Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am delighted to be here today to initiate the passage of this important housing Bill, which provides for innovative and necessary changes to social housing support and assistance in Ireland. One thing that was made very clear from all contributions during the recent Private Members' debate on housing was the passion that Members feel about the need to tackle housing issues. This Government, and I as Minister of State with responsibility for housing and planning, share this strong passion, which we are committed to turning into effective action and reform. The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 before us today is one such reforming action, an important Bill that will bring radical change to our framework of social housing support.

As Members may be aware, the Government, in December of last year, approved the referral of the proposals contained within the Bill to the Oireachtas Sub-committee on the Environment, Community and Local Government for pre-legislative scrutiny and priority drafting of the required legislation. In respect of the pre-legislative process, my Department submitted the proposals for such consideration in early March of this year. I was subsequently informed by the committee, that given the overall timeline in respect of publication and enactment, it would be unable to meet the requirements of pre-legislative scrutiny by facilitating a session for consideration of the Bill and requested instead an alternative session on wider housing issues, a date for which is yet to be set.

With the publication of this Bill, the Government meets another commitment in the programme for Government and achieves one of the key reforms announced in the policy statement of June 2011. The priority afforded by the Government to housing will again be clearly articulated in the soon-to-be-published construction strategy. In concert with the construction strategy, work is under way in my Department on reviewing and renewing our social housing policy, which will be published later this year. The current housing policy statement is quite categorical in that the main focus of housing supports must be on meeting the most acute needs of those unable to provide for their accommodation from their own resources. This is particularly so because of the constraints on our resources. Nevertheless, there are clear signs that we are turning the corner in respect of the Government's aims of achieving economic recovery and growing employment, which will ultimately enhance what we can achieve in housing and help reduce the numbers of those at risk.

We are all only too familiar with the issues arising in the private and public housing sectors, most acutely seen perhaps here in Dublin than anywhere else. The serious constraints and supply problems turn the spotlight on our housing policy and finances. Are we getting value for money from our investment? Are we efficient and effective? Is our system coherent and equitable? Most important, are we assisting the vulnerable sections of our society?

As public representatives we see the growing and changing demand for housing supports every day. We need a system of housing supports that is more effective, more efficient, more coherent and that better serves the needs of people. It has long been accepted that one of our key State housing supports, the rent supplement system, was ill-used and was becoming a much more long-term support than was ever intended. This Bill is a key step in reforming rent supplement. The new housing assistance payment, HAP, which is provided for in the Bill, will introduce a more coherent and joined-up system of housing support that will be better for tenants, landlords and housing authorities.

The Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 in providing for a more coherent, responsive system of housing support, places all long-term supports with local authorities which will make for a better, fairer system. In addition, the Bill provides for the implementation of mandatory direct deduction of rental contributions due to housing authorities from the welfare payments of HAP recipients and local authority tenants which is a key provision in avoiding and combatting the build-up of rent arrears that cause significant financial difficulty for local authorities but most of all for tenants. The HAP is an opportunity to improve standards and levels of compliance, to remove employment traps, and to create a more equal and fair social housing system where the rights and opportunities available to tenants in different forms of social housing are vastly improved. The Bill also provides for two other significant areas of reform, namely, the termination of local authority tenancies and tenant purchase of local authority houses.

Section 62 of the Housing Act 1966 has withstood judicial scrutiny over the years but the enactment of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 resulted in a stream of litigation claiming that the section 62 repossession procedure used by housing authorities is incompatible with the convention. The Supreme Court delivered a judgment in 2012 in two such cases, making a declaration under the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 in respect of one of these cases. In its judgment, it declared that section 62 of the Housing Act 1966 is incompatible with the convention where there was a factual dispute about the basis for the evictions, as it does not provide for an independent hearing of the merits of the proposed eviction. The court, however, made no such declaration in the second case, where it found there was no dispute as to the basis for the proposed repossession. New legislation is therefore required in this area in order to provide for repossession procedures that are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights Act.

I believe the changes proposed in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014 deserve the widespread support of both Houses and of all Members of the Oireachtas. The Bill is set out in five parts with 51 sections and I will refer in some detail to the main provisions.

Part 1 contains standard provisions dealing with Title, collective citations, construction and commencement. It also provides for interpretation of key terms, regulations, orders and directions, repeals, revocations and amendments to the Housing Acts, including the Housing Act 2009 which remains a core housing statute, as well as other technical provisions such as legal savers and provision for expenses.

Part 2 repeals the repossession procedure set out in section 62 of the Housing Act 1966 and sets out a revised procedure for repossessing local authority dwellings where serious breaches of tenancy agreements have occurred, including anti-social behaviour and breaches of rescheduling arrangements for rent arrears. Warnings issued to tenants by housing authorities for such breaches will include the right of the tenant to request a review of the warning. Sections 7 to 11 set out procedures for tenancy warnings and their review. In the case of non-compliance with tenancy warnings for anti-social behaviour, housing authorities will have strengthened powers under sections 12 and 13 to either recover possession of the dwelling or seek an exclusion order as appropriate.

Sections 14 to 17 deal with abandoned local authority dwellings and recovery of property in the case of death of a tenant and certain other cases. This part also provides a legislative mechanism to update all existing local authority tenancy agreements to reflect new legislation without the necessity to terminate all existing agreements for the purpose of entering into new agreements incorporating updated terms and conditions.

I think we can all agree that we do not wish to see many tenancies terminated in this way, but we all also know the havoc and misery that anti-social behaviour can cause to communities. It is important that we have a mechanism available that meets the highest standards of the human and civil rights obligations of all concerned.

I will now to turn to one of the measures contained in the Bill most sought after by tenants. Part 3 provides for an incremental purchase scheme for existing houses which will cover local authority houses other than newly-built or newly-acquired houses and local authority apartments, which are covered by the existing incremental purchase schemes under the 2009 Act. The incremental purchase scheme detailed in sections 21 to 31 offers several key benefits. For families, the scheme offers the path to home ownership for those willing and able to undertake a house purchase. The scheme is also structured to make it attractive for people to retain long-term roots in the community and to continue their commitment to an area, thereby contributing to more stable and integrated communities.

In due course, I will make regulations on specific aspects of the new scheme, including the qualifying conditions for applicants, calculation of discounts, the method used by local authorities to determine the purchase price and discount, and the period of the charging order.

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