Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill amends section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009, which makes provisions with regard to the rents systems and charges of housing authorities, so that they can be brought into operation in an effective sequence. The Bill proposes the deletion of wording in section 31 which conflicts with a rent system in which charges are determined on the basis of household composition, income and, where applicable, the cost of the facilities provided. The Bill will provide for the effective implementation of a new, harmonised local authority rent system from 1 January 2014 and pave the way for a new housing payment scheme whereby responsibility for the rent supplement scheme will be transferred from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities.

Responsibility for setting local authority rents has been devolved to city and county managers since 1986, with the result that there is wide variation across the country in rent levels and the method of their calculation for broadly similar assets funded wholly by the Exchequer. Every effort will be made in prescribing base and differential rent calculations to limit the increase or reduction in rental incomes that many local authorities will inevitably experience when rents are harmonised.

In particular, the regulations will allow for a transition period for households whose rent increases significantly under the new scheme and other households of differing compositions and income will be charged at a lower rent. The making of a rent scheme is now a reserve function of housing authorities, giving the elected council a role in determining the authority's rent policy. Further legislation, relating to the new housing assistance payment scheme and other issues, will be published later this year.

Not a day passes without me being contacted by families from my constituency of Louth and east Meath looking for houses from local authorities. The main trouble involves upgrading. A family may have been granted a house four or five years ago when it had only one child, but there may now be two or three children. The family needs more space and a bigger house. There is a shortage of two-bedroom houses in the constituency of Louth and the best way to combat it is to upgrade. Young families with one child must wait a very long time because of the shortage of two-bedroom houses. They are not entitled to three-bedroom houses so they must wait for two-bedroom houses to become available.

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