Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will support this technical Bill, which builds upon the legislation introduced by Fianna Fáil in 2009. We realise it will facilitate the introduction of the new rent system for local authority housing under section 131 of the 2009 Act, to be administered by housing authorities within their existing financial and staffing resources. We acknowledge the facet of the Bill which allows local authority members to have an input into that process. That is to be welcomed as it takes cognisance of local knowledge such members have on foot of representations they regularly receive from the local authority sector, as well as their knowledge of the wider area they represent.

The Bill does not set out a definitive national standardisation differential rent scheme, however. The regulations to be made will set out more clearly the matters that may be included in a local rent scheme, including the level, type and source of household income that may be assessed for rent purposes; how dependants will be accounted for in calculating rent; the manner in which the size and standard of any class or classes of dwelling are to be taken into account in determining rent, having regard to the market rent in respect of similar size and standards in the administrative area concerned; and procedures for rent reviews.

The 2009 Act amended previous Housing Acts from 1966 to 2004 giving local authorities a framework for a more strategic approach to the delivery and management of housing services. That framework provided for the adoption of housing service plans, homelessness action plans, anti-social behaviour strategies, new and more objective methods of assessing need and allocation, and a far more effective management and control regime covering tenancies and rents.

This Bill concerns housing law and affects the means by which rents can be assessed and agreed thereafter. It allows us to assess continually the needs and difficulties that have arisen and do arise regularly, more so at this time as a result of the crash that has occurred and the current economic situation.

I welcome the Minister of State's reference to the housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill which will give effect to the decision for local authorities to manage rent subsistence and allowances. I ask the Minister of State to bring that measure forward as soon as she can. I had hoped it would have formed part of the Minister of State's strategy and be alluded to in the Bill before us.

I also welcome the commitment to a further tenant purchase scheme. The Minister of State should consider a Bill we are putting before the House concerning social housing agencies. At present, it is not possible for tenants to buy out such houses. Our Bill will seek to allow tenants an opportunity to do so in future. The Minister of State should respond positively to that measure with a view to enacting legislation to allow that to happen.

By its very nature, this topic brings us to consider the grave housing crisis we now have, which is predominant throughout the country. We all receive regular representations from those in need of housing. The number of those with such requirements has grown to huge proportions in recent times. There are 100,000 applicants for local authority housing services countrywide, which can be described as a crisis.

As part of our own internal policy formulation process, I have discussed these matters with members of our party throughout the country. They include local government reform, water services, urban renewal requirements and the commercial rates crisis. An effort is needed to rebalance the discrepancies that now exist between out-of-town centres and conventional town centres. In response to that process, it has become apparent that the major task for and onus of responsibility on local authorities concerns the housing crisis. There is frustration and despair about the lack of appropriate schemes to meet that need.

The Minister of State has been entrusted with that responsibility which needs to be brought to bear sooner rather than later. I acknowledge the Minister of State's references to certain inclusions in the housing (miscellaneous provisions) Bill. It is incumbent upon her, in reaction to that crisis which is so prevalent and is having such an effect on or society, to bring forward a coherent and effective means by which the Government can address that in co-operation with local authorities.

The failure heretofore to utilise NAMA properties to address housing problems is a damning indictment of the failure of imagination on the Minister of State's part to confront these challenges. There was always an expectation that a social dividend would emanate from that source. Unfortunately, as legislators, we cannot say with any authority that such is the case, nor can we point to any success in that regard. That matter needs to be addressed.

I also wish to refer to the new local property tax in the context of local authorities' responsibilities and rents. Unlike the household charge, local authority housing units are not exempt from the local property tax, so councils will be charged for the due sum. There has been much talk about empowering local authorities and increasing the sources of revenue available to them in the delivery of services they are expected to provide, no matter how diminished they may be.

