Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which is long overdue. I welcome it but note it is deficient in many areas. Homelessness does not seem to feature prominently in the Bill and details regarding the delivery of much needed social housing are vague. During the course of my contribution I will outline some amendments which I request the Minister of State to take on board before the Bill is finalised. Fine Gael will table more amendments on Committee Stage.

The Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government is responsible for housing policy and states its aim is to provide affordable housing to every household. Sadly, Fianna Fáil's housing policy over the past ten years has failed. It has not provided affordable housing for many people and now, unfortunately, many people find themselves and their homes in negative equity. More than 100,000 people are in this situation, which is disgraceful.

The Bill introduces, for the first time, a new incremental purchase scheme which the Minister of State described as very innovative, and that is to be welcomed. It will help to promote home ownership for existing social housing tenants whose income is too low to qualify for affordable housing. I welcome this scheme, which reflects Fine Gael policy and thinking in this area. Under the scheme the home owner will, for the first time, have full responsibility for the property from day one. If a person owns a property he or she will respect it much more than if he or she is in a home which is rented from the local authority.

Local authorities will no longer have responsibility for maintenance of the house and, therefore, will be able to save on expenditure. In addition, capital moneys received from purchasers can be reinvested to provide more social housing without the need for extra Exchequer funding, and that is to be welcomed.

The Bill is necessary because the Government has failed to deliver promised social and affordable housing. The collapse of the construction industry, caused by the Taoiseach's boom and bust economics, has made the delivery of new social and affordable housing difficult. The legislation does not address the issue of purchasing local authority flats. This is a major issue in Dublin where there are many local authority flat complexes. Long-standing residents must have the opportunity to purchase their homes and they cannot be left to pay rent indefinitely and, perhaps, after 30 years, still not own their property. I welcome the fact that the Attorney General is addressing the issue and will make a final decision and that the Minister of State hopes he will be enabled to provide for the purchase of flats by local authority tenants.

The Bill attempts to deal with anti-social behaviour, which is welcome, because it is the scourge of many communities throughout the country. Local authorities currently tackle such behaviour by threatening eviction or evicting residents. The legislation will enhance the power of local authorities to handle this widespread problem. The definition of "anti-social behaviour" will be broadened to include behaviour that causes damage to a person's home or impairs the enjoyment of his or her home. Local authorities will be more proactive in this area because they will be permitted to vet potential residents and exclude tenants who engage in, or who have engaged in, anti-social behaviour and who are on housing waiting lists. Section 34 requires that every housing authority adopts an anti-social behaviour strategy within a year, which will ensure a more co-ordinated approach. There will be improved co-operation with the Garda to ensure such behaviour does not take place.

The cost of the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, has spiralled through the roof over the past five years. It cost the HSE €441 million in 2008, which is a sizeable sum to pay to rent housing without the State taking ownership of it. This issue must be examined more closely in next month's budget, as no value for money is provided through this scheme. The Minister of State has proposed an additional rental scheme, under which €20 million will be invested to rent 2,000 housing units for between ten and 20 years. This is the wrong policy to adopt because renting does not provide permanent housing for those on the local authority waiting lists and developers will only have guaranteed rental income for between ten and 20 years. The interest of the tenant should be sacrosanct. Will the Minister of State elaborate on the new rental scheme? Will it be confined to 2,000 units or will a larger scheme be rolled out to rent more properties?

In 2004, the National Economic and Social Council highlighted a number of problems associated with the RAS, which need to be taken into account, including the insecurity of tenure compared to local authority social housing and the potential stigma attached if particular buildings become identified with the scheme. The Bill does not make provision to review the scheme, which is a serious flaw. The scheme needs to be urgently reviewed and it should continue to be reviewed on a six-monthly basis.

We have a housing crisis in Ireland. More than 56,000 people are on social housing lists. This a shockingly high figure, when one considers the boom experienced in the State over the past ten to 15 years and the resources that were available to deal with these lists. However, they are a direct consequence of inaction. I am also concerned that the numbers will continue to increase given the number of houses being repossessed. The Minister of State must consider a longer moratorium for homeowners who get into difficulty than the six-month period provided under the recapitalisation scheme. The moratorium should be extended to two years to give them breathing space during these difficult times.

