Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 3 March 2015
Committee on Environment, Culture and the Gaeltacht: Select Sub-Committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government
Estimates for Public Services 2015
Vote 34 - Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (Revised)
5:10 pm
Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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Yes, but there is a difference in the way some local authorities handle it. We could prevent people from getting to that stage. If we can get over this year, we may well see more housing stock starting to come in. It is critical this year that, as far as possible, we deal with families in particular. It is much more difficult to find accommodation where children are involved because of keeping them in school and all the rest of it. Some local authorities are capturing it in different ways, however. I will discuss some of the issues separately with the Minister.
It is one thing to get landlords to include their properties in RAS or HAP, but it does not stop there. The ongoing management of those schemes is quite labour-intensive. Given the number of houses that will end up in that sector, which will be the dominant one, has the Minister considered the management issue and what the needs of local authorities will be? Are those matters being examined? Others will not come into the system if it does not work, so word of mouth is really important from a landlord's perspective.