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

There are already guidelines in place on rent arrears which are applicable to all local authorities. I do not know how a code of conduct would be different from guidelines - they are pretty much the same. The guidelines deal comprehensively with the various aspects of rent management through rent assessment, collection and accounting and place the emphasis on rent arrears prevention and recovery. As I understand it, they are applied by all local authorities.

I can certainly remind them if there is any question that they are not being applied.

A number of issues were raised. As Deputy Ó Fearghaíl said, we deal with the issue of direct deduction later in the Bill. We are trying to put in a system that will manage people paying their rent on a regular basis and not falling into arrears. I hope that will address problems that might arise in the future. What is in place is designed to be reasonable and not impose too much hardship on people who owe a considerable amount of money for one reason or another, and to take it back over a period of time. The main point I would make is that there are guidelines and I do not know that a code of conduct would necessarily be any different from the guidelines in place already. We can examine the guidelines to see if they need to be changed or reviewed in any way.

Deputy O'Sullivan raised a somewhat separate issue in so far as it is about the tenancy rather than anything to do with rent arrears, but issues of tenancy can be difficult. We discussed succession tenancies on Second Stage and whether people should have rights even if they are not on the original tenancy but I do not believe we can deal with it specifically under this item.

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