Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

Deputy McCormack raised the administration of the disabled person's scheme. In that connection, I thank God for the Ombudsman, Ms Emily O'Reilly, who recently overturned the decision of a local authority in County Louth to refuse disabled person's grant to a mentally ill person because it failed to take into account the serious problems the person faced. More intervention is needed in terms of the decisions of local authorities.

My colleague, Deputy Stanton, made a key point that the ban on Members of the Oireachtas being members of local authorities has created a major gap in knowledge, access and information. There is also a gap in the decision making capacities of councils because the collective ability of Members to highlight to local authorities ways in which they may not act has been removed. We can no longer bring our special, historical knowledge to bear in local authorities. I am not arguing that the rules should be changed but the matter needs to be examined. For example, the statutory requirement that county managers meet local Deputies once per annum could be increased to once per quarter or Deputies could be invited to SPC or other meetings. We need to engage with our local authorities, particularly around policy issues such as housing and planning.

The Labour Party did a good evening's work in tabling this important motion. I propose to raise several important issues which constituents have raised with me. Many of those who approached me on these matters live on the margins. They may be alcoholics or may have recently left Drogheda Homeless Aid or other institutions. Many cannot access housing because they experience difficulty convincing local authority officials that they are homeless. On repeated occasions, people have been asked why they do not stay with relatives or friends. This approach is not good enough.

One of the Government decisions with which I have never agreed was to make local authorities responsible for homelessness and community welfare officers responsible for rent allowance. Unfortunately, in some areas this has resulted in a see-saw effect as local authorities tell people they are not homeless, while I discover through a telephone call to a community welfare officer that the person in question is entitled to be housed. On two occasions, I was compelled to telephone the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government requesting it to intervene to force the local authorities to recognise the needs of individuals and deal with them in a proper fashion.

Many of those affected by homelessness are in extremely difficult circumstances and may have experienced personal trauma or serious social problems. One cannot dump all of them in the lowest quality bed and breakfast establishments. They tend to end up in certain establishments — we know where they are — which have poor facilities and are generally not very nice. I tell those who approach me that they have a right to choose a bed and breakfast. The Government must address this issue.

At the weekend, I dealt with a person who became homeless due to a house fire. National protocols are required to establish how local authorities must act in such circumstances, what advice they should offer, who is the appointed officer and so forth. We must ensure contact is made with the appropriate officials and people made homeless are treated properly. It is difficult for those whose house has been burned down to take in what is required of them. Giving them a number to call is insufficient and a more proactive approach is needed. Proper protocols and, above all, empathy and sympathy are required. While the community welfare officers I meet are first class people who do an excellent job, local authorities must provide more training on how to deal with people whose personal lives are in extremis, as it were.

My colleagues have raised another issue which is frequently brought to Deputies' attention, namely, the position of single persons who are seeking housing. In nine out of ten cases, the person will be a divorced or separated man who has moved out of the family home. Many of these people have no stability in their lives and lead a lonely, unhappy existence, often based on drink, in one bedroom apartments. The rental accommodation scheme — RAS — does not cater for this group. I acknowledge, however, that the scheme has improved the quality of accommodation in Drogheda and it has become easier to find better quality flats or apartments at lower rents because the local authority makes up the difference.

Although the RAS can bring stability, it does not cater to the medium to long-term needs of the group of single persons I have described. The difficulty for them is that the eligibility criteria require a person to be in receipt of rent allowance for 18 months, which means people must first lead a dreadful lifestyle living in the dumps I described. If one could intervene, given certain conditions, and provide that the RAS will apply either after three months or even immediately, it would give these people an opportunity to lead a better lifestyle in better accommodation. They would have a better deal.

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