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

I, too, have concerns about regulations. We can have as many regulations as we want, but they do not work unless they are implemented fully. The biggest issue I see for local authorities is staffing. The timeframe for applying to go on the local authority housing list is so long that I am currently working on a Bill to bring it down to three weeks. I have been informed that the biggest issue is staffing. It could become a serious issue. That is unacceptable. Regulation and its effects are very important. I deal with a lot of AHBs. They are registered charities. As such, they are subject to regulations. The local authorities seems to be taking this road. They are not building any more. I have a massive grievance with local authorities for that reason. For the last 100 years we built local authority houses. We are not building on the same scale at all. That is a problem. I know of many AHBs that have done great work. Their building has been absolutely excellent, second to none. I can only praise them for their work. They work with the local authorities. Senator Kelleher asked a related question. I find from working with AHBs that most of their work is done with the local authority. When they are actually allocating the houses, they give every power to the local authority. That needs to be examined.

There are so many staffing issues facing local authorities. We have great staff, by the way. I am not criticising the staff that are there. However, local authorities have become so understaffed that it has become a huge problem. This could cause problems for local authorities. We must achieve a balance. If this is done right, the local authorities get their share of it while working with the Department. Unless we can achieve that balance, I will be quite concerned.

Do the witnesses believe that these regulations will have a better impact on people's lives and on the local authorities? The AHBs state that they have a discretion of 15% on allocations that they can work on with local authorities. I have never seen them use their 15%. All the local authorities work with AHBs. With regard to, for example, medical grounds or cases where we would be looking for housing, will they be given more of an input into deciding, which is a big issue for me, or will the Department say that they have to go 100% with local authorities? At present, there is a discretion of 15%, whether it is Tuath Housing Association, Clúid Housing or Respond Housing.

Like all members, I work with local authorities and in my clinics I deal with housing. The new data protection has become a major issue when one is making representations for people to local authorities and even to an AHB about interviews or whatever. One cannot get any information back because the councils say they no longer give names. That is becoming a problem. There must be a balance. I can understand that one must have a consent form from the person for whom one has made the representations. One gets the person to sign a form giving his or her consent to have representations made on his or her behalf. There are many issues that have fallen through the cracks in the system. Unless we start to put some sort of system in place for regulation, there are many inefficiencies.