Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I welcome this opportunity to speak on the Bill. How did we arrive at a stage in the country's development where thousands of people are on local authority waiting lists yet thousands of houses throughout the land are unoccupied? When did we, economically and socially speaking, decide that a house would become a tradeable commodity to be used as an instrument for investment primarily and not as a place of refuge or to raise a family? Until such time as we legislate in this area with people in mind and give up our obsession with the property market we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. We have, through this legislation, an opportunity to provide decent housing for all those who need it, if only we can embark on a little lateral thinking.

My colleague, Deputy Ciarán Lynch, stated that recent figures published showed a massive jump from 43,700 on the social housing waiting lists to nearly 60,000 in just three years. How did we come to this point when so many houses were being built during this period? With the right thinking, this legislation provides a golden opportunity to address the imbalance that exists within the social housing sector.

The relationship between the Department and the local authorities needs to reflect the realities on the ground. For instance, in my constituency of Cork East, there is a local authority scheme at Stag Park in Mitchelstown where affordable houses remain unsold and are boarded up. I have queues out the door of my clinics in Mitchelstown with people on the social housing list who would dearly love to obtain one of these modern, well-appointed and fantastically designed houses. However, they will remain unsold until such time as the Department frees up the financial obligation of the local authority to the Department with regard to their sale. The current market conditions dictate that they will remain unsold because they have been boarded up for so long that a certain stigma is attached to them.

The Department must become more flexible in its approach. A house which is designated as an affordable house and which is unsold within a specific period must be allowed to be occupied at the discretion of the local authority if the local authority has made a decent attempt to sell the house. The Minister of State must examine this. Countless thousands of affordable houses throughout the State could be used for social housing but this cannot be done because of certain constraints placed upon them.

Generally, I am in favour of voluntary housing associations but I have certain reservations about trends that I have seen within this sector. I am anxious that voluntary housing associations would not supplant the role of the local authority in terms of the provision of social housing. It is true that they fulfil a need in terms of catering to a certain demographic. However, I have documented cases and had representations from quite a number of constituents who find that once they occupy a voluntary housing association property, they find they have no recourse to eventual purchase or to an independent arbiter with regard to the conditions of their tenancy. In one case I encountered, the rent of a couple on a fixed social welfare income was increased substantially by the voluntary housing association and they had no recourse to an independent arbiter when they sought to question the increase. This issue must be addressed.

Irish people will always want to own their own home. This is ingrained within our psyche. This trait must inform how we formulate policy. If one provides a social house it must be on the basis that it will become available for purchase in the medium to long term. This choice and right must exist even if it is not exercised. The current tenant purchase scheme is woefully inadequate, in that there would be a golden opportunity to sell off older housing stock if it were discounted at a more favourable rate. Most local authority houses I visit which have long-term tenancies have so much invested in them by the occupiers that the valuations they get when they seek to purchase the house have no bearing on the original real cost of construction and the amount invested in the intervening period.

If one wishes to purchase one's home in the current climate there is a discounted rate but it has become an instrument of the market by virtue of a valuation which must be sought. This is in spite of the fact that people have built communities around their homes and have ensured the upkeep of the houses for the duration of their tenancies. If we are to incentivise the ownership of houses we must create better conditions to allow older people to purchase their homes. There is a net benefit to the State in that it would yield a massive dividend and would provide an opportunity in terms of significantly reducing maintenance costs to local authorities.

Section 16 provides that making a draft plan is required. The country is facing a pensions nightmare for the future. On several occasions, I recall the Minister for Health and Children reminding us that life expectancy has risen dramatically since the Government came into office. I question her claim to fame in this respect, but if we are living longer, then any draft plans must be formulated on the basis that housing provision for older people in the future is encapsulated within such plans. We cannot keep shoving people into nursing homes, and sheltered housing is only part of the solution. Where a draft plan is formulated on foot of a county development plan, lands must be zoned specifically for housing for the elderly. There must be some degree of forward planning which must start now to deal with that issue.

If people are currently residing in quite large houses, they will want to downsize in the future. It is probable that there will be a demand for smaller units. County development plans — by extension, the draft housing plans — must take account of that kind of planning. We cannot just plan for the next two or three years, but for 20 years hence. We need a little bit of foresight in that respect. In my experience, I have found that planning policy units lack the necessary resources to carry out demographic studies of population trends for future housing provision. The Government must take cognisance of this. The CSO could be a viable instrument in assisting local authorities in that respect.

The rental accommodation scheme with which I am most familiar is in north Cork, and it has been well deployed. This is the case because the staff have used the scheme to best effect, which is a tribute to people who are using limited resources. How did we get to a stage where we would use taxpayers' money — approximately €450 million — to pay a rental subsidy to a landlord with a second or third home, to ensure housing provision for people on the housing list? There is an economic fallacy to that argument. It defies any kind of logic or common sense. We need to wean ourselves off this dependence on rent allowance. There would be no need for a rental accommodation scheme if resources were being allocated to provide houses for people in need. If we take approximately €450 million per annum, there is a multiplier from that which would adequately provide capital spending for all of the social housing needed. I am not railing against the scheme as it currently exists, because it has done well in the circumstances in which it operates, but there must be more lateral thinking about how we provide social housing. That is something that needs to be examined.

The over-supply of housing in large parts of the country in the recent past must teach us that the relationship between demand and supply must be a qualitative one and not based on quantity alone. We must re-jig our thinking in this area. I wish to speak specifically on antisocial behaviour in this respect. We had a scheme on Mallow Town Council whereby the council and other sources funded a tenant liaison officer. Since that officer's contract of employment had to be terminated because there was not adequate funding to meet the need the qualitative relationship between the tenants and the local authority has deteriorated. The work the person in question carried out on a three year contract was so valuable that the relationship between tenants and the local authority improved dramatically during that period and the incidence of antisocial behaviour reduced dramatically. One way to deal with antisocial behaviour is to build relationships by ensuring that a tenant liaison officer is appointed under statutory provision in every local authority jurisdiction. The relationship building process in this instance was done over time and with a very meticulous approach and it yielded results. That needs to be examined in this Bill.

Section 30 states that the housing authority can delegate some or all of its management and control functions in respect of its dwellings to a designated body. I would like the Minister to expand on that provision. I have a certain reservation that if we move to cede power to the voluntary housing associations, we would cede exclusive control of social housing policy to non-statutory bodies. The Minister should speak about this in his response.

There is land zoned in Mallow that is owned by the town council, in which a plan for more than 100 houses was formulated. The entrance to that site is currently no wider than the width of two cars. There is a lack of joined up thinking where land owned by a council is zoned for local authority housing. There must be proper access to the site. The land adjoins a private estate and if one considers the multiplier of 100 houses for cars and traffic movements, then without any rectification of the access, we are storing up difficulties for the future. We cannot speak about antisocial behaviour or about building communities unless we have proper zoning and proper access to local authority housing sites. That is something that needs to be addressed as well.

For too long, social housing has been a poor relation in long-term planning. Successive Governments have built houses with the sole aim of getting people off the list. That in itself is worthwhile, but we have never thought about the implications of crowding hundreds of houses into one area without any thought for the implications of lack of proper space, amenity space and proper access to the sites. That is why so many problems exist. There will be a great opportunity presently for the Government to ensure social housing provision in a way that provides for everyone in need of housing. We must have some foresight in our thinking in that regard.

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