Housing: Kelly says emergency legislation could be introduced

Emergency legislation will be introduced if necessary to deal with the housing crisis, Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has said.

Mr Kelly said he intended to have a “certain amount” of modular units (prefabricated houses) in place for people looking for homes before Christmas.

Emergency legislation, if necessary, would be introduced to fast forward planning, he told RTÉ’s The Week in Politics.

The Minister was speaking after Fr Peter McVerry said taoiseach Enda Kenny must accept responsibility for the homelessness crisis and must now intervene in it as a national emergency.

Fr McVerry said although Mr Kelly, got all the blame for the crisis, he cannot solve it on his own.

At a housing conference on Saturday, the campaigner said the Department of Social Protection bore a large part of the responsibility as did local authorities and the Departments of Health and Finance.

“The Department of Social Protection – their refusal to increase the rent supplement has resulted in over 1,000 families becoming homeless in the last 18 months. So while the Department of the Environment is trying to find accommodation for people and families who are becoming homeless the Department of Social Protection is directly responsible for creating homelessness

“Alan Kelly is trying to empty the water out of the bath but the Department of Social Protection is keeping the taps on full. Other agencies of course who have an input are the Department of Finance. Often the local authorities and Finance are pulling against one another,” Fr McVerry said

The Department of Health had a role in causing homelessness as it had “dramatically” reduced funding to addiction services, which caused some, who could not beat addiction, to lose their homes.

“And Nama has a key role to play. All of these players have a significant role to play in addressing the housing crisis. They are all doing their own thing and in some cases are pulling against one another.”

He was speaking as the most recent data showed there were 1,275 children in homeless accommodation in Dublin in August, in 607 families. This compared with 780 children, in 359 families, in January.

More than 3,000 adults accessed emergency accommodation in Dublin between April and June – the highest number since records began in 2010.

“So I believe the responsibility is now on the Taoiseach, to call a national housing emergency,” said Fr McVerry. “He is the only person who can address this problem and he is the person who has to accept responsibility. He has to declare an emergency and he has to bring all of these players together, devise a strategy. They have to be singing off the same hymn sheet and he has to ensure that they do that.

“Alan Kelly can’t do this on his own. The only person who can is the Taoiseach. I believe now that the focus of our campaign should be on the Taoiseach. If he cannot address this problem in a significant way before the election maybe we should have a Taoiseach who can address the problem.”

On Sunday, Mr Kelly said: “I welcome Fr McVerry’s comments. I agree with his comments to a large extent. I met with him during the week for an hour and a half. He knows what we’ve put forward. He knows the package and the efforts that are being made by my department.”