Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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It is important. The Senator raised the issue of local authorities. I outlined where the Government stands on spending in this area. Much of the drawdown for the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government comes towards the year end but this year it is even further ahead on spending than previous years. The Ministers of State, Deputies Paudie Coffey and Ann Phelan, and I have been constantly monitoring and managing the local authorities.

For the benefit of the committee I will outline a baseline of where the local authorities were. Local authorities were simply not in a position to deal with building houses and providing social housing, in the way that was required, up until this year. That is why I have provided more than 300 staff, most of whom are already in this space. It took a bit of time to ensure this staffing complement was ramped up to the level required. We needed to go through a process on that to ensure that local authorities were facing in the direction of building houses to the scale that is needed. That is why the spend at this level is higher this year than it has been for a number of years. The Department also wants to make sure that all local authorities do spend. It would be wrong for me to say that all local authorities are presenting at the same level. Some local authorities have embraced the delivery of housing at a different level from others and I congratulate them. Some ramped it up quicker than others while not all at the same level. However, they are at the space now where they have positioned themselves to deliver the €4 billion strategy which was announced this time last year.

Senator Keane asked about the measurement of local authorities and whether the Department maintains tables on their performance. By and large, yes. Checks and balances are being put in place all the time to ensure that local authorities are monitored in great detail across all areas of housing spend and delivery. A particular eye is kept on those areas that are key priorities for the Department, particularly the key urban areas. However, if some local authorities are coming to year end and if they have been very diligent in spending all their money, then the Department will look at further funds for them if necessary because their delivery rate is so impressive. With voids, for example, which are social housing units that are boarded up, some local authorities have been able to turn them around a lot quicker than others. I congratulate those that have done so; we need to create a standardisation across the local authorities on the issue of voids. I would not like to see a continuation of the slower timelines of turnaround. We want to create an expectation and a standard by which voids will be turned around to ensure they will not be left vacant for a long period of time.

The Department also has a number of other measurements - which are not just financially based - by which it measures, for example, the length of time houses are vacant between occupancies. We also measure the amount of refusals for social housing offerings.

That can be more than 40% in some local authorities, which is a matter of concern. Where that happens, it means the units are left vacant for longer because the prospective tenants are turning them down. The movement to choice-based lettings, of which we are advocates, will help to address that.

I am aware of the Senator's concerns regarding Roscommon. Others have also raised concerns. We are examining them. The housing needs assessment will be done next year and from then on it will be carried out every year by the Housing Agency. That is a critical issue because we need to ensure we have consistency on housing numbers and those who have social housing requirements in years to come. We can then compare apples with apples and oranges with oranges. For example, there were figures in respect of the number of people in Cork who needed social housing. There was then a choice-based analysis involving communicating with those who where on the list. The figures differed substantially. That shows that the analysis needs to be done every year and not every three or four years so that we can keep on top of it.

The Senator asked a specific question on rural water schemes. I have met representatives of the National Federation of Group Water Schemes on a number of occasions and I addressed that body's conference this year. The federation's main request was for a multi-annual funding approach which we have addressed. There are many legacy issues which we are trying to resolve. We have a priority-based system involving the local authorities. Through that priority-based system, we are allocating the funding as we can. We are engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform - I think this is what the Senator is referring to - on a number of legacy issues which date back some time and which may go beyond the scope or scale of the traditional funding to group water schemes. Significant legacy issues need to be dealt with in certain parts of the country.