Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Like most of the so-called reform produced by this Government, the Bill is a missed opportunity to bring about real change to how local authorities operate in order to improve their ability to respond to the needs of their areas. My main focus in this regard is housing. I am tired of reiterating the stark figures around housing demand and the shortfall of supply in this State but it must be said again and again until people are willing to really listen and to start to address the issue. There are 112,000 or so people on the housing waiting lists across this State. A large percentage of those people are centred around the major urban bases of population such as Dublin, Cork, Limerick and other cities but there is strong demand for social housing across the State in every local authority. It is likely that every Member of this House is inundated with issues relating to housing need.

There are nearly 100,000 people in receipt of rent supplement and roughly 30,000 participate in the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, in this State. This costs the State more than €0.5 billion euro a year. That money is given to private landlords, some of whom provide substandard accommodation at exorbitant prices and with little or no management. The Government's solution to this issue is not to fund or encourage local authorities to provide this basic need of people but to throw money at the private market in the hope it will solve the problem or at least that people will forget that housing was ever a responsibility of the State at local or national level.

The reality is that for local authorities housing can and should be an integral part of the services they provide. It is also possible that with proper application of an ethos of public housing this could be made to pay for itself by a mixture of people renting from low, middle and higher income brackets as is seen in other countries. Differential rents provide the potential for affordable rates at all levels, while still meeting costs.

One proposal that Sinn Féin puts forward, along with noted academics in the field of housing, is the idea of allowing local authorities to set up housing trusts to commence a State­wide building programme. This would ensure power is devolved to local level and homes would be built to meet the needs of the 112,000 on the housing waiting lists. It would also tackle many problems that have been pointed out in terms of sourcing funds to build social housing. Money borrowed by these trusts would not be added to the national debt. Housing can be shown to be a worthwhile investment outside of the damaging public private partnership, PPP, model which prioritises profit over real social value. There has never been a better time to make this investment.

The real problem in terms of housing though is political will. This Government does not want powerful, democratic local authorities any more than it wants to take on any responsibility for housing people. If it had massive funds at its disposal it would not be inclined towards social housing investment. Local authorities know the needs of the people in their areas and are less ideologically driven against public housing provision than are the Government and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

Reform is needed to improve local authorities in terms of providing housing for people. To ensure councils are fully held to account, Sinn Féin proposes that local authorities should be held to account by the Private Residential Tenancies Board. Adequate resources should be provided for inspections to include local authority housing.

Those on the housing lists should be able to access all relevant information on their application on the Internet using a personalised code. Local authorities who fail to draw down appropriate funds such as in the case recently of Traveller accommodation funding should be sanctioned for this. Those measures would enhance the potential for local authorities to be first-rate providers of housing. It is already the case that local authorities are accountable to the public in a way that voluntary housing associations are not. Councils meet on a monthly basis. It is open to members of the public to attend those meetings and to have issues raised though their councillors. This is not the case for the voluntary housing sector.

The voluntary sector does excellent and crucial work but it cannot solve the crisis in social housing in the way that local authorities can. Despite a cut of €620 million from social housing since 2010 and a cut of €15 million from local authority housing in this budget, local authorities still provide the bulk of social housing. With a funding allocation of €70 million in 2014, they will provide housing and services for many thousands of people across the State. This cannot be ignored and the potential for local authorities to house people well and in larger numbers is clear from the work they do every day.

It is a shame local authorities will not continue to deliver water services and that this change has resulted in the removal of the resources and the manpower by the Minister with the setting up of Irish Water. This is a diminution of the role of local authorities. The transfer of responsibility to local authorities for dealing with rental supplement in the near future is welcome but what resources will be provided? The Minister needs to make that clear. It always made sense for the local authorities to deal with the bulk of housing issues and enhancing that position. I served for 12 years on the Dublin City Council and the managers had far too much power and could override the decisions of councillors.

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