A HOME OF YOUR OWN

Adequate Homes

In addition to significantly increasing supply and affordability, Sinn Féin’s housing plan will also ensure that people have access to safe, secure, and adequate homes. This will require a strengthening of the building control and building product surveillance functions in Local Authorities and a comprehensive redress scheme for those living with building defects.

It will mean providing a pathway for the public and private development sectors to build homes from lower carbon building materials and to reuse existing buildings and building materials. It will involve ensuring that homes are not only well built and sustainable but properly designed to make a positive contribution to the built environment. Importantly it will also mean addressing inequality within the housing system to ensure that those groups most excluded from adequate housing have their needs not only met but prioritised. 

Homelessness

Sinn Féin believes that it is possible to end long term homelessness and the need to sleep rough. We fully support the objectives set out in the Lisbon Declaration on Homelessness signed by the current Government in June 2021. That declaration commits the Government to work towards the ending of homelessness by 2030, so that: 

∙ No one sleeps rough for lack of accessible, safe and appropriate emergency accommodation.

∙ No one lives in emergency or transitional accommodation longer than is required for successful move-on to a permanent housing solution. 

∙ No one is discharged from any institution (e.g. prison, hospital, care facility) without an offer of appropriate housing.

∙ Evictions should be prevented whenever possible and no one is evicted without assistance for an appropriate housing solution, when needed.

∙ No one is discriminated against due to their homelessness status.

Achieving these ambitious goals requires a clear plan to prevent people from becoming homeless, to improve the quality of emergency accommodation for those who are homeless and to increase the number of homes allocated to singles, couples and families in emergency accommodation.

Homeless numbers

Currently there is no comprehensive data on the number of people sleeping rough or living in emergency accommodation. Nor is there any reliable data on the number of people without a home of their own but not in emergency accommodation, often called the hidden homeless.

In Government Sinn Féin would immediately reconvene the Homelessness Data Sub Group involving the Housing Agency, Homeless Service Providers and relevant academic specialists. The group would be tasked with agreeing a methodology to provide an accurate count of all those people experiencing homelessness. The group would report quarterly detailing the number of rough sleepers, the number of people in all forms of emergency accommodation and the number of people without a home. The Department of Housing would continue to produce their monthly report of people in emergency accommodation funded by that Department. 

Ending Homelessness Action Plan

Within three months of Government formation the Department of Housing will publish a five-year action plan detailing how the objectives of the Lisbon Declaration will be achieved by 2030. The action plan will include clear timelines and deadlines for all actions. The action plan will be produced in consultation with homeless service providers and service users, Local Authorities and relevant academic experts. 

The plans will place a strong emphasis on prevention and increased exits from homelessness while improving the quality of emergency accommodation. The consultation underpinning the Ending Homelessness Action will also review and update the Youth Homeless Strategy 2023 – 2025 and extend the timeline of the strategy to 2030. 

Prevention

Sinn Féin will immediately reintroduce the temporary emergency ban on evictions where the tenant has done nothing wrong. This ban will be reviewed after 6 months and removed when the numbers in emergency accommodation have fallen significantly.

Landlords will be able to issue notices of termination where there has been a breach of contract or where they need the property for their own principal residence. As detailed in Chapter Three we will extend the tenant-in-situ scheme for five years, funding the acquisition of 6,500 private rental properties with tenants-in-situ transferring the properties into the social and cost rental sectors.

We will also fund the acquisition of a further 1000 vacant properties over five years, purchasing one bed, four bed and medically adapted homes ring fenced for households at risk of homelessness or in emergency accommodation.

The full acquisition programme is set out below.

We will also ensure that through a dramatic increase in the delivery of both social and affordable homes the number of households at risk of homelessness is reduced.

Exits from Emergency Accommodation

In addition to reducing the number of people presenting as homeless, Sinn Féin’s housing plan will also seek to reduce the number of people in emergency accommodation year on year and reduce the length of time people are in emergency accommodation. To achieve this, we will significantly increase the number of social homes made available for people in emergency accommodation.

We will more than double the number of new Housing First tenancies to 500 each year while introducing greater flexibility in the eligibility assessment for the scheme to allow a wider range of people access Housing First.

