Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his comments on the work of the Department on focusing the reporting to drive greater accountability and delivery. That is the intention of what we have been trying to do over the past six months as we reviewed Rebuilding Ireland and went to refine and introduce new things, to ensure Oireachtas Members were aware of exactly what was happening. In giving that accountability and reporting, we were not taking up unnecessary resources, so this is what we have tried to do in this engagement, in the tabular review of actions in 2017 and in additional reports that have been provided, for example, on the housing assistance payment or the 2017 summary of social housing indicators. The housing summit is also about transparency and accountability and the targets and figures that will be published off the back of that but I might come to that later so that I can answer the rest of the Senator's questions first.

The Senator is absolutely right about the integrity of data. It has been to the forefront of my mind and my actions since I took office. The Senator will be aware that since I came into office, we stopped calling ESB connections "completions". We still publish the figure because I think it is still important because of what it includes, including house builds and homes that are vacant for two years. Work on that data is happening and it will conclude in the next quarter, covering completions in a year and other things. It is also important, if there is a difficulty with a figure like that, that we do not give the public the impression that all of the figures are wrong. We can count our own social housing homes or commencement notices when they are logged on the building control management system, BCMS. This data on vacancy has been very difficult to handle because there is a perception in the public that there are tens of thousands of vacant homes in high demand areas that could quickly and easily be brought into use. The data to date is showing that that is not the case, from the work that each individual local authority is doing. With this group, working with the CSO, we want to come to a figure that people can have greater faith in. That work is happening at the moment and will begin with getting a proper definition of vacancy. The definition the CSO is using is perhaps not the definition of vacancy that most people on the street would use. We are then going to do a field-based survey of a subset of data as a project. It would not be too different from what local authorities have done themselves but it would take a wider focus across different local authority areas. It would involve the CSO. We might then get a better understanding of what true vacancy rates are when we talk about liveable properties. That work is happening because I think it is important that we use the right, agreed numbers when making comparisons.

Discussions with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform on the differential rents review are continuing. I have had a number of conversations with the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform on this issue. Our officials have had a number of discussions on the review and changes that will come. This is a key challenge that we face in every aspect of our dealings with local authorities, with a need for flexibility and authority at the local level, since we believe in local government and the devolution of power to local authority areas. We also need to give them a national standard or framework to which they can work and have flexibility within. I take the Senator's point about certain local authorities - he cited Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as one - doing things that make sense from the point of view of the tenant and which encourage responsible tenancies. We want to ensure such local authorities can continue to pursue those.

Step-down is a key part of our management of stock, as well as building new stock. If one can build new stock to one and two-bedroom unit specifications, then one can have a more ambitious step-down approach and therefore bring family homes or larger homes back into use. This has been done very effectively with some housing bodies. The Iveagh Trust did it with a local authority in Annamore, where 70 to 74 new apartments were built in a new scheme. It also released between 18 and 20 homes in the area because the local authority issued a circular informing people that if they wanted to downsize into a modern building and let their house for social housing, they could, while they made different arrangements for existing social housing tenants. Consequently, there were between 90 and 100 new homes even though only 70-something had to be built. We are looking to improve this. It is part of the national planning framework. As we look at future population needs, over a quarter of the population will be above the age of 65 by 2040. This absolutely has to be part of our forward planning. I like the way the Senator puts community in the centre of that, because as we fix the crisis today, community has to be at the centre of all we do or else we will just build fragmented communities for the future if we do not do this in the right way. We continue to engage with different housing bodies. I recently had a meeting with a housing body which is an NGO about how we can use the new apartment guidelines on co-living to develop new properties that do not yet exist which would enable things like peer supervision for the elderly, which will be important because there will be more community space in the development. It is to the forefront of our thinking as we approach new builds and work with the approved housing body sector.

There will be a report on choice-based letting because I have similar interests in how it is working. We are having a discussion in the Department about what data we will gather from that and how useful it might be. I have heard very positive things about choice-based letting from people who are using it. I have not heard some of the concerns that the Senator has mentioned today. When I operated as a councillor and as I operate now as a Deputy, there is complete transparency on where people are on a list. They can contact local authorities directly and will be told, or their local Deputy or councillor can find that out for them. The impression is often given by some, unfortunately, that they will help people to jump the list or get a place and one will hear that a certain councillor or Deputy got a person a house or apartment. It is almost impossible to do that when one engages with the officials involved, from what I have been told.

I believe there needs to be some flexibility at local authority level because they know better themselves, when it comes to people who are at the top of the list, what might work for one person and what might work for others. They need to be able to manage that themselves. I would not think of taking that from them.