I am appalled at the latest available figures, which indicate that more than 5,000 local authority houses are vacant. The failure to turn around properties in a timely manner does not help, with more than 56,000 currently on waiting lists. The Minister of State needs to issue a clear directive to local authorities to turn properties around in a timely manner. In my constituency of Dublin North East, at least 80 houses are boarded up. Last week I was contacted by a resident who mentioned that the property next door to her has been boarded up for the past two years. The system is failing if houses are being boarded up while people on waiting lists are not being housed. The Minister of State needs to provide 15,000 additional houses annually over the next four years to reduce waiting lists. Questions need to be answered as to why he is handing money over to local authorities without introducing regular checks on performance delivery. At the very least, strict targets on social housing delivery need to be set for them.

The legislation does not adequately address the maintenance and regeneration of social housing estates. Throughout the country social housing estates are in dire need of regeneration. Many estates in my constituency need to be regenerated. The Government has failed to deliver on regeneration schemes for Dublin. Last December, the assigned property developer pulled out of the Croke Villas public private partnership, PPP, which was to build 30 badly needed social housing units. In addition, Bernard McNamara pulled out of five PPP projects leaving residents devastated in various parts of the city. Dublin City Council lost €5 million in the process and will now only proceed with three projects. To add insult to injury, residents are in limbo until 2010 and 2011 when these projects are supposed to commence and this is a serious blow to them. This should not have happened. Unfortunately, the less well off in society are always the first to suffer in such a scenario and we need to learn from these examples to ensure strict penalties are imposed on developers who renege on their planning conditions and the problems with these PPPs are not repeated elsewhere.

The omission of provisions to deal with homelessness is a major oversight in the Bill. The Make Room campaign has been active in this area, issuing many e-mails to notify Members about the difficulties and problems in this area. The four organisations involved need to be commended for the work they have done to tackle homelessness, as they are trying to eradicate the problem. Their campaign is designed to ensure the Minister's strategy, The Way Home, is included in the legislation so that local action plans and fora on homelessness are put on a statutory footing and the rights of homeless people are vindicated. The organisations seek a new legal definition of "homelessness" and standardisation of housing needs assessments and local authority allocation schemes.

Homelessness is still a problem with more than 5,000 people homeless in the State. This figure is probably not accurate, as it does not take into account the invisible homeless people. I remain unconvinced that the Government will deliver on its promise to end homelessness. For instance, last July the HSE imposed a funding freeze on services for homeless people leading to people being turned away from emergency accommodation, which is shameful. It is a scandal that local authorities can build shelters and facilities for homeless people, which remain closed because the HSE refuses to pay to staff them. Homeless services should be moved under the authority of one agency or Government branch. The current flawed system allows them to fall between the cracks. The Fine Gael Party is seeking to have this matter addressed and it will be contained in our future policy document on local government reform.

The Government has failed to deliver on affordable housing. Under the programme for Government and the national development plan, 17,000 affordable houses were to be delivered between the years 2007 and 2009. In 2007, only 3,500 units were delivered. In the first nine months of 2008, only 3,274 houses were delivered. The local authorities should have received a large kick-back under Part V, but that measure gave developers an opportunity to pay cash in lieu of providing housing. In this light, it is no wonder that waiting lists for housing are so high. Will the Minister of State comment on Part V's failure and detail the plans to change it? More than 6,500 people are on Dublin City Council's affordable housing list and 732 on Fingal County Council's list.

The affordable housing scheme poses another serious problem. As market prices have decreased, it has become cheaper for some people to buy homes on the open market instead of via the scheme. Consequently, there are large-scale rejections of offers by local authorities. Fine Gael wants them to decrease or discount their prices so that affordable housing can again become attractive. Dublin City Council and Meath County Council should be commended on reducing their prices, but we need a ministerial directive to ensure that all local authorities will follow suit and make affordable housing affordable once again.

In budget 2009, the Government's equity scheme was introduced. Through it, the Government will acquire a stake in a property based on a house's market value. The equity stake of 25% to 30% will leave the buyer vulnerable if market prices increase during the house's sale. While this scheme is intended to replace the affordable housing scheme and its full details are still to be ironed out, we must ensure that people are not hit unfairly when they sell property.

