Dr. Donal McManus:

I thank the Chairman and members for the opportunity to address the committee. I will go through the detail of our presentation and pick out some key points.

The Irish Council for Social Housing is the representative federation of housing associations or approved housing bodies. We have almost 280 members. Collectively, we provide over 30,000 homes for families, older people, formerly homeless people and people with disabilities. At the peak, the sector would have taken over 3,500 people off the waiting list in 2009. That gives some idea of the scale. As well as providing social rented housing, a number of housing associations and approved housing bodies undertake a wide range of additional services, such as community-based education and social and health-related supports. Housing associations include a large number of organisations which provide housing and related supports. They were established as approved housing bodies by local communities. Often they cater primarily for specialist groups such as older people, the homeless and people with disabilities. A small number of larger associations provide housing over a number of locations and manage a significant number of homes.

Housing associations have delivered through new-build provision, acquisitions, Part V delivery and regeneration projects with local authorities. More recent initiatives include various forms of leasing with the private sector and, importantly, non-Exchequer finance, which has played a major part in recent years.

I will outline the structure of our associations. The majority of housing associations are incorporated as companies limited by guarantee. They are governed by a board of directors. Where housing associations have sufficient scale they employ specialist staff to undertake the operations. A large number of smaller locally based approved housing bodies have no staff and their work is undertaken on a voluntary basis at no cost to the State. Overall, housing associations are motivated to provide good-quality, well-managed housing at affordable rent levels. A small number of housing associations are also currently examining additional types of housing, such as cost rental and affordable rental as part of mixed tenure developments. Currently, due to the range of activities that approved housing bodies undertake, the bodies often have to comply with a range of regulatory requirements from a number of different bodies. These include provision of audited accounts and returns to the Companies Registration Office, returns to the Revenue Commissioners and the HSE, where required, as well as compliance with terms and conditions of the capital funding scheme with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and local authorities.

Following recent changes, approved housing bodies will have to comply with the requirements of the Charities Act and the newly amended Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act, under which housing associations have to register their tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. At present no single body has full oversight of the sector.

The introduction of a regulator for approved housing bodies will provide an important level of assurance and confidence for the various stakeholders the sector engages with, such as private financial bodies, elected members, local authorities, tenants and the general public. The legislation is focused on the organisational regulation aspects of approved housing bodies rather than the landlord-tenant relationship, which will come under the Residential Tenancies Act and which approved bodies now have to comply with from 2016. Committee members can appreciate the range of increased existing regulatory requirements that the sector has to comply with.

It is important for a new statutory regulator to be fully aware of the regulatory requirements from other regulators which have role in the sector. In this context we believe there is a need for a memorandum of understanding to ensure the housing regulator is fully cognisant of the requirements of other regulators. This should be provided for in the Bill. We believe the regulator should be independent to ensure credibility and that the regulator is not captured by any specific public or private interests. It should be set up in the public interest, while also having a key enabling role to ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector. The regulator should set standards on finance, tenant services and housing management. It should also set standards on governance and provide oversight with a plan of engagement and intervention where required. The regulator should not undertake a role that could be viewed as that of a shadow director nor should it micro-manage the business activities of approved housing bodies. In part, we envisage the regulator having to provide consent to an approved housing body for disposal of an asset to the value of €10,000 as overly punitive unless this measure was focused purely on physical assets such as stock. This could require, for example, the sale of a maintenance van or photocopier from the regulator.

I will summarise some of the points in response to questions posed by the committee. We will make a full submission on the heads of the Bill.

We welcome the introduction of statutory regulation as an able and supportive role for the sector but believe that, as the heads are currently worded, the spirit is not fully captured as yet. Our key objective is that assurances be provided to tenants and there is detail to be worked out on that.

The principle of proportionality needs to be maintained to ensure that smaller local and voluntary housing bodies are supported rather than undermined during this transition to statutory regulation. The heads of the Bill introduces seven offences for non-compliance which is harsh for many small housing bodies and this needs to be handled proportionally to be flexible in this transition.

There is a need to ensure greater clarity over how the extensive powers of the regulatory body will work; under head 11 on consent of a disposal, head 12 on appointing board members and head 16 on investigative powers. These are extensive powers and, unless dealt with carefully, may be seen as intrusive by some bodies. The proposed co-ordination across agencies is needed and this is why the regulator will drive co-operation in interacting with the PRTB and the charities regulator.

The Irish Council for Social Housing welcomes the continued engagement as a representative body in the development of this legislation and its future implementation. I thank the Chairman.