Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State's statement. It is hard to believe that only a few years ago the national conversation was about the oversupply of houses and there was even talk about knocking down housing estates in order to correct the situation. It is very clear both anecdotally and in media reports that there are people in the big urban centres who have serious problems in accessing housing to have a home for themselves.

However, as we embark on planning to meet people's housing needs in all shapes and forms - through the private sector, social housing and so on - we should remember that nearly 2,500 housing units offered by NAMA for social housing were rejected as not being required because obviously those houses were in areas without such a need. I have some experience of this in County Mayo, where a quarter of houses in new housing estates - more in some estates - are vacant. It is very clear that the solution there would not be to build new social housing units, even though we have considerable local authority housing waiting lists. We need some combination of working with the private sector and private rented accommodation to ensure that people's housing needs are met.

In regard to the recent changes in rent supplement and rent allowance, the manner in which the changes have been introduced and the capping of rent payable to landlords who are accepting rent supplement are arbitrary and unrealistic in some cases. It is leading to unnecessary hardship for people who have no alternative.

Some people who are in mortgage distress would like to pursue the solution of a voluntary housing association taking over their house so that they can rent it back. In this way they would not lose their homes. I understand there are major difficulties in proceeding along this line. We need to ensure the scheme set up by Government is operating as we would like to see it operate, and any issues there should be addressed.

I wish to raise one issue on the housing policy side with the Minister of State, which is the assessment of housing need. I refer in particular to separated persons. Of late people seem to be put under extraordinary pressure to come up with a formal legal separation or divorce. In some cases people never go down that route, but it is never in dispute that the parties are living apart, and the wife with children may be left in the family home. They may never have engaged a solicitor for many reasons. Under the law, at every step people may reconcile. I am not saying that is realistic in many situations. It seems strange that both the housing authority and the Department of Social Protection are pressing these people to make legal something that they may choose not to. The important point is that these people have a housing need and if they have sufficient evidence we should not be sending them to solicitors to formalise their legal separations in order to tick a box confirming that they have a housing need if it can be established otherwise.

I welcome the €50 million the Minister of State has allocated to addressing the problem of long-term voids in the local authority housing stock. However, there is a problem in the way planned maintenance is proceeding, particularly regarding the heating systems that are being installed. In recent years, when an older heating system such as a solid-fuel heating system with a back boiler is being replaced, oil-fired central heating is being installed instead. In these times, when everything seems to be geared to reducing our carbon emissions and we are levying a carbon tax on people, it is extraordinary that we cannot be more imaginative when we are upgrading heating systems for these tenants and give them a system that will last for years, given that in many cases they cannot afford to pay for the oil. That needs to be seriously addressed, as Government funds are being put into this.

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