The Government also introduced a home choice loan scheme to provide up to 92% of the market value of a new property for first-time buyers unable to obtain loans from banks. Fine Gael has opposed the scheme from the beginning because it encourages people to borrow up to seven times the value of their salaries, potentially trapping them in bad debt and negative equity, given the decline in the housing market.

Initiatives to help first-time buyers are welcome and should be encouraged, but the scheme's timing is wrong. The scheme is unsuitable. It is also questionable in that it only seems to relate to new homes. Many have asked why it does not relate to second-hand homes. That only four people have so far applied shows the concerns over the housing market. They are waiting to see when the market will level out. Current predictions put that at another 12 or 18 months. This is a major reason for people staying away from the home choice loan scheme.

Section 14 deals with the housing service plans. Housing authorities must provide a housing services plan outlining their aims in providing those services. Section 15(2) states that the Minister may direct local authorities to include in the plan details of the quality of housing owned and plans for regeneration. Fine Gael seeks to insert an amendment to make these conditions compulsory. The Minister states that the plan should last for the duration of each council's development plan. Fine Gael wants compulsory six-month reviews of those plans so that they stay relevant.

There are many problems regarding the allocation of social housing. Many view the allocation system as unfair and not transparent. An amendment has been suggested by the MakeRoom Alliance, which comprises Focus Ireland, the Simon Communities of Ireland, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Threshold. It wants regulations for an allocation system for dwellings. Each local authority approaches housing lists and allocations in a different manner, but the alliance wants consistency in this vital State service.

The Minister of State must lay the draft regulations before the relevant Oireachtas committee for debate, the recommendations of which he should consider before signing final regulations. Members of the committee remain in close contact with many of the people that these regulations are trying to help and could provide constructive suggestions to amend the draft regulations.

For the past ten years, the housing boom witnessed developers building estates without providing necessary facilities, which should have been stipulated in planning permissions. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government informs us that this matter will be addressed under the new planning Bill, which is yet to be introduced in the House. However, nothing is to be done to address the problem of estates that have been left unfinished. Many legacy housing estates were built during the Celtic tiger years. Their problems with roads and inadequate foot paths and facilities must be addressed.

Power should be given to local authorities to address this problem in the new planning Bill. In my constituency, a DART station is yet to be provided at Clongriffin, yet it was a stipulation of the planning permission that, once 1,000 had moved into the area, a DART station would be up and running. Thousands of people have moved into the area in the past five years or so, yet there is no station. A town centre was promised to those who bought homes in Belmayne, a new development. However, the plan collapsed because the developer claimed that he had no money, leaving residents high and dry. They were promised proper shopping and civic centres. Many questions remain unanswered.

Some 300 recorded unfinished estates should have been completed two years ago to taking-in-charge standards, but there is no sign of completion dates for them. Unfortunately, unfinished roads and facilities appear to be the norm, with many new housing estates remaining in bad conditions. Under section 180 of the Planning and Development Act, a local authority must, if requested to do so by a majority of owners and occupiers, take in charge an estate that has been completed to the standard required. Clearly, this is a provision of which home owners are not aware. It must be communicated to them.

Standard taking-in-charge policies need to be followed by all local authorities. In terms of taking estates in charge, the enforcement timeframe also needs to be reduced from seven to four years. Heavy penalties must be imposed on developers who fail to complete housing estates in a timely manner. Local authorities must be more proactive in monitoring all housing developments in their areas. They must also send information to residents explaining the taking-in-charge process.

Moreover, the Bill does not address the issue of property management companies and the problems associated with them. Apartment living in Ireland is flawed and the Government has failed to introduce measures that would protect apartment owners from management companies. Although more than half a million people live in apartments and there are more than 4,600 property management companies, no legislation governs such companies at present. Apartment owners nationwide experience constant frustration with their property agents. Many homeowners are being ripped off to the tune of thousands of euro and receive very little service for the money they are paying. In the present economic climate in which people are looking much more closely at their payslips and outgoings, they question the outgoings they pay to property management companies.

