Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and giving me an opportunity to address the question of anti-social behaviour in the context of the management of local authority housing.

Local authorities are responsible under the Housing Acts for the management and maintenance of their housing stock, including addressing any problems arising on their housing estates from serious anti-social behaviour. In recent years a number of measures have been put in place to ensure that local authorities have sufficient capacity to fulfil these responsibilities. New legislative provisions have been enacted, including the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 and the recently enacted Residential Tenancies Act 2004. These Acts provide local authorities with specific powers to deal with anti-social behaviour within local authority, voluntary and private estates.

Outside of the legislation, various other initiatives have also been taken to promote improved estate management. These include the housing management grants scheme, the promotion of best practice in housing management in line with the recommendations of the housing management group, a programme of tenant training and development, and the estate improvement programme to assist in tackling environmental and related problems in severely run-down local authority housing estates and flat complexes in certain disadvantaged urban areas. The housing management initiatives grants scheme established in the mid 1990s, assists local authorities and voluntary organisations to undertake practical pilot projects to improve their housing management. To date, funding of almost €6 million has been provided in grants to improve management of the public and social housing sector. Under the scheme the Department has grant-aided many initiatives including staff and tenant training in estate management, the recruitment of tenant liaison officers and other estate-based staff.

A further initiative to support local authorities to improve housing management was the launch of the housing unit. Its purpose is to assist local authorities to develop a more effective operational approach to housing management. The unit has produced guidance for local authorities in preventing and combating anti-social behaviour and organising training courses.

The Dundee families project was introduced in 1997 and is an interesting initiative. It has directly addressed the destructive behaviour of families at risk or under threat of eviction with the aim of trying to change their behaviour. More than 80 families have been helped in a joint project including a voluntary group and the local authority. While the precise form of this project may fall outside of the scope of the existing housing support schemes for which the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible, I will continue to encourage the active co-operation between local authorities and the voluntary sector. I will follow the progress of the Dundee project to see what lessons relevant to our circumstances can be learned. While it may not be appropriate to our schemes, I am sure some aspects of it can be examined. I will undertake to have the matter examined in more detail. I thank Deputy Kirk for bringing the Dundee project to my attention.

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