Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for not being here earlier. I was attending a meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport that started at 1.30 p.m. and finished at 6.30 p.m. I support the actions taken by the Minister. My view of the housing assistance payment is totally different from the views expressed by the members who spoke previously. HAP replaced rent allowance. A person who was in receipt of rent allowance could not be employed, which meant that people in employment and on low incomes were excluded from rent support and could not get homes.

I came across a case recently involving a lady who happens to be an immigrant with a young family. She works in the health services locally and until recently could not afford to keep her family with the money she was earning. She could not pay her rent because she could not get HAP at the time. Thankfully, she subsequently received HAP, which means she can live in a house, support her family and work. HAP assists everybody but particularly people who had been excluded from rent support previously because they were working. If people did not have the option of renting privately, they would have nowhere to live and would be forced to live in tents or on the side of the road. To those who say HAP is not an option, I would reply that there is no other housing available. Given that people do not have other options, it is nonsensical to claim HAP does not make sense as an option. While many of those who receive HAP cannot choose where they live, they often end up living in a place with which they are very happy. Obviously, it is an advantage for some people to live near their mothers and fathers or other family members. However, that is not necessarily always the case when people move into a council house. There is no discrimination in the allocation of council houses. There is fine housing everywhere. An individual can be lucky to live near family members and have family supports.

There are problems with HAP. I received a strange explanation when I raised a particular issue. If someone living in the wonderful town of Drogheda in County Louth is on HAP, that is fine. If the person finds a house to rent in the part of Drogheda that is in County Meath, the HAP support will be paid by Meath County Council but the person can stay on the Louth County Council housing list. A person can live anywhere in the town of Drogheda and provided he or she comes from County Louth, he or she can stay on the Louth housing list. However, if a person living in County Meath moves to Drogheda and receives HAP from Louth County Council, he or she must come off the Meath County Council housing list, thereby losing the years accumulated on the list. There are issues with boundaries, particularly boundaries that divide a town or community, and it would be worthwhile addressing them. My view is that given the scarcity of housing, people who move to an adjoining county - I appreciate the position in respect of Dublin versus other counties is different - should not lose their right to remain on the housing list in the county of their choice on the basis that the only HAP home they can secure is located in an adjoining county.

I raise another issue related to Drogheda. There are 155 social houses to be allocated in my town before the end of the first quarter of next year. That is a significant number because for years, we did not have any social housing. The position in County Louth and east Meath is changing significantly in this regard and new houses are being built all the time. I visited a private estate a year ago when there were about 80 houses on the site. There are now 250 homes in the estate, which indicates how much development is taking place and how much progress is being made. Addressing these issues takes time and the Minister is using all the powers available to him. I appreciate that we still have a great deal of work to do but I also acknowledge the good work that has been done.

I have raised the next point a number of times. Louth County Council has used compulsory purchase orders to initiate work on vacant and boarded up properties. Families are now living in 60 homes in the county that were boarded up a year ago. What is the story in other parts of the country? I know there is a website detailing vacant homes.

Can we have a progress report on that matter at some stage, if it has not already been provided today? We could add at least 2,000 or 3,000 houses to the stock if what is happening in County Louth happened in the rest of the country.