Good afternoon everybody.
I was delighted to accept the kind invitation from the Clanmil Ireland Housing Association to come here today to officially open this new housing development at Valhalla, Clondalkin. It is indeed a nice start to my new role as Minister of State. I want to thank Clanmil Ireland Chairman Deiric Ó Branonáin, Chief Executive Martina Smith and their team for their very warm welcome.
I am pleased to see so many organisations and institutions represented here today - fellow Oireachtas Members, the Mayor of South Dublin, Cllr. Fintan Warfield and local Councillors, members of the Clanmil Ireland, Cheshire Ireland, representatives of various Housing Associations, of public sector organisations and of South Dublin County Council. Most importantly of all, I’m pleased to meet the new residents of the houses here in Valhalla and to welcome you to your new homes.
Over recent years, many have said that volunteerism is in decline. If anybody has doubts about the sheer enthusiasm of people to put the welfare of others above self-interest, just take look around you today. One cannot but be impressed by the spirit and determination of people to help individuals and families in times of difficulty, some of them less fortunate than ourselves.
This magnificent facility here only became a reality through the vision and determination of so many people, giving freely and willingly of their talents and their time. There’s no denying that the funding under my Department’s Capital Assistance Scheme was a key ingredient. However, when you harness all of these resources through leadership and drive, you can transform them into a powerful force for doing good. You know that. You did it right here on this spot.
Visiting here today I can see the added value my Department’s funding gives in facilitating the magnificent work done at community level by people like yourselves. I take great satisfaction from the way you used the CAS funding to make the vision for Valhalla a reality. You are an inspiration to us all.
The building itself has been finished to a very high specification and I understand that there are plans to include it as an example of best practice.
Valhalla is also part of the pilot scheme under the Government’s “Towards Carbon Neutral” initiative and has been designed to achieve the best practice in relation to sustainability both with regard to provenance, reusability and recyclability of materials and building energy consumption.
We have come through some very challenging times of late. Constraints on capital budgets have changed the way in which housing needs are addressed. One of the greatest challenges facing the Government is addressing the significant housing supply crisis that affects both the private housing and the social housing sectors equally. Last May, the Government published Construction 2020 – A Strategy for a Renewed Construction Sector. The strategy contains 75 Actions in total and my Department, together with the Housing Agency, will be involved in the delivery of more than 30 of these Actions.
In addition to my role as Minister of State I have also been assigned responsibility by Government for the oversight and co-ordination of this Strategy. A crucial Action item of Construction 2020 is the publication of a Social Housing Strategy later this year.
This new Strategy will build on the strengths of the sectors key players and will provide a coherent, sustainable and reliable framework for the delivery of social housing support in Ireland. In preparing the strategy, we need to undertake a fundamental re-appraisal of the roles, responsibilities and organisational structure of the key stakeholders. That includes my own Department and its Agencies, the local authorities and the Approved Housing Bodies. We need to ask ourselves if we are assisting the right people, in the right way and with the right skills and tool sets.
We don’t have a monopoly on wisdom and we have asked for, and will appreciate, submissions from all interested parties on the strategy. Submissions can be made through the Housing Agency before the end of this month and, if you haven’t done so already, perhaps you would share your thoughts and views with us.
Many of you here today are seasoned housing practitioners and I’m sure you have strongly held and soundly based ideas that challenge the traditional approach to social housing provision and which could be usefully used in boosting supply.
The housing market has changed radically in recent years and the existing arrangements which underpin the funding of social housing supports is no longer able to match supply with need. We need to address this imbalance. There is a particularly acute supply and demand issue here in Dublin and this, in turn, is giving rise to increasing rent levels and accompanying affordability issues for many households. As many of you here today will appreciate, we need to rapidly ramp up the delivery of social housing in the short-term. To facilitate this we need to look at utilising State-owned assets and land banks and innovative ways of attracting off-balance sheet investment by both the wider construction/property sector and the Approved Housing Bodies.
The Social Housing Strategy will address all of these issues and set out a range of targeted initiatives to bridge the gap in supply. This is a time for fresh thinking and innovative approaches. You can play your part in shaping that strategy by sharing your wisdom with us through the Housing Agency.
Returning to the task on hand, the social housing model here at Watery Lane underpins the integrated approach to providing housing accommodation along with appropriate care for the residents of Valhalla. The partnership approach between my Department, Clanmil Ireland and South Dublin County Council has resulted in the delivery of homes for up to 12 residents, with an investment of almost €2.8 million from my Department.
I want to commend Clanmil Ireland for developing this much needed housing project and embracing the “Carbon Neutral” initiative. My thanks also to the staff of South Dublin County Council – the Chief Executive Officer Danny McLoughlin and his staff in the Housing team under Director of Housing, Billy Coman.
So, to conclude, I would like to complement all those who gave so unselfishly of their time and energy in developing this state of the art facility. Most importantly of all, I welcome you, the residents, to your new homes. I wish you all healthy and happy times in these lovely surroundings.
Thank you.