However, in empowering local authorities and formulating and setting in train a concrete means by which funding will be guided towards them, only 60% of local property tax, as collected nationwide, will be equalised and redirected subsequently to the local authorities. As the Minister of State is aware, many local authorities were penalised for their failure regarding the collection of the household charge. I might add this was through no fault of their own but was more as a result of the manner in which the issue was managed and delivered. However, they were penalised quite substantially regarding the funds that had been allocated initially to them as part of the central government allocation and this would have had an effect on many of their programme delivery services and facilities thereafter. Moreover, the Bill before Members, which deals with the setting of rents by local authorities for tenants, makes no reference to the impact of the property tax on local authority tenants. In this context, local authorities are taking varying approaches, with some adding the charge onto annual rents, while others are absorbing it directly on their balance sheets. This flies in the face of the commitment given by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to increase the source of funding to local authorities as they must now subsume this cost instead. As the Minister of State is aware, the tax on local authority housing will be €45 for each unit in 2013 and €90 in 2014, being a full year. Moreover, the level of increases in future years is unknown as the Government, probably inevitably, will seek to hike up the tax and the income derived therefrom. Were local authorities to pass on these costs to ordinary home owners, it would be another sharp blow to the already struggling low-income households nationwide.

The decision to impose local property tax on local authority homes generates real and increasing financial difficulties for embattled councils, which have already had their funding slashed, when one considers other sources of revenue streams to which they had become accustomed or on which they had been dependent. I am conscious of issues such as commercial rates and the collapse in revenue in that regard, mainly as a result of the failure to address that issue when one considers that rents have fallen by 75% in many cases but local authority rates have only fallen by a maximum of 5%. This is based on the decision of local authority members, in their best efforts and interests, to try to reduce the burden but who are being hamstrung by virtue of the archaic system that still exists and which must be overhauled. In addition, by virtue of the fall-off in planning and development activity, there obviously has been a fall-off in planning fees, development charges and so forth. Some local authorities are seeking to be innovative by slashing such development charges with a view to trying to encourage inward investment and development in their respective counties and I commend them on that. However, there must be greater leadership from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to tackle and overhaul the revenue streams, to take account of the difficulties in that regard and to come forward with innovative ways and means by which such local authorities can attract investment into their towns.

As Members are aware, differential rents are calculated in a differential rent scheme that assesses the income levels of the principal earner. However, this varies from council to council with, for example, the lowest rate at present being 10% in the South Dublin County Council area, whereas the rate in County Offaly is 22%. These differing rates reflect the discretion available to local authorities and I acknowledge this to be quite right and appropriate. However, members of the electorate should be aware of the difference and should hold to account their local councils in this regard. These differential rent rates should be published by some means on a regular basis to enable people to access them at any time. As for waiting lists and NAMA, I note the Minister, Deputy Hogan, stated that 2,000 housing units would be made available in 2012 for people on social housing lists. However, this was not the case and one must analyse honestly and appropriately the reasons for this and then learn from them with the aim of putting in place an effective means and manner by which this might be improved when the Minister of State brings forward her miscellaneous provisions Bill. I reiterate that NAMA was committed to a social dividend in its work by using its property portfolio for local authority housing. This goal is even more necessary considering a point I should have made in respect of the revenue stream. The conventional housebuilding mechanisms employed by local authorities in the past have been washed away and the private development dividend arising from the Part V provisions obviously also has been wiped away.

From Fianna Fáil's perspective, the technical aspects of the Bill are agreed, are necessary and take account of the current situation. I welcome the measures included to allow a better and more appropriate balance in the formula devised by local authorities in setting the rents. However, as I stated, the broader issue must be addressed. As I noted, conventional housing construction on the part of local authorities is now a thing of the past as the level of funding being provided to them simply does not allow this to take place. Similarly, the amount of funding provided towards housing repairs has been slashed to almost nothing and, as I stated, the Part V provisions have been lost. I acknowledge and was glad to hear the Minister of State's comments on house purchase schemes. I ask her to consider the Bill introduced by Fianna Fáil, which would add social housing units to that equation. The trend that has evolved regarding funding towards housing adaptation, in both private and public housing, is extremely worrying. From a local authority perspective-----

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