We will double the number of social housing allocations to homeless service allocations from both casual relets and new builds from 2025 to 2027. These allocations will be made in accordance with the Local Authorities schemes. 

Based on the number of such allocations in the last 12 months this would mean a commitment to allocate 3400 Council and AHB homes each year from 2025 to 2017 to homeless service allocations. This would then be reduced as the numbers in emergency accommodation reduces. We will also use emergency planning and procurement powers and new building technologies to deliver 10,000 age friendly homes in small, well designed infill developments within existing Local Authority estates.

These homes will be used, in the first instance, to end homelessness amongst the over 55s in a single year. The remaining allocations will be made to existing Council and AHB tenants looking to right size. In turn their larger homes will be ringfenced for families with children in emergency accommodation and at risk of homelessness. In this way we will utilise a dedicated stream of age friendly social housing to allow a more efficient use of existing Council stock which will in turn be used to reduce homelessness.

The combination of these three streams will provide up to 26,500 exits from homelessness over five years as set out below.

Alongside increased allocations of social homes through these three streams, all those in emergency accommodation will have access to a dedicated place finders service to ensure, where possible, exits into the private rental sector are also being secured. 

The enhanced place finders service will not only include those in Department of Housing funded emergency accommodation but also Department of Justice funded domestic violence refuge accommodation, people with refugee status or leave to remain trapped in Department of Children funded IPAS accommodation and those in homeless hostels not in receipt of any state funding.

Ending the need to sleep rough

As the number of people in emergency accommodation reduces each year and the cost of emergency accommodation falls homeless service providers will be funded from these savings to improve and upgrade what will over time become a smaller but higher quality emergency accommodation sector.

This will allow for the phasing out of shared emergency accommodation and ending the use of hotel and B&B emergency accommodation. While there will always be a need for high quality emergency accommodation for single people and families these will be provided by the not-for-profit homeless services sector and Local Authorities where appropriate.

Savings accruing from the reduced need for emergency accommodation will also be redeployed to fund tenancy sustainment programmes as agreed with Department of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on an annual basis.

Housing for people with disabilities

The Housing Strategy for Disabled People was published in January 2022. As the six-year strategy will reach its half-way point in January 2025, Sinn Féin believes that a comprehensive review of its impact to date would be timely.

To ensure that the review is open and transparent, Sinn Féin in Government would request the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage to lead the review. This would take the form of a number of public hearings and a committee report to the Minister.

This report along with the recommendations of the Housing Commission would inform an extension of the Housing Strategy to 2029 to cover the full term of the new Government.

In addition to updating and extending the strategy Sinn Féin’s housing plan would make a number of immediate changes to ensure the housing needs of people with disabilities are met.

Our public housing programme will ensure that more than 10% of all new social and affordable homes to be suitable for people with a disability including wheelchair liveability. Each Local Authority public housing delivery plan will be required to include a detailed housing needs demand assessment including an assessment of the type and number of new homes for people with disabilities required.

We will also initiate a comprehensive review of Part M (Section 3, Access and Use) of the Building Regulations 2010.  The purpose of the review would be to amend Section 3 to ensure that it provides for an appropriate number of full wheelchair liveable homes, rather than the current requirement covering just wheelchair visitable housing.

As part of our wider planning reform and the move towards a more evidence-based planning system, as detailed in the next chapter, we would work with the public and private residential development sectors to better integrate the needs of people with disabilities into the planning process. The aim would be to ensure that over time all new housing developments would have an appropriate minimum number of homes designed to meet the needs of people with disabilities.

Sinn Féin would also double funding for the housing adaptation grants to €50 million a year. We would also complete and publish the Department of Housing’s review of the grant ensuring that it duly considered issues such as eligibility, thresholds and grant limits.

Age Friendly Housing

In 2019 Government published Housing Options for Our Ageing Population – A Policy Statement. The final report of the Implementation Group was published in 2022. While some Local Authorities have started to introduce age friendly housing developments as part of their housing plans there is a need for a greater focus on ensuring the needs of our ageing population are mainstreamed into both public and private housing provision. 

