Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I raise this issue in the knowledge that practically on a daily basis, Members on all sides of the House raise matters from their own constituencies in respect of housing loans. Usually, the banking sector receives the brunt of the complaints in this regard, to the effect that it is not dealing with those who are unfortunate enough to be in such a position. However, it has recently come to my attention that in addition to such problems, local authorities also have particular problems regarding housing loans they allocated to people in their communities. In this regard, I asked the Oireachtas Library to carry out a survey on shared ownerships by local authorities to ascertain the position in respect of payments being in arrears. Amazingly, 43% of the loans nationwide were in severe financial difficulty. For example, 42.8% of the loans in the Minister of State's own constituency of Dún Laoghaire were in arrears, while 36% of the loans in my constituency in County Kildare are in arrears. I raised this matter with Kildare County Council's housing section and the main problem identified by the officials there, who are ever-helpful to those who are unfortunate enough to be in such difficulties, was that it was not within their remit to do anything regarding the arrangements with which the person concerned drew down the loan. When I questioned the official further in this regard, she replied that she had investigated the matter and had found that section 34 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) 2009 had not had a ministerial order applied to it. This section bears reading and should be read into the record of the House. Section 34(2) states:

Where there are moneys due and owing by a household to a housing authority under any of the provisions to which this section applies and the housing authority is satisfied that the household would otherwise suffer undue hardship, the housing authority may enter into arrangements with the household for the payment of those moneys (together with any interest that may have accrued under section 33(2)) by such instalments and at such times as the housing authority considers reasonable in all the circumstances in addition to any rent, charges, fees or loan repayments that the household is paying to the authority.

Although both Government and Opposition Members criticise the banks, the Government itself probably is a greater problem to many people in this respect, in that it has failed to implement its own legislation. The Government has not enabled local authorities to deal with those who are unfortunate enough to be in financial difficulties. Having spoken to my local authority, this is what it wishes to do. The person at the desk of the local authority does not wish to state consistently to those concerned that the council has no means available to it to deal in any way with a person's case, other than to demand that all the payments be made that are required by legislation or under the guidelines regarding the loan and that the authority is obliged to adopt such strict criteria.

The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government talks the world over about all the wonderful things he is doing. However, when it comes to the basic function of protecting the family homes of these people, he will not apply this provision. While he applied section 35 in respect of antisocial behaviour, he has refused to implement the necessary provision to protect the family home. This is a joke. As I noted, the percentage of loans in arrears in Dún Laoghaire is 42%. In the Minister's own region of Dublin city, out of 1,652 loans, 719, or 43%, are in trouble. He has the capacity to do something about which Members argue daily in respect of what the banks are not doing but he will not do so. This is a disgrace and given the numbers I have provided to him in respect of his own constituency, I ask the Minister of State to bring this matter to the attention of the relevant Minister, be it Deputy Gormley or the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran. They should ensure the application of a ministerial order as soon as possible to allow the officials of local authorities to deal humanely with those who are in financial difficulties with regard to housing loans they have obtained from the local authorities.

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