Mr. John Crowe:

I thank the Chairman. Before I begin, we thank Deputy Brendan Ryan for arranging this appearance before the committee.

The Association of Irish Local Government, AILG, is the statutory representative body representing the democratically elected members of Irish local government and the members' authority. The association supports the elected members in their role as board members of the local government units in the State. The AILG supports the establishment of the Oireachtas Committee on Housing and Homelessness, as its members believe the country is facing one of the biggest housing and homelessness crisis in its history. The work of this committee is an important step in resolving the challenges facing those affected by this crisis. We note the Minister has consulted the chief executives of local authorities and not the elected members on this issue. In some ways, that sums up the cause of the problem to date.

The Department officials are not dealing with the people, namely, the elected members, who are dealing on a daily basis with those in housing distress.

The association thanks the Chairman and other members for inviting us to make our presentation and to brief the committee on the views of our local public representatives. Today, we will set out what local representatives believe must be done in order to provide access to appropriate social and affordable housing. We bring to the table the experience of elected members for whom housing related issues are a central concern in their work as public representatives. We can safely state that, currently, no other local government issue generates as much of a councillor’s workload as housing.

While this submission does not represent the full extent of our association’s housing policy, it does outline the key priorities which we believe should be included in the report of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness that will be presented to the Dáil over the coming weeks. Our submission contains recommendations that we believe need to be implemented in both the immediate and longer term in order to address the housing and homelessness crisis currently facing our country. Our key point, which we will be making throughout our submission, is that the role of local authorities, as the housing authority in each city and county and as lead providers of social housing throughout Ireland, needs to be reinforced in order to fully address the current crisis.

We do not disregard the role and contribution of other social and affordable housing providers. For more than a century, local authorities have successfully been providers of social housing for the population. Our local authorities have a strong record of achievement in the housing area. Many independent commentators, including many contributors to this committee over the past number of weeks, have reiterated that local authorities should be the primary provider of social housing in the country. In the context of any housing policy, the experience and capacity of a local authority as the housing authority needs to be underpinned and emphasised.

We note that some commentators are calling for the right to a home to be enshrined in our Constitution by way of a referendum. We would like to point out that local authority housing is the only current form of social housing that offers tenants the opportunity to buy out their houses and become home owners. Home ownership is, we believe, an aspiration that should be afforded to all social housing tenants. To this end, we welcome the new tenant purchase scheme introduced earlier this year, which will provide opportunities for tenants to become home owners.

We would like to make some specific points regarding individual measures and recommendations that we would like the committee to consider and include in its final report to the Minister and the Oireachtas. I will call on Councillor Padraig McNally to comment on the commencement of a national local authority house-building programme.