night until 5pm and in the end she could not bring her baby with her. She was now expected to travel 25km without transport.

Ms Coppinger asked if the Minister agreed that local authorities had to get back to building houses. Mr White agreed and said it was a “critical element of the approach of the Government to addressing and solving the issue, rather than just talking about it”.