Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

A discussion on approved housing bodies, AHBs, arose last week out of an issue I brought up last week. I have discussed it with Mr. Doyle in the past. I know we are trying to deal with a legacy situation. Nobody in this room has been responsible for the creating the situation. When these small AHBs reach the end of life, what happens to the property? What happens to the tenant? What protections are there? Some of these small AHBs were set up in order to provide 20, 30, 40 or 50 houses. They are a credit to the people who set them up. They were people who worked voluntarily. I am not casting any aspersions on them. However, we are reaching a situation where things are moving on. Some people may be moving on in years and the homes are coming out of the terms of loan. What happens now? What is happening in a particular AHB - I will not name it, but you know the one to which I am referring - is that there are no rent controls, the tenants are being handed forms to claim rent supplement from social welfare and €10,000 in hello money is being charged before one gets in the door. That is ruling people out. These houses were built by the taxpayer for social housing purposes to meet a housing need; in most cases, for the most vulnerable groups, that is, elderly people and people with disabilities.

People who were tenants of social housing now find themselves dealing with a management company that has been brought in. That is the interface and with whom the tenants are dealing. I brought this to the attention of the agency and the regulator. It is a very welcome move that we have a regulator. The head of the regulator seems to be a formidable woman. I wish her well in her work. However, the houses effectively stop being social housing. You are correct in that there is a bit of time with some of the houses, but some of them are maturing very quickly. They are out of the term of the loan, which means we could wind up with the wild west, for want of a better term. What can we do in the short term? Someone needs to get a grip on this, because I do not have answers for these tenants. Other Deputies and councillors throughout the country do not have answers. This problem will come out all over the place in the coming months and years. What can we do to try to give some level of comfort? The thought of taxpayers paying for rent on a house that they built is absolute madness. The fact there is a possibility that these houses could be moved on without us, the council or anybody else having any control over it, and with hello money being charged, is crazy stuff. The houses were built for vulnerable people and people are being asked for €10,000. What can we do about this in the short term?