Mr. Peter Dorman:

I am not a legislator so I am not sure. It is a crucial issue. The Residential Tenancies Act refers to antisocial behaviour coming under the remit of the board. We discussed this in the policing forum and thought it might help. It depends in what capacity the tenancies board can respond to those questions.

The second question concerned early intervention and supporting people facing eviction. I agree that once eviction becomes a possibility, support should be mobilised straightaway. There is a sense that we cannot intervene and change people but in many cases nothing is tried or it is very haphazard. In many cases, intervention would make a difference. From our experience, the drug trade is the organising principle around much of this. Even if young people are not directly involved in drug dealing, the atmosphere created on an estate where this happening leads to all kinds of chaos. It is important to recognise that, where there is a drug dealer seen by everyone to be living the good life who seems to be untouchable even if not dealing drugs directly, it feeds into the aspirations of young people on the estate and leads to a particular culture.

There are two kinds of hard cases. There is a person who is so chaotic that all kinds of intervention will not help. There may be a need for specialised housing for folks like that. People may be on their own and chronic alcoholics and causing problems for their neighbours. Their place becomes somewhere where people can deal drugs. They need supported housing that can help them because they will not change easily.