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

I share the concerns that have been expressed already on the capacity of the AHB sector to deal with this. I support those who have said it has to be as simple as possible to reregister. There was a time when Limerick County Council encouraged the small AHBs in villages to provide for elderly people with crescent-shaped places for the elderly in the village to live in and to receive support. There are many such AHBs around the country but I do not know what management capacity they have. I imagine that the bigger ones have better capacity. I would like there to be a hand-holding approach, rather than a punitive approach, in cases where there are difficulties. This may prove to be something that people will not succeed in complying with , even with the best will in the world. The sector provides long-term homes for a large section of our population and when people get a tenancy from an AHB, they see it as their home for the rest of their life. It is not like the volatile private rented sector, though we would also like people to think they could live in a privately rented place for the rest of their life. I accept that there are efforts to deal with the financial cost and the administrative burden but my main suggestion is that there is understanding of the sector in respect of the difficulties it will undoubtedly have. I am aware that this may not be possible in legislation but it is important that it is as easy as possible to do.