Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 50:

In page 65, to delete line 2.

These amendments are linked and provide for necessary amendments to section 51 of the Bill, which in turn amends section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. The published Bill already provides for certain amendments to section 31, rent schemes and charges, of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. The additional amendments required now arise from the transitional arrangements decided upon for the introduction of local authority rent charging under section 31 of the 2009 Act and the consequent need for bespoke arrangements for charging rent contributions on HAP beneficiaries during the transition period for section 31 local authority rent charging.
Amendments Nos. 50 and 51 are technical amendments which are consequential on and allow for the making of the substantive amendment, No. 52. The latter amendment provides for the insertion of two amendments in section 51 of the Bill to make necessary substantive amendments to section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009. A new paragraph (h) is inserted into section 31(6) of the 2009 Act empowering the Minister to prescribe that among the matters to be included in a rent scheme is the manner in which a housing authority shall determine rent and charges for local authority and rental accommodation scheme dwellings under section 31 and the considerations to be taken into account for that purpose during a transitional period that will expire on a prescribed date falling not later than two years after the rent charging provision of section 31 comes into operation. Under the proposed paragraph (h), in determining section 31 rents during the transitional period, housing authorities will have to have regard to the other provisions of regulations under section 31 and any ministerial guidance issued to them in the manner under section 5 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009.
A new subsection 6(a) is also inserted into section 31 of the 2009 Act empowering the Minister in respect of the transitional period for section 31 rents payable by local authority and RAS tenants to prescribe the rent contributions payable to a housing authority on behalf of a household in receipt of housing assistance, having regard to the composition, financial circumstances and ability to pay of the household.
The introduction in this Bill of a transitional period for section 31 rents for local authority and RAS tenants will put back the introduction of section 31 rent charging, which was originally expected to take place on 1 January 2015 after the elected members of each housing authority would have made their first rent scheme under section 31. I now expect that housing authorities will start to charge rents under section 31 from 1 July 2015. This necessitates the extension of the period of a transitional rent arrangement for tenants of housing authorities that were amalgamated or dissolved on 1 June, as was provided for in paragraph 14(4) of Schedule 4 to the Local Government Reform Act 2014. This transitional arrangement provides that former tenants of these councils will pay rent to their successor authorities at the rates of their dissolved authorities until the section 31 rent scheme comes into operation on 1 January 2015. Amendment No. 52 will extend that transitional arrangement until 30 June 2015, the day before housing authorities begin to charge rents under section 31 of the 2009 Act.
Basically, these deal with the transitional period for the new rent scheme.