Dáil debates

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

 

Private Rented Accommodation.

10:00 pm

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for being here to reply. I am raising an issue in my constituency that I know has resonance in other constituencies as well, particularly in the cities and urban areas.

A minority of tenants in private rented accommodation are causing havoc. Some of them are involved in criminal activity, others in anti-social behaviour and some are involved in unauthorised businesses such as car repair on the front driveway. Again, others will not even empty their rubbish and it is stacking up in back gardens. This is about a minority of tenants, who live in private rented accommodation. Many of my constituents believe it arises from the recent practice of the two local authorities in the city acquiring houses and renting them to people on the housing list, but this is not so. The local authorities vet their tenants well and have tenant officers who go around. Most importantly, they have a code of conduct.

On the other hand, the HSE, which administers the rent allowance scheme simply carries out a means test and decides who is eligible for serious amounts of money and as soon as the rent allowance commences, that is the end of the matter. It washes its hands of all responsibility for the behaviour of its tenants and yet the amounts of public money being spent are very significant.

This is unacceptable. In Limerick in 2008, rent allowance, taxpayers' money, cost €20 million and more than 3,000 tenants were assisted. It is a minority of tenants who are causing trouble but it is not good enough for the State to give such sums of money for which there is no recourse when people come into neighbourhoods and cause havoc. It is not fair to the residents. All they want is for people to behave as neighbours should do - living normal lives, sending their children to school, and not being involved in anti-social behaviour or criminal activity. That is all that is required.

There is now an opportunity to act because the Government has decided to transfer responsibility for rent allowances from the HSE to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. I am glad it has done so and I fully support that decision. However, there is an industrial relations problem of which the Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, has informed me. She says she hopes it will be resolved early in the new year. When the Minister takes over responsibility for administering the rent allowance scheme, she should put in place a code of conduct for tenants. It would be very simple as there are such models in every local authority in the country in respect of their own tenants. A similar code of conduct should be applied to persons in receipt of rent allowance. If they do not comply with the code of conduct, the rent allowance should be taken from them by discontinuing payment. That kind of sanction would ensure good behaviour in neighbourhoods. It would do more than community gardaí are currently doing to ensure that anti-social behaviour, minor and major criminal activity was stopped in rented houses.

The private rental sector is vital to the economic and social life of the country, and particularly in cities. Private landlords provide an essential service and I am not criticising them in any way. However, it is not enough for the HSE to say that this is a matter for the landlord and tenant, as it is providing the money and cannot interfere. This must be changed. It is essential that, when the Minister takes it over, a condition will apply involving a code of conduct similar to that which pertains to local authority tenants who apply for eligibility for rent allowances from the HSE. The Acting Chairman, Deputy Charlie O'Connor, is nodding in agreement with me. I know well that in parts of his constituency what I am saying is ringing a bell with him. I am referring to exactly the same situation, which is unfair to neighbourhoods and everyone concerned.

I believe in mixed housing and have no problem with it. Many of my neighbours originated in corporation estates in the city. They are the finest people I ever met. My children played with theirs and they were great friends, but that is not the issue. The issue is that if people come into a neighbourhood under a subsidised State scheme, the least one could expect is that there would be a normal code of behaviour. The Government will be negligent if it does not take this opportunity to put in place such a code of behaviour now that the Department of Social and Family Affairs is taking it over. Deputy Mary Hanafin is a progressive Minister, but she missed the point when I tabled a question about this recently. Her reply explained all about the industrial relations problems, although the issue concerns a code of conduct attached to the eligibility for a rent allowance. If people do not comply with the code, the rent allowance should be discontinued. It is a less onerous code than that which applies in local authorities. In the local authority system one must comply under pain of eviction. I am simply saying that one should no longer get the allowance for private rented accommodation.

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