Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our contributors here today. This is a particularly interesting topic. For so long we have talked about reforming the fair deal scheme to unlock, if you like, more housing within the rental market. The fact that we all know that there is a massive deficit in this country of older people-specific housing is just a huge issue. It is something that we, as a committee, need to shine a light on. I am very pleased to have officials from both of the relevant Departments here today to do exactly that and bring their expertise to the fore.

I have listened with interest to what Ms Timmons said around the housing need and demand assessments, HNDAs and the fact that in respect of future planning, local authorities will now be not just asked, but mandated and required to have targets and policies that allow for right-sizing that support our older people who might like to downsize or move to an older person-specific housing accommodation, ideally, as other speakers have said, in villages where access to local services, medical services, shops and support is very easy for them. That is a very long-term statement. That is what is so frustrating for so many of us who have been in local government for so long prior to being elected to the Dáil or the Seanad. While there are some very good innovative examples of where this has worked throughout Ireland, it is painfully slow. I appreciate that the HNDA reports will be the catalyst and framework for giving us the parameters of building all of this into our plans. However, again, it just seems like that information is coming now and not necessarily in tandem with development plans that have the ink is drying on them at this stage in many local authorities up and down the country. I suppose I am just concerned about that. I would love to hear Ms Timmons’s view on the targets and how they should be set and managed, and how we can plan for older people's accommodation to be delivered in local towns and village across Ireland in the short- to medium-term, rather than just the long-term.

I refer to the Department of Health. It is very encouraging that we are now getting information from the Minister that the fair deal scheme will be changed to enable people who would otherwise be losing 80% of their rental income to incentivise them to rent out their home through the new 40% statistic. That is quite an important thing when looking at housing in the context of the Ukrainians, who in so many hundreds and thousands are coming to our shores. We need to be there to make sure that we are providing short-term as well as long-term offerings for them. The fair deal scheme has the potential to unlock a huge amount of housing relatively quickly.

I was quite concerned to hear the figure that 70% of people who are availing of the fair deal scheme have dementia. I know that adds complexities to all of this. We want to make sure that there are safeguards there so that no older person feel they are forced in any way, shape or form to rent out their home. That is not what this is about. This is about incentivising those who wish to do so by allowing them to reap the financial rewards because, ultimately, they do not at the moment.

ALONE and a number of other organisations, many of which will be coming in later today, have done a bit of research in that area. I do not know if it is possible for Ms Timmons to answer this question, but does she get any sense that there will likely be an issue around the homes that are owned by people who are in fair deal nursing home schemes in respect of rental regulations and the homes not being up to standard or scratch in terms of all of the regulations that we now require through the Residential Tenancies Board?