John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It was a great scheme in the sense that a number of people purchased their homes and were removed from the housing and house repairs lists forever. The Minister of State should examine this suggestion. I understand both she and the Minister are examining a scheme, but it should be implemented as quickly as possible.

The Bill will facilitate the introduction of a new local authority rent system under section 31 of the 2009 Act.

It will be administered by the housing authorities within their existing financial and staffing resources. That will not be a problem because in my county - I am sure it is the same in every county - there are a huge number of staff in the housing section. As we are not building any houses or renting houses, there will be an adequate number of staff to deal with this issue. The rent subsidy scheme is operated by the Department of Social Protection. Are there plans for that to be administered by the housing authority instead? It appears a little contradictory to have the Department of Social Protection dealing with this aspect while the local authority deals with rents and housing. The system could be more streamlined by having the local authority deal with the rent subsidy as well.

Will the Minister of State clarify how she intends to deal with the 100,000 applicants on the housing waiting lists? What discussions has she had with the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA? Are we nearer to a solution with regard to NAMA making properties available to local authorities? There are a number of housing schemes in my county that were under construction by developers but are now under the control of NAMA. For some unknown reason they are still locked up and lying idle at a time when there are a huge number of people on the housing lists. If that could be streamlined and there was a key to unlocking them, as it were, in terms of making those houses available, it would solve some of the problems in certain counties.

Generally, I support the Bill. It will be of benefit to local authorities. However, there should be a standardised differential rent scheme rather than a system under which each county makes it up as it goes along.

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