As part of Sinn Féin’s alternative housing plan, each Local Authority’s housing delivery programme will include an assessment of need for age friendly housing in their administrative area and set out how this will be delivered. Specific funding for a dedicated stream of age friendly housing will be provided to meet the needs of 10,000 households in social and affordable housing who want to right-size and to end homelessness for those over 55.

Our commitment to increase the Housing Adaptation Funding will also allow more people to remain in their own home living independently. In addition to these specific measures, in Government Sinn Féin would also develop and publish a comprehensive Housing Strategy for Older People. The strategy would examine the challenges facing and needs of our aging population, whatever type of housing they are accommodated in. It would also specifically address the five key policy actions of the Housing Commission recommendation number 75, which are:

• Facilitate older people to live in their own homes and communities.
• Increase the availability of age friendly homes.
• Enable rightsizing through increased investment in age friendly homes.
• Develop a dedicated policy response to the issue of bridging finance to enable rightsizing.
• Support the adoption of Universal Design to meet the specific needs of older people.

The strategy would be published following consultation with the public, older persons advocacy organisations and the Oireachtas.

Traveller Accommodation

The Traveller Accommodation Expert Review report was published in July 2019. While some of its recommendations have been implemented, many have not. Sinn Féin supports the implementation of the report and in particular those recommendations specifically highlighted by the Housing Commission Recommendation Number 73 related to the planning and delivery of traveller specific accommodation.

In Government Sinn Féin will implement the recommendations of the report and increase the annual funding allocation from within the overall social housing capital budget. We will also require Local Authorities to have clear annual targets for the delivery of new culturally appropriate Traveller accommodation with legally binding implementation sections added to their Traveller Accommodation Programme. 

We will also invite the original authors of the 2019 Expert Report to produce and publish an independent assessment of the implementation of their recommendations within 12 months, including an assessment of the recommendations introduced from 2019 to the end of 2024.  

Building Control & Building Defects

In Government Sinn Féin not only wants to see 300,000 new build homes delivered in five years, but we want to ensure that these homes fully comply with building regulations and building product regulations.

Sinn Féin has committed to providing 100% redress to all those homeowners living with Celtic Tiger era building defects and defective block homes. We are also committed to ensuring that private rental tenants and social housing tenants are not left living in unsafe homes due to the various defects scandal.

Given that the cost of dealing with these legacy defects will run into billions of euro it is incumbent that we also ensure that this can never happen again. This means putting in place a world class building control and building products surveillance regime.

Sinn Féin remains committed to the implementation of the 2017 Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government report Safe As Houses.

Building Control & Consumer Protection Agency

In Government Sinn Féin would transform the National Building Control Office from a function of Dublin City Council to a fully independent Building Control and Consumer Protection Agency, similar to the Environmental Protection Agency or the Food Safety Authority. This would require increasing the number of full-time staff at the Agency from its current allocation of 5 to a total of 20. We would aim to do this over two years.

In addition to the Head Office team of 5, there would be three regional teams covering the Northern/Western region, the Southern/Eastern region and the Midlands region. Each team would have an Executive Professional (i.e. an engineer, with experience and/or qualifications in construction and construction materials) and 4 other professionals working in that region.

Functions of the Building Control Agency

Sinn Féin envisions the role of the Building Control and Consumer Protection Agency to evolve over time through an increase in staff, strengthening of the Local Authority Building Control teams funded through developer certification fees and the merging of related state agencies.

The initial functions of the Agency would include:

• Supporting the development of the Building Control and Building Product Surveillance functions of Local Authorities.
• Conducting independent Building Control and Product Surveillance inspections and enforcement actions as appropriate.
• Hosting and management of the Building Control Management System.
• Producing and publishing data, research and policy advice on issues relating to building control and building product surveillance.
• Hosting the Construction Industry Register.
• Independently coordinating reviews and amendments to building standards, regulations and technical guidance documents.
• Reviewing the Safe as Houses report and recommending to Government actions for legislative and policy reform to further strengthen the building control system.
• Providing a one stop shop for the public impacted by issues relating to building control and building products, including information and advice service related to building defects and defective building materials.

One of the most important recommendations of the Safe as Houses report was to move to a fully independent inspection building control regime. This can be achieved within the existing certifier system by breaking the link between the developer and the certifier.