The absence of regulation in this regard is a disgrace and a scandal and homeowners must be protected from the lack of regulation and accountability in the sector. For example, annual general meetings are not taking place in many such complexes, the residents are unsure of their rights and are unsure to whom they should turn if they experience problems with their property management agents or companies. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous practices are in operation within this industry and many owners are in the hands of cowboys, who appear to raise service level fees as they wish. Clearly, no basic communication is taking place between property management companies and homeowners or between management companies and agents. Meetings are not being held with residents to inform them on the uses to which their fees are being put or the extant difficulties within such complexes. This entire issue is a can of worms that has not been tackled over the last ten to 15 years. It is an area that Fine Gael has raised constantly and on which it has sought the introduction of the necessary legislation. Hopefully, the Minister of State will be able to expedite legislation in this regard.

The Government set up the National Property Services Regulatory Authority in 2005, to which a director was appointed in July 2006. The authority has acquired a permanent premises in Navan and a staff and has been allocated a budget of €700,000 and €930,000 in 2007 and 2008, respectively. While I am uncertain as to its budget allocation for 2009, the authority has no statutory footing and is toothless. I believe it is engaged in some preparatory work in this area but there has been little communication as to current developments in respect of this authority. The authority's lack of statutory powers ultimately must be addressed.

I understand that two Bills are forthcoming in this area. The property services regulatory authority Bill will put the aforementioned regulatory authority on a statutory footing. There also has been discussion of a multi-unit development Bill, for the purpose of dealing specifically with issues pertaining to the property management companies. The other Bill will deal with the regulation of estate agents and so on. The Minister of State should provide clarification and an update in respect of developments and should provide Members with a timeframe and some hope in order that they can inform people that their issues with management companies are being taken on board and soon will be addressed by the Government.

The Bill does not address the fire safety issues that exist in many flats and apartments throughout the city and I am extremely concerned about fire safety matters in apartment complexes. In October 2008, a fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. in an apartment complex in Clongriffin, which is located in my constituency. The fire is believed to have been started by mindless thugs who set alight industrial bins in the car park. Shockingly however, no fire alarm went off in the apartment complex when the bins were set ablaze. Had a few residents not been returning home from a previous evening out, who were able to inform and evacuate the complex's other residents, the outcome could have been far worse. Moreover, the fire brigade had difficulty in gaining access to the complex. Many such complexes are gated and the fire brigade does not have the codes with which to gain access to tackle a fire. This is a major issue that must be examined.

This complex contains neither fire extinguishers nor blankets on each floor and the fact that the fire alarm was not working raises many questions. This apartment complex received a fire compliance certificate from the local authority, which is highly worrying. Certificates are being given to apartment complexes that contain no fire fighting equipment. Alarms are not being tested on a regular basis to ensure they are properly functioning and fire drills do not take place in many of these complexes. Unfortunately, residents do not know who are their neighbours and there are no fire marshals or wardens on the floors. This issue is a ticking time bomb and ultimately, it must be addressed.

Legislation must be urgently drawn up in respect of property management companies and fire safety matters. The Government must perform an audit to ascertain how many apartment complexes have in place inadequate fire prevention equipment. Fine Gael seeks amendments, either through the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill or through the fire safety Acts, which will state in law that management agents or management companies have a duty to check on a weekly basis that all fire safety equipment is present in buildings and is operational. Moreover, such amendments should state that fire evacuation plans must be placed on all floors in apartment complexes and that fire drills must take place on a more regular basis.

The Government has failed to ensure that rental properties are inspected on a regular basis. In 2006, only 3% of all rental properties were inspected. Although the Minister of State has brought forward measures to deal with rental accommodation that came into effect from 1 February last and which deals with the issue of bedsits, 78% of private rented properties in the area under Dublin City Council's remit did not comply with basic legal minimum standards, according to the Centre for Housing Research. Greatly increased levels of inspections are required and if the Minister of State is serious in this regard, he will ensure that yearly inspections take place of all properties nationwide. He also will ensure that fines are increased severely and not simply by €2,000, which already has taken place. One must ensure that local authorities are on top of their brief in this regard and that they ensure that people are not being hit or being put into poor properties.

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