Ms Ann-Marie O'Reilly:

I am the national advocacy manager of Threshold. I am joined by Zak Murtagh, our legal officer. We wish to thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the committee for the opportunity to present today. As the committee will be aware, Threshold is a national housing charity providing front-line advice and support services to people experiencing difficulties in their rental tenancies.

Threshold is concerned with a number of aspects of Part 2 of the general scheme. In setting out these concerns, we put forward recommendations to overcome potential difficulties and hardships for those in most need of housing. I will speak about the application of the habitual residence condition, HRC, the assessment of reckonable residency, potential blocks to accessing emergency accommodation and possible restrictions to making an application for housing support. Time is short, so this will be a brief synopsis and we have provided further detail in our written submission.

If the HRC is to be adopted from the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, the legislation must also make provision for an appeals process and set out the designated person who will make the determination as to whether an applicant is habitually resident, as is the case for social welfare applicants. We wish to have it noted also that the requirement for all members of an applicant household to be habitually resident to be eligible for social housing supports may exclude some from such supports. This potentially includes those Irish citizens as well as those who have the right to reside in Ireland with their families and are enjoying this right. For example, critical skills workers from a non-EEA country, for example, can bring their family to live with them. By doing so, however, they might exclude themselves from social housing supports as their family members may not be considered habitually resident in the country. We have provided a case example of this in our written submission. Greater consideration must be given to whether there is a need for all members of the household to be habitually resident to be eligible for social housing.

We wish it to be also noted that a definition of "reckonable residency" has not been provided in the Bill, nor is there reference to the criteria for assessing such. It is essential that a clear definition of "reckonable residency" and assessment criteria be provided. It is not clear to us from the Bill who will make the determination as to whether a person has reckonable residency. It is our understanding that the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Immigration Service Delivery do not issue such documents. Rather, the officials of these bodies make a determination on reviewing a person's residency criteria and issue a document that only states the nature of the stamp held by the person and how long that stamp is valid. We ask if it will be the staff of the local authority making these assessments and whether they are in a position to do so. We do not set out to critique the staff of the local authorities but rather to recognise the complexity and, in particular, the legal complexity of the matters in question. This leads to a need for the identification of a designated person to make such a determination, as in the case of habitually residence.

Unfortunately, there have been instances in which people have been denied access to emergency accommodation on the grounds that they do not have an open application for social housing. It is essential that those ineligible for social housing, who are some of the most vulnerable and isolated in our society, are not adversely impacted by the proposed changes.

We recommend the inclusion of an additional amendment that sets out clearly that the existing section 20 and the proposed section 20(A) in no way place restrictions on a person's access to, or the local authority's role in providing him or her with, emergency accommodation.

The proposed section 20(A)(1) sets out two criteria for a person to be eligible to be assessed for social housing supports. The phrasing "to be eligible to be assessed" is out of step with section 20 of the existing legislation and is a cause for concern. It suggests, or could be taken to suggest, that a person may not be eligible to submit an application for social housing support until he or she has proven that he or she is lawfully resident and habitually resident and, where specified, has reckonable residency. This could create a separate, more protracted application process for which no prescribed process exists. We recommend careful consideration of this wording to bring it into line with the Act in order to avoid the creation of a two-step application process.

Given the complex nature of the Irish immigration system, the amendments and all related provisions and the impact these changes would have on people's access to much-needed social housing supports, Threshold believes the Bill must be carefully crafted with due consideration of all potential consequences. We see the need for a further expert consultation process regarding the proposed legislation to ensure that all stakeholder voices are heard and that we get this right. We thank the committee and we would welcome members' questions.