Under the management of the Building Control and Consumer Agency responsibility for contracting and employing assigned and design certifiers will transfer to the Local Authorities. Developers will continue to pay for the certification but payment will be made to the Local Authority to cover the cost of inspections.

Defects

Sinn Féin believes that the most effective way to address the legacy of Celtic Tiger era building defects and that of defective concrete block and foundations is through the creation of a single Building Defects Resolution Board.

This can best be achieved by transforming the current Pyrite Resolution Board to deal with all of the defect issues. This would initially take place on a non-statutory footing pending enabling legislation.

The new Building Defects Resolution Board would involve a merger of the existing Pyrite Board and those Housing Agency staff currently working on the defective concrete block grant scheme. It would be co-located with the Building Control and Consumer Protection Agency to benefit from the wider engineering expertise of that body and to coordinate their consumer advice functions.

The Board would provide three distinct ‘end to end’ remediation schemes, one for pyrite in Leinster, one for defective concrete across the state and one for Celtic Tiger era fire safety and building defects in multi-unit developments of apartments, duplexes and houses.

It would also administer the interim fire safety remediation scheme established in December 2023.

All of the remediation schemes would work on the same basis providing those impacted by defects with equality of treatment. This would involve:

• Adhering to the principal of 100% redress.
• Providing an end-to-end scheme managed by the agency in consultation with the owner, with a self-build opt-out where appropriate at the same cost to the state.
• Prioritizing principal private residences, social housing and private rental homes. 
• Procuring professional services and building contractors to achieve economies of scale and properly manage costs.

This will require amendments to the 2022 legislation underpinning the defective concrete block grant scheme to transform it into an ‘end-to-end’ scheme similar to the pyrite scheme currently operated by the Pyrite Resolution Board. It will also require the speedy conclusion of the review of Industry Standard 465:2018 to ensure that the scheme can include foundations and all deleterious materials as guided by the science. 

In order for remediated properties to fully avail of Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland energy efficiency grants a protocol will be put in place between the Building Defects Resolution Board and SEAI to allow the retrofitting works to be done in tandem with the remediation work.

There will also be a need to fast track new legislation for the wider fire safety and building defects redress scheme while expediting the interim fire safety scheme based on best practice as recommended by the Local Authority Fire Service allowing for flexibility on the funding of essential fire safety upgrades along-side defect remediation. The cost of any such upgrades will be borne by the Owners Management Company and the homeowners and reasonable arrangements will be made for those OMCs who do not have sufficient sinking funds to ensure that no delay to essential fire safety works take place.

Funding Remediation

All of this will require a significant multi annual funding commitment from the exchequer. Sinn Féin is committing at least €200 million a year over five years for the remediation schemes.

However, we remain committed to the principal of supplementing this public funding with a levy on industry including the banks, insurance, quarries and construction sector. The taxpayer cannot be left with the full bill for defects which were in large part created by industry.

The design and rate of any such levy will require careful consideration in order to mitigate any risk of inflation on building materials, new home prices and insurance premiums. The details of the levy will be announced early in the first year in office following consultation with Department officials and relevant stakeholders.

Non-Principal Residences

Sinn Féin is acutely aware of the large number of non-principal private residential buildings impacted by defective concrete and building defects. These include rental properties, holiday homes, community facilities, commercial and agricultural premises.

While remaining committed to prioritising principal private residences in Government we would ask the Building Defects Resolution Agency to undertake a comprehensive survey of all buildings impacted by defects. This will inform Governments consideration of possible options to assist building owners remediate these properties.

A Public Inquiry

We will also consult with the Attorney General to establish the best mechanism to ensure full accountability for those responsible for the various defect’s scandals. This may take the form of a public inquiry to establish the truth of what happened, hold those responsible to account and to give a voice to all those people whose lives have been impacted by building and building product defects.

The Property Services Authority and the Multi Unit Development Act

In the context of addressing the legacy of building defects in multi-unit developments and in recognition of the considerable challenges faces by Owners Management Companies Sinn Féin in Government will undertake a comprehensive review and reform of the legislation and architecture surrounding multi-unit developments.

