Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I do not have a problem with standards being set down. In fact, I want standards to be set down. This is apropos of the general subject area of the amendment rather than the specific purpose of the amendment. Could the Minister explain to me how somebody who has a difficulty with the standards, maintenance or such of an approved housing body unit is not at a disadvantage to a council tenant who would have the same problems?

One of the forms of recourse that the council tenant has which the AHB tenant does not have is that he or she can go to the local elected representative and have the issue brought up at the council.

To give an example of what I mean, there are minimum standards and there are best standards. I have a group of AHB tenants who have complained about the lack of good sound insulation between units. They have looked for an independent audit of the properties, which are in an estate called Cualanor in Dún Laoghaire. It is quite a big estate. That has not been provided. They have done their own audit which basically states that the developer says the standards are fine, having taken a decibel-measuring machine around, but the residents are adamant that there is a major problem with sound between the units. If those were council tenants, a local councillor could go to the council chamber on their behalf and say they are moving a motion to say there should be an independent audit. If that motion was passed, there would be an independent audit to see whether there was a sound problem.

AHB tenants do not have that same recourse. They can go to the RTB but it will only enforce minimal legal standards. It cannot take the next step of saying it is just not happy with this and it is not good enough, even if it just about meets minimum standards. I would be interested to hear the Minister address that. To add to the complexity of it, if one takes this particular instance, these people were allocated places from the council housing list by the council. They go into these AHBs but there is also a property management company and a private developer involved. They have to deal with all these different layers, whereas if they were council tenants, there would be another form of recourse, which I have described. One-stop shop would not be quite the right word but a tenant would know that he or she could go to a person and actually get something done. I ask the Minister to comment on that because it is a problem which will become bigger. The Minister will probably not agree with me but I think the Government is overly reliant on AHBs to deliver social housing and this will become a bigger issue. We need to ensure that all social housing tenants, whatever type of social housing they are in, have the same rights and avenues for addressing problems as each other and that there is not a downgrading or dilution of the forms of recourse that they have because they happen to be in a particular AHB. I ask the Minister to comment on that.