Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like many of my Sinn Féin colleagues, I believe this Bill is timely and important. It is important that tenants in accommodation provided by approved housing bodies, which in my time on a local authority would have been known as housing associations, have broadly similar rights to tenants in the private rented sector. My background was as a councillor for a number of years, and I suppose anyone who has been in public life has faced difficulties down through the years in this area.

I agree with my colleague. There are large gaps that could be filled in the Bill. I hope that these changes can be made to the Bill to ensure an important opportunity to strengthen the rights of tenants is not missed. We will probably only get one opportunity in this area in the lifetime of the Dáil and we all want to see stronger rights in this area, not only for tenants but also for landlords. I think we all would accept that there is much inequity in the system.

Others spoke about the high rate of house ownership in Ireland compared with other European countries. In Ireland, home ownership has always been seen as important. People talk about getting on the property ladder and there was the madness in which people were encouraged to participate. However, it also had to do with lack of security of tenure for tenants. I do not know of the experience of the rest of Members in this House, but anyone of my generation who stayed in rented accommodation will have known about the kips and dumps. One wonders how they got away with renting such accommodation and how there were no checks on safety, mould growing on walls, etc. I suppose we were young and foolish and one did not have an alternative.

We want to see this process creating a suitable rental market and legal protection to provide sufficiently for the everyday needs of ordinary working people. Irish life is changing due to the collapse of the property market and the difficulty in getting credit from financial institutions. Those who would have wanted to leave the rental market and buy a property are now remaining as rent-paying tenants. This is driving up the demand for rental properties but the supply of such properties remains the same. At one stage, 44,000 houses were being built per annum whereas figures released the other day showed 4,000 houses being built this year.

As elected representatives, we hear from constituents that while rents are rising, supports are declining. Not a week goes by but that a young couple comes in to complain that a landlord will not agree to reduce the rent and this creates uncertainty. While this matter is not covered by the Bill before us and it is a question for another Minister, it is nonetheless a crisis. I accept that the depletion of social housing stock is down to previous governments, but the current Government will say it is because of the economic crisis. Disastrous and ill-thought out policies have left tenants with poor rights compared to landlords, which is why this Bill to protect tenants' rights is so important and timely.

A positive measure in the legislation is the inclusion of some approved housing bodies or AHBs. Housing bodies are an extremely important element of the system because they provide housing tailored to specific sections of those in need. Without housing bodies, such as Focus Ireland, Respond, Sonas and many more, we would be in much more difficult situation. Some housing associations are really good at dealing with elected representatives, while others are not. Such bodies should respond to elected representatives on such matters.

A significant gap in this Bill is that some tenants in housing provided by approved housing bodies are excluded from the remit of the Private Residential Tenancies Board. They include tenants in receipt of medical care, personal care services and other assistance from the HSE. I urge the Minister to examine this area because vulnerable tenants who would benefit from the PRTB's services and support will be excluded from its remit. The Bill should clearly state which groups are excluded from the board's remit. They are groups such as those in short-term emergency hostel accommodation and high-support residential care, having due regard for mental capacity legislation. Does the Bill cover people in sheltered accommodation or those in Alone housing? Perhaps the Minister could clarify that point.

Local authority tenants are entirely excluded from the terms of the Bill. However, if the Bill is aimed at providing the PRTB's services to as many tenants as possible who need them, why does the legislation exclude so many tenants in local authority housing from the board's remit? I do not believe the general idea of local authority or AHBs as being good landlords, who are more reliable than the private market, is sufficient excuse not to offer tenants the support of the PRTB. Some local authorities' accommodation is not up to standard, yet they seem to be outside many of the positive changes concerning rented accommodation. That aspect also needs to be considered.

Previous speakers referred to the problem of bad tenants. I spoke to one landlord who said a tenant owed eight months' rent. He eventually got her out of the house but she moved to another house. I have spoken to community welfare officers about difficult tenants, but they cannot advise landlords or keep data. We are actually rewarding some bad tenants by moving them from one house to another, although houses may be smashed up. It is crazy that taxpayers have to pay for this type of behaviour. The current system is wrong and needs to be re-examined.

Other speakers referred to next door neighbours reporting bad behaviour, including that of students. People from all walks of life can be bad tenants, not just students. If someone is being intimidated, it is difficult for me as an elected representative to contact the PRTB to explain what is going on. It is not an option for me, so we need to re-examine that matter. Some of us raised this gap in services at a recent meeting of the policing board. In addition, people have to go through many avenues in order to deal with anti-social noise. The biggest problem with the board is the length of time it takes to get through. When PRTB representatives visited meetings in my own local authority area, they said it was down to a lack of resources. The majority of cases involved people ringing up about anti-social behaviour. However, when such behaviour is reported it can go back and forth and may take 12 months to deal with. Meanwhile, the poor unfortunate person who has reported the matter is being intimidated.

In some cases, serious characters may be involved in drug dealing and other criminality, so people are being put in a difficult position. It would be better if such complaints could be funnelled through elected representatives. For example, if someone in rented accommodation, who gets money from the community welfare officer, is partying day and night there could be a reporting mechanism to cope with the problem. It is scandalous that people must put up with this. They may be getting old and have put their life savings into accommodation, but if a disastrous tenant moves in next door, they must live with the consequences.

I have dealt with cases involving a poor response from housing associations. On one occasion, there was a crack house and people were terrified that if they reported it they would be found out. It is hard to organise and mobilise people concerning such difficulties because they will not make a complaint. They would do so in local authority housing because there is a distance involved and they go through housing officers. Difficulties have also arisen with using the confidential telephone line.

Most of the problems concerning the PRTB arise from non-refunded deposits, so we should come up with sensible solutions for dealing with this issue. If we can solve that matter it may free up other areas.

Not all landlords have signed up to the PRTB system. Is there a mechanism to encourage local representatives and authorities to provide such information? I dealt with the case of an elderly woman whose marriage broke up. The family home was sold and she moved to rented accommodation, but she ran out of money. She was staying in what I can only describe as a garden shed. On many occasions, she asked the landlord to repair the door as she was terrified that people would get in.

However, he would not do it. It came to the point where she had no money and so she sought rental subsidy. However, the attitude was it would not be worth the landlord's while to avail of it and, consequently, she was out on her ear. There are many bad cases and, unfortunately, as elected representatives, Members hear many of the bad cases and do not hear of the good landlords. I recall visiting one elderly couple who had invested in a house in an area. They showed me the state of the house, which had holes in walls, wardrobes kicked in and cigarette burns inside the wardrobe - I do not know what was going on in that regard. Again, this was a brand new house and the couple had told the woman who rented it that she should treat it as though it were her own. I do not know what type of home she came from.

While I acknowledge I am all over the place on this subject, it is one of the issues about which I could talk all night. Moreover, it is the single issue about which all elected representatives are concerned. There is an opportunity to get this right and if Members put forward positive proposals to strengthen this area, the Minister of State should look sympathetically on them. I wish her well with the Bill's passage through the House and note Sinn Féin is supportive of many of its provisions. It needs to be expanded into other areas and I am concerned that Members will only get one bite of the cherry with regard to this legislation. Consequently, it is about balance as this Bill can have huge implications for people's lives. Many people to whom I have spoken are getting older and have seen their lives and communities being transformed. For example, the area in which I live has experienced a huge amount of change over the past ten years with regard to rented accommodation and so on. While much change has been positive, much of it has also been negative. It is about issues such as not repairing households, gutters hanging down, the grass not cut, the bins not being left out and so on. Many things can be considered to bring about positive changes in people's lives and to bring balance to the Bill.

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