Seán Kenny (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 which amended and extended the Housing Acts 1966 to 2004 provided local authorities with a framework for a more strategic approach to the delivery and management of housing services. The framework provided for the adoption of housing services plans, homelessness action plans and anti-social behaviour strategies. It allowed for new and more objective methods of assessing need and allocating housing and for a more effective means of managing and controlling tenancies and rents.

One cannot discuss homelessness without referring to the recent case of a homeless man, Josef Pavelka. His plight received national attention when it emerged that he was living in a public toilet. Sadly, he was found dead in a laneway in Ennis at the weekend. His plight and that of his friend, Mr. Baram, received attention last month after Judge Durcan described the fact that they were sleeping in a public toilet as "a scandal". In the aftermath of Mr. Pavelka's appearance at the District Court, the housing agencies sourced emergency accommodation for him at a hostel in Galway. However, he returned to Ennis where he tragically died in a laneway. In the light of what has happened, Clare County Council needs to review its housing strategy and, in particular, provide an outreach service for homeless persons in that county.

The legislative framework also provides a more developed legislative basis for the provision of rented social housing by means of leasing or contract arrangements with private accommodation providers and expanded opportunities for home ownership for low-income households through an incremental purchase scheme and a tenant purchase scheme for apartments. This is long overdue. Local authorities provide housing accommodation through the rental accommodation scheme, RAS. Dublin City Council has used this scheme to a considerable extent, as it provides a housing solution for many families.

It has come to my attention that some of the RAS housing units do not meet the mandatory standards for rented accommodation and the same problem applies to some housing in the private rented sector. Many families who call to my advice centres describe defects in their rented accommodation which include inadequate heating systems, the lack of insulation and dampness. If public funds are being paid to the private rented sector, either through rent supplement or under the RAS, the accommodation being subvented must comply with the standards set for rented housing accommodation. I ask the Minister of State to look into this matter.

I raise the matter of the review of the housing lists carried out by the local authorities during which applicants are asked to return a form stating they are in need of housing and wish to remain on the local authority housing list. In my experience, some families on the housing list fall off it during this review process when they find out Dublin City Council is telling them that they must reapply from scratch for housing, as they did not return the housing revision form. There are genuine reasons people should not be forced to forfeit the points accumulated while on the housing list when this happens. Some applicants will say truthfully that they simply did not receive the form in the post in the first place or that they posted it to Dublin City Council which did not receive it. I have dealt with cases in which housing applicants in receipt of rent supplement continuously over the length of time in question from Dublin City Council were removed rom the list. Housing applicants who are tenants in private rented accommodation and in receipt of rent supplement regularly move from one rented dwelling to another for a variety of reasons. I ask the Minister of State to look at this problem which is not unique to Dublin City Council, whereby people are removed from housing lists and forfeit the points they have accumulated.

The differential rents charged to social housing tenants by Fingal County Council in my constituency compare well with those charged by other urban county councils, according to that local authority. My colleague on Fingal County Council, Labour Councillor Peter Coyle, asked the council how its differential rents scheme compared to that in place in other councils. He was told that the Fingal County Council differential rents scheme was similar to others throughout the country in that the rent was based on a proportion of net assessable income of the principal earner, together with a contribution from each subsidiary earner in the household. Rents under the Fingal County Council differential rents scheme are calculated on a figure of 12% of net household income, with a cap of €40 per week for each subsidiary earner. Of the schemes reviewed throughout the State, 12% is the second lowest rate charged. South Dublin County Council has the lowest rate at 10%, while Dublin City Council has a much higher rate of 15%. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council charges even more at 16%. Galway County Council operates two rates of 15% and 20% of household income, while Cork County Council charges a rate of 15%.

The different schemes reviewed also show variances with regard to commencement dates, with a commencement date of March in other Dublin local authorities. Others had a commencement date ranging from January to June. One of the changes in the scheme being implemented by Fingal County Council involves the movement of the commencement date from January to the last Saturday in April. This was done to facilitate the annual rent assessment, with the objective of advising tenants of the rent charges before the April starting date and, therefore, assisting them in the management of their rent accounts.

The rent scheme details the manner in which the local authority will determine rent and other charges. Local authority rents are set in accordance with the rent scheme adopted by each housing authority, having regard to the principles laid down by the Department in section 58 of the Housing Act1996, as amended. The percentage of income varies within and between rent schemes, depending on the terms of the scheme and the particular circumstances of the household concerned. The new legislation for local authorities differs from the existing legislation in a number of respects. The making of a rent scheme is now a reserved function of the housing authority, giving the elected council a role in determining the authority's rental policy. The Minister has clear power to make regulations prescribing the specific matters each housing authority must include in its rent scheme.

I commend the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, for the work she has put into this area. I look forward to working further with her on the housing reform agenda.

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