Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the chief executives, Ms Maguire and Ms Kavanagh, and congratulate Ms Kavanagh on her appointment as the new permanent CEO in Kildare County Council. I wish her and her team well with what is not an easy task. I also wish to acknowledge Mr. McGowan, who was previously with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. He has made a good choice with Meath County Council. It is an accomplished operator.

I do not want to ask any questions; I just want to make a few comments. First, as a committee, we value the presence of the CEOs. Some might ask why we have invited them here today. It is important for the CEOs to put a face to our names and for us to do the same. I want to acknowledge the enormous difficulties and work that the CEOs and the front-of-house staff face in housing. It is an enormously challenging time. There are never enough resources and clearly there are not enough staff to meet the ongoing demands. As the witnesses will be aware, housing is a complex area. It touches on issues such as homelessness, domestic violence and issues affecting the Traveller community. It is more than just providing a roof over a person's head. It is important to acknowledge that. It is not always reflected in the skill sets among personnel in local authorities. That is not because the local authorities do not want them; it is because they just do not have the resources required for the nuanced tuning that is needed. Housing has become a complex issue, and I would like that to improve. As a committee, we are aware of that from the various organisations that have appeared before us and discussed the difficulties with housing.

Kildare and Meath are both interesting counties in that they are on the fringes of Dublin. Large numbers of people travel in and out of the two counties. That brings a lot of other challenges in respect of infrastructure, which is another issue in housing policy. People are choosing to live in Kildare and Meath, so there is great potential for new housing there, as there is in Fingal. It is important to highlight that. I also want to acknowledge the importance of the work of the local authorities in an ever-changing environment. Government policy changes and moves in different directions. Circulars, directions and announcements are issued regularly and it is quite difficult to keep up.

Many people want to check out their housing options. A comprehensive A to Z booklet was published recently by the Housing Agency, which is already out of date. That is not the agency's fault. If people are in severe difficulties, they want to meet and talk to someone. Sometimes people feel embarrassed or they feel that their difficulties are confidential, and they want to talk about their housing options. I do not know what resources the local authorities have in place for that.

In one of the four Dublin local authorities last week, I could not get an appointment for a person who has complex family issues and whose wife also has complex issues and social issues. They have enormous concerns and there is a difficulty in setting up a meeting for them. The biggest challenge for most of us in politics, as it is for our guests, is managing people's expectations. We must be honest with people. It is terrible to tell people they are on a list with 3,000 or 4,000 others waiting for housing. Politicians do not like telling people that and I am sure our guests do not like doing so. However, we have a duty and responsibility to manage people's expectations in respect of housing. The housing assistance payment is available and there are other opportunities. People may say that they will not be safe or secure if they do not get a council house and that it is the best option because they will never be thrown out of a council home. They might say their rents are controlled and it is, therefore, the best option and, happy days, perhaps in a few years' time, they can buy out their home. It is not always as simple as that, as our guests know as well as I do.

I will leave the following with our guests. I am not asking them to respond today but they might think about it. Do they have the teams, skill sets and people in place to meet the needs not of everyone, which clearly cannot be done, but of people who are in crisis? Such people need someone with whom they can talk through their options for housing and tenancy. Some of these people may have gone through a system and handed back a house. They may have been thrown out of or abandoned a house. There is a range of such issues. I want to leave our guests with that thought. I congratulate and thank them. Theirs is not an easy task and we are aware of that. I wish them well.