Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept that, but obviously she is the Minister of State with responsibility for housing and it might have been nice for her to have been there.

Based on a two or three minute speed reading I am not clear what impact that construction programme will have on those who are homeless tonight and those who are becoming homeless every day in this city, in the Minister of State's city, in Cork and throughout the country. The numbers of people presenting as homeless is increasing in Dublin city where emergency accommodation is completely packed out. I asked the Tánaiste and Taoiseach to consider the predicament of children of families who are living in one room in guesthouses or hotels if they are lucky.

I am concerned at the eviction of children, with rents being increased and people continually refused rent supplement. The www.daft.iewebsite has indicated that, disgracefully, some landlords will not accept tenants on rent supplement, which seems like astonishing discrimination. Every day, people, including children, are being evicted and the Minister of State is in Government. It seems incredible for people who consider themselves to be representatives of the labour or workers' movement to be involved in such a Government.

As I have stated repeatedly in this House, there appears to be a wilful and deliberate blind spot on the part of the Government not to deal with the desperate and homeless situation. Unfortunately, I do not believe the Bill before us or the Construction 2020 programme will make any change in the lives of those children and families in the remaining months of 2014 and well into 2015.

Another gap not addressed in the Bill is the major lacuna affecting the operation of voluntary housing bodies. This is a matter of grave concern because all our local authorities, in particular the very large one in Dublin city, have outsourced the management of local authority housing estates to bodies such as the Iveagh Trust, Clúid and Túath without any legislative basis for that being in place. Evictions or cases of anti-social behaviour can arise in that area of housing and there seems to be no legislative basis for dealing with that. That is a second area where we need urgent legislation. Obviously we needed this Bill two and a half years ago and it is past the time when it should have been before the House. It is also past the time that voluntary housing bodies should have been regulated.

In general terms I welcome the provisions contained in the Bill, which is confined mainly to three issues: termination of tenancies in certain circumstances; a new tenant purchase scheme; and the transfer of rental assistance from the Department of Social Protection to local authorities. I welcome clarification of the law regarding termination of tenancies. Unfortunately, there has been a lacuna in housing legislation due to the Supreme Court having decided that section 62 of the Housing Act 1966 was incompatible with the European Convention of Human Rights and it made a declaration of incompatibility under section 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 in the case of Donegan v. Dublin City Council. This important judgment recognised the deficiency in fair procedure guarantees for tenants subject to evictions procedures and the lack of legislative direction to a court considering the repossession of a local authority home. That gap in the legislation arising from the Supreme Court decision has put local authorities in a very difficult position to deal with tenants engaging in anti-social behaviour. I generally welcome the provisions contained in that section. Section 12(9) is particularly important because it outlines the circumstances to which a court must have regard when determining if it is reasonable that a local authority should recover a property.

The Northside Community Law Centre based in Coolock within my constituency carried out an important analysis of the scheme of the Bill. It has also been involved in a number of important court cases involving local authorities and the recovery of local authority homes. The law centre has welcomed the new provisions in Part 2 regarding terminations of tenancies. It has also welcomed the new system of tenancy warnings. I share its views on sections 6 to 11 dealing with the new system of tenancy warnings. In the area of anti-social behaviour in particular, it is vital that local authorities have powers to address the actions of very troublesome tenants.

I agree with the previous speaker that one of the worst things that can happen to an individual or family is to be subjected to outrageous harassment in one's own home meaning that the home is no longer a haven where one can relax with family and so on. Out-of-control individuals frequently target people owing to their age, ethnic background, etc. and make their daily life a misery.

It was appalling it happened over so many decades. Deputy Shortall, Deputy Conaghan, other Deputies and myself highlighted this outrageous situation on a daily basis in fora such as Dublin City Council. Often those engaged in anti-social behaviour were able to do so with impunity and the legislative lacuna following the Supreme Court decision made the situation even more difficult, so I welcome the protection in the Bill afforded to those making complaints about anti-social behaviour, in particular in section 7(5).

The second important issue affected by the updated system of tenancy warnings is the matter of rental arrears. I welcome clarification of the law in this regard. I would have some concern that an action to recover by a local authority can be taken within two months of such a tenancy warning having been issued under section 6. It would appear this is a very short timeframe and perhaps it is something the Minister of State could look at again in the amendments. The northside law centre has suggested we introduce a code of conduct on rental arrears similar to the one in place in Northern Ireland. It is a little like the future of our judicial and policing system in that the time has come, in many respects, to emulate what happens in the North.

A general note I would make about tenancy warnings, which is welcome from a fair procedures point of view, is that there is the potential in the Bill to have a review undertaken of the decision to issue a tenancy warning, as contained in section 10. However, as with the concerns expressed by Focus Ireland, it appears to me that the time limit for requesting a review of a tenancy warning of ten days is too short.

I welcome the provision in Part 2 of the Bill for excluding orders to be made against certain individuals, such as in the case of those engaging in anti-social behaviour. Again, there is an issue about individuals between 12 and 18 years of age and whether Tusla and other child care agencies would be involved as a result of the orders made under section 19.

Part 3 of the Bill outlines extensive provisions concerning a new system of tenant purchase. I recognise that tenant purchase has been very useful in the past. Many of us come from local authority housing, myself included. My grandparents bought out, or had begun to buy out, the tenancy. That certainly provided an avenue for people to develop their lives and their families. Many people might say now is not the time to be giving priority to this and that the priority should be the social housing construction programme and creating a much greater supply of social housing. From my first glance at the Construction 2020 document and consideration of this Bill and of other things which have come from the Department, the very grave error made 20 to 25 years ago was effectively to surrender to developers and landlords and to allow them to determine our housing provision.

The Minister of State is, unfortunately, under the direction of Fine Gael, in many respects. In my experience Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are joined at the hip when it comes to planning and housing at local government level, as the Minister of State knows. We still have not addressed the fundamental problem of housing provision.

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