I raise an issue that arose just before Christmas. Two weeks ago, I tabled a question to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage relating to a family in Crumlin that was facing possible homelessness. The family, with two children, one of whom has autism, had been renting the same house for 18 years. The landlord wanted to sell the house and because of his relationship with the family, he approached Dublin City Council, DCC, to offer it the property for sale. He wanted to keep the family in their home. He was told that the council was not acquiring properties as before. Councillor Pat Dunne followed this up with the housing manager but was told that due to a directive issued by the Minister in December, DCC was prohibited from buying the property. In his reply to my question, the Minister said he was keen that local authorities and approved housing bodies, AHBs, avoid competing with potential private purchasers for available properties. Fortunately, I just heard today that DCC has exercised its discretion and has agreed to buy the property.

The reversal of the policy of encouraging local authorities and AHBs to buy housing stock instead of building directly would make sense if the State was building the level of public housing that is required but that is not happening. In the midst of a homelessness crisis, it is a blunt and crude measure which could have resulted in a family being made homeless as a direct consequence of a Government directive. Homelessness is on the rise and has increased by 14% since May 2021. There were 9,099 people in emergency accommodation in November, including 2,548 children. According to the Simon Community, only 11% of the rental properties that were available in December accepted the housing assistance payment, HAP, which equates to 148 out of a total of 1,350 properties across 16 areas, including major cities.

The concern of the Minister is that local authorities and AHBs buying up properties was partly responsible for squeezing people out of the market but the real issue is the role of institutional investors. Government policy is to encourage such investors. An update to Housing for All states that the Department is engaging with institutional investors to encourage sustainable investment in residential accommodation. Of the €12 billion needed to build 33,000 units per year, which is the target in Housing for All, a full €10 billion is expected to come from the private sector. This reliance on the private sector and the policy to effectively stop building public housing which dates from the 1980s are at the root of the housing and homelessness crisis.

The targets in Housing for All are not being met either by the private sector, the local authorities or the AHBs. In total, 20,400 houses were built in 2021, which is 12,000 below the target, as also happened in 2020 and 2019. That is a total of 36,000 houses below the target in three years. Between 2017 and 2020, the total of social housing stock only rose by less than 10,000. The Housing for All target is to build 9,000 social housing units per year but in the first three quarters of last year, just 3,144 units were built and two thirds of these were not new builds but were bought from private developers.

The situation is a mess and the people suffering the most are the aforementioned family in Crumlin and many other families who could be facing homelessness in the future. Will the Taoiseach and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government change the directive issued to the local authorities and permit priority acquisitions in specific circumstances so that families and individuals do not face eviction into homelessness?

I thank Deputy Joan Collins for raising the issue and am glad that the particular family's situation has been resolved, with DCC now facilitating the purchase of the house. I think the Deputy said there were two children with special needs in the house.

Common sense and flexibility should always apply in situations like this. Councils have flexibility.

The target this year is for 12,000 social homes, of which 9,000 are to be direct build, between approved social housing bodies and local authorities. I can recall a year ago or longer that people were saying local authorities were not building enough social housing. I said it myself when I was in opposition. We want local authorities building houses as the core activity in housing provision along with approved social housing bodies. I am talking here in the context of social housing. We do not want acquisition to be the alternative to local authorities building their own homes and getting houses built. That is the point.

From a policy orientation point of view, the clear message to local authorities has to be that their route to social housing provision is primarily through construction, either by the local authority or the approved social housing body. In certain circumstances, there can be acquisitions. In the phasing out of the leasing situation, which has been ongoing for some time and helps in respect of homelessness and the immediate issues the Deputy just raised, there has to be flexibility when situations present themselves to councils in respect of particular families or sets of circumstances so that the councils can respond flexibly. That flexibility has to be there.

In addition, €4 billion of State funding will be provided for housing, both social affordable and cost rental, per annum for the duration of the plan. In addition to that, an estimated €10 billion is required for private house developments that will be needed. We need private sector investment in addition to the public investment to get to the 33,000 completions a year that we want.

The Deputy, in her presentation, omitted the reality of the pandemic and its impact on housebuilding. She said the targets were not met in 2020. That is obvious because of the prolonged lockdown that year. The same happened in 2021 when there was a prolonged lockdown, unfortunately, because of the Alpha variant. That went on for three to four months. That impacted on public sector housebuilding outputs and in terms of private sector housebuilding. Housebuilding made a good recovery in the latter half of the year. There were 31,000 commencements in 2021 and about 38,000 planning permissions were granted. The pipeline is getting much better. It is not a mess at all and we have clear visibility now in terms of the social housing pipeline and private housing.

The Land Development Agency, LDA, has been established on a statutory basis. It has a number of projects ready to go. It has also developed Project Tosaigh which works with developers on projects that had been lying dormant even though they had planning permission. The LDA is there to activate those to get houses built fast so that the people who need housing can get it.

For clarity, I made the point that 20,400 houses were built in 2021, which is 12,000 below the target. That also happened in 2020 and in 2019, which was before the pandemic.

My question relates to the directive. Dublin City Council obviously did not get clarity that it could intervene in these situations. I outlined to the Minister the situation with the family who were facing homelessness. He replied that he was keen that local authorities and approved housing bodies avoid competing with potential private purchase for available properties. He raised specific priority acquisitions of one-bedroom units to deliver for Housing First, etc. He concluded by saying that he understood that Dublin City Council had informed his Department that as the property did not fall under the priority categories for acquisitions, it was not in a position to acquire it at that time. If that is what Dublin City Council was reading from the directive, there is a great danger that situation is being replicated around the country. I am asking the Taoiseach to intervene and clarify the directive for the local authorities that specific purpose acquisitions should also be used when families and others are facing homelessness through evictions.

I have not seen the detail of the particular case but what the Deputy read was that the council told the Minister it did not feel it came within the priorities. There is an issue of why it did not feel that was the case. However, it clearly does now.

The councils are under huge pressure.

I can appreciate that. It is good for the family that it happened. Remember there was a debate here almost a year ago on acquisitions.

People in this House wanted ordinary people to be able to buy houses in estates without being outbid by the councils or institutions.

That is not the issue.

It is the rationale behind the general policy. We do not want individuals or couples competing with the council all the time to buy a house. That is the balance that has to be achieved here. The primary focus we want from local authorities is to concentrate on getting social houses built directly. We need more housebuilding on all fronts. This includes the private sector, agencies like the Land Development Agency, LDA, local authorities and approved social housing bodies. They all need finance in different guises to enable the financial capacity to be put behind what will be a massive housebuilding programme for the next ten years.

Will he talk to the Minister about that?

Yes. I will talk to him about what the Deputy has raised as well.