Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As many other Senators and many Members of the Lower House have noticed, Richie Boucher’s pay packet is up for review today at the Bank of Ireland AGM. Aside from the role the State has to play, there is an important role to be played by the ordinary shareholders in Bank of Ireland as well. Many institutional investors probably will not oppose Richie Boucher’s package but many ordinary investors at the meeting have lost their shirts and any comfort they would have in their retirement. They have a role to play in asking Richie Boucher to show social solidarity with the ordinary people of this country who have taken many hits in their pay packet.

I wish to refer to a matter raised by Senator O’Brien, namely, the local authority differential rents system. It is important to note that if one is a social housing tenant in Waterford, one will pay a higher differential rent than one will do if one is a social housing tenant in other parts of the country. The scheme as it stands is unfair. It is not logical that some social housing tenants will pay a minimum rent that is different from a social housing tenant in another part of the country. However, it does raise a bigger issue. I ask the Leader to support me in a call for a debate on the future of local authorities in the provision of social housing. There is a wider issue at stake. It is not just about differential rents, it is about the role local authorities will play going forward. A number of issues face us. Currently, 20,000 additional households a year seek housing. At the same time we have no increased housing provision either from the private sector or from the social housing sector.

We are facing the potential for a real crisis in this country, at a time when local authorities have no access to housing finance to fund either a buy or a build programme. This is a much bigger issue and I ask the Leader to consider allowing a specific debate on the issue.