Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the previous speakers on this issue. It is a major issue, and my colleague is right that it should be dealt with at an early stage. All of us as public representatives have been contacted by people in local authority houses. In the last case I dealt with recently the rent arrears was in excess of €12,000. The arrears should not have been allowed get to that stage and there is no possibility of the tenants paying back that amount of money. What local authorities try to do when one goes in to negotiate with them is get the tenant to pay the rent they were supposed to pay, plus an extra €50 or €60, when the reality is that they cannot pay what they originally agreed to pay. When one raises this issue with the local authorities the first comment they make is that they do not have the staff to deal with rent arrears, particularly in large local authorities which have a huge number of tenants. I agree with the previous speaker that some system should be put in place to identify problems at the outset. A representative could go in with the tenant who should be let pay what they can afford. The local authority could monitor their circumstances and if they change, the rent can be increased to what they can afford to pay and not allow the arrears rise to €10,000 or €12,000 by which time the tenants are not in a position to pay such an astronomical amount.

See this speech in context