This will include:

• Transferring responsibility for the Property Services Regulatory Agency (PSRA) and the Multi Unit Development Act to the Department of Housing.
• Placing the PSRA on a statutory footing and providing it with powers to enforce standards on OMC and Property Management Agents.
• Over time increasing its functions to provide greater support and training for OMCs.
• Undertaking a comprehensive review of the MUD Act with recommendations for legislative reform.
• Establishing an independent regulator for Owners Management Companies, initially on a non-statutory footing pending legislation, similar to the process for establishing an Approved Housing Body Regulator.

The statutory PSRA and OMC Regulator will be co-located with the Housing Agency as is the case with the AHB regulator.

Low Carbon Homes

The built environment is the fourth largest source of carbon emissions and a major contributor to climate change. To date much of the public debate has focused on the energy efficiency of and energy sources for buildings. There is now a need to place as much focus on reducing the volume of embodied carbon in the built environment. This means addressing the carbon emissions arising from what we build, where we built it and the materials used in construction. This can be achieved in four ways:

• The renovation and reuse of existing buildings and existing building materials.
• Positively incentivising a shift to low carbon building technologies.
• Phasing out the use of high carbon building materials to the maximum extent possible.
• Promoting compact residential growth and proximity to employment, services and amenities in cities, towns and villages and country side areas.

In Government Sinn Féin will undertake a consultation with all relevant stakeholders and produce a 10-year plan providing a pathway to the delivery of low carbon homes. The plan will be consistent with our International, European and domestic legal requirements to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 and 2050.

The Low Carbon Homes Transition Plan will include the following areas:

• An agreed industry wide methodology for measuring the whole life carbon content of all building materials. 
• A timeline for phasing in and phasing out of building materials based on their whole life carbon content.
• Amendment of Technical Guidance Document B – Fire Safety of the Building Regulations setting out the conditions for use of timber-based building systems in high density buildings.
• Empowering Planning Authorities to refuse applications that involve unnecessary demolition or to place conditions on a grant of permission restricting elements of proposed demolition.
• Empowering Planning Authorities to attach conditions on grants of permission for reuse or recycling of existing building material.
• Development Plans to include policy on reuse of existing buildings, the demolition of existing buildings and the incorporation of whole life carbon measurement.
• Promoting greater use of Transport Orientated Development in the National Planning Framework, City and County Development Plans and the planning process more generally.

• Incentivising the use of low carbon building material by incorporating whole life carbon measurement into public procurement for public housing developments.
• Creating stand alone multi annual framework agreements for low carbon new building technology contractors for public housing developments.
• Greater use of vacant and derelict homes and properties in the delivery of public housing.

Making the transition to low carbon building technologies and a low carbon built environment is not only an environmental necessity, it is a real economic opportunity. Government policy and in particular public procurement must actively support the growth of locally based designers and manufacturers of low carbon building technologies.

As part of the Low Carbon Homes Transition Plan the Department of Housing will work with the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, Enterprise Ireland and others to support public and private enterprises designing and manufacturing low carbon new building technologies.

Architecture

Architecture is important and public architecture is particularly important. Good quality design ensures homes are adequate to meet the needs of those who live in them. It also enhances and improves the built environment.

In Government Sinn Féin will champion high quality architecture, and in particular high-quality architecture in the delivery of our public housing programme. We will actively support an approach to the built environment that takes into account context, community, and layout– in order to ensure the best possible outcomes from public housing for people, the local community and society more generally.

To achieve this, we will support Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to promote and utilise best practice in architectural design and delivery. We will ensure that Local Authorities, either individually or through shared services, have access to architectural services.

We will also promote the use of private architectural practices through regional multi annual framework agreements to address issues identified by Irish architects where smaller and more creative firms are effectively excluded from tendering and procurement processes. These framework agreements will be tiered to support new and emerging architectural practices to secure public work.

As part of our ambitious public housing programme we will support Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to run open competitions for signature buildings, promoting new architectural responses to contemporary challenges such as universal design and environmental sustainability.

We will also support the Irish Council of Social Housing, the Local Government Management Association and the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, the Architectural Association of Ireland and others to promote best practice in public housing through a programme of research, publications, exhibitions and an annual award ceremony.

Sinn Féin will also commission the Housing Agency to undertake an independent review of the Places for People, the state’s architecture policy launched in 2022, making policy recommendations where appropriate.