Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Pillar 5.02 states, "To ensure that housing supports, including [the housing assistance payment] HAP, are fair and sustainable". I have had some incidents recently in my area. If a person gets on the local authority housing list and qualifies for HAP, he or she is entitled to a first-time deposit as a one-off. We have now returned to what we would have known as the social welfare offices, or Intreo as it is known now. It has come to my attention several times that if a house comes up and a person qualifies to go on the housing list and is on the HAP, he or she has to give a deposit. One is lucky not to be asked for two deposits, but in fairness many places only look for one. The person then has to go to his or her family, who have to lend them the deposit because, naturally enough, these people cannot come up with the deposits. When they go back to get their first-time deposit, they are being told that because their family have loaned it to them, it cannot be paid back. They might have borrowed from three or four family members, but they are being told they cannot get their first-time deposit. Someone should step in here. We are bringing out many schemes, but there is no communication on the exact policies. People are told that they can have a first-time deposit, but they cannot if they borrow the deposit. I can name five different cases where people have had to borrow money from family and friends, only to be told that they cannot get the money back. That definitely needs to be addressed.

Returning to HAP, there is a clause within it that I was not aware of. I know of a case where a man had to leave a HAP premises because it was damp and the landlord would not do work on it. He had to sign a form with the local authority to say that he would not go on the HAP for a year. He cannot get any rent allowance. Is there any way that a system can be put in place so that people can find out what they are entitled to?

On 5.03, which promises that "We will work with the local authorities to speed up the refurbishment", it has to be said that staffing is the biggest issue. Delays with funding is also a massive issue. The maintenance of local authority housing by local authorities is the biggest issue we face, and the Minister is going to have to step in. My own local authority in Carlow will only carry out leak repairs and roof repairs. Other local authorities will fix gas boilers, doors, kitchens and bathrooms. Every local authority seems to be able to decide what it will repair. That needs to stop. Everyone is paying their rent. It does not matter what local authority a person lives in - everyone is entitled to the same treatment, whether they are in Kilkenny, Waterford, Laois or anywhere else. That is not happening. It is a massive issue. There have been so many cutbacks in this area. I had an incident recently where an old lady, who was a local authority tenant for 20 years, could not get her gas boiler fixed by the local authority. I tried on four occasions to get it done for her. In the end, she had to borrow the money to get a new gas boiler. That is not acceptable.

Another part of Pillar 5 states that, "We will review the tenant purchase scheme following the first year of operation". I firmly believe that scheme has been an absolute disaster from the beginning. If a person was in a local authority house and had worked for years, but had to retire or stopped working due to ill health, he or she does not qualify to buy out the house because there has to be earnings of 50% in place. The scheme is a disaster. A person came to me who had come into a bit of money. She had enough to buy the house but she did not qualify. She was a good local authority tenant, a mature woman, but she could not buy out her house. That needs to be looked at.

Regarding the €70 million capital in Exchequer funding that will be working through the different Departments, who will be accountable for all this money and what projects will receive funding? Is it to be run on a first come, first served basis? Perhaps the Minister could explain that. I want to make sure that there is accountability for all local authorities when capital funding is in place through the Exchequer.

A trial of the lease and repair scheme was carried out in Carlow. I have major concerns about that. Some of the conditions have been changed, and that is welcome because the €40,000 required was causing much of the concern. It was originally to have been over ten years but I believe it has gone back to a five year basis. That is welcome, but there are concerns about the conditions. It is helpful to try to work on the repair and lease scheme, but there is a reason there has not been a good uptake on it. I believe it is to be rolled out to every local authority, but I want to know what feedback the Minister is getting. I can only give my own feedback from Carlow where people felt there were too many conditions and that it could not be justified in the long term. I know local authorities were willing to take on the repair and lease scheme and put tenants into those properties, but I have concerns about that.