A £2 billion social housing plan, providing for 32,000 new homes over the next four years, was announced by the Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy. A total of 22,000 local authority houses are to be built at an estimated cost of £70,000 each. In addition, 10,000 voluntary sector homes, costing £50,000 each, will be provided.
Mr Molloy said the funding package had recently been agreed with the Minister for Finance, ad ding it was the first "multi-annual" public housing scheme. As such, it would enable local authorities to front-load the development of new homes if they were in a position to do so.
Mr Molloy stressed the "enormous contribution" made by the voluntary sector in helping meet the State's housing needs. He was "committed to ensuring the kind of Government support for the sector that is essential if it is to achieve its full potential".
The 10,000 voluntary sector homes are expected to be built on a phased basis, from 1,000 next year to 4,000 in 2003. Last year, the voluntary sector produced only 500 houses.
Mr Molloy said large-scale investment was essential to keep pace with the demands of a rapidly expanding economy and to ensure the expansion continued.
"The conservative thing to do would be to keep capital spending on housing in check, but that would not be the prudent thing to do." The investment reflected the PDs' commitment "to ensuring that every family in this country can have a home of their own".
Mr Molloy also stressed the need for higher residential densities, a greater supply of serviced land for housing and maximising the use of the rail network. He said the pressure on housing in major urban areas could be greatly reduced if short-range commuter rail links to major population centres were developed.
Father Pat Cogan, chief executive of Respond, a voluntary housing association, called for regulation of the property investment market. There was a need for truly integrated social housing with people from mixed economic and social backgrounds. He was a guest speaker during the debate on housing and transport.
Respond was set up in 1982 to provide accommodation for low-income families and to establish "self-managing communities". Since its foundation it has provided more than 1,500 homes and plans a further 1,000 for this year.
Father Cogan said viable local communities which the residents managed were now in place. They decided on their own rents and collected them to lodge to Respond. As a result they had only 1 per cent in real arrears over the years. Enough trust and confidence had not been developed in low-income people to manage their own affairs, he said.
He told the conference of plans for a 134-house estate in Drogheda. It would include some private housing which they would sell at the market price. The profits from that would be used for rental houses for low-income families and the elderly. There would be a day-care centre in the estate and resources would go into providing secure housing for the residents. Father Cogan praised successive governments for developing housing, but he said the needs of people most in want of housing had not been responded to.
Councillor Jim Cousins from Dundalk called for the registration of landlords. In Louth, just 25 per cent were registered, so unscrupulous landlords were "alive and well and bleeding those who can't afford their own homes".