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

For example, my Department does not tell local authorities what they should describe as areas of choice. My Department does not tell Cork City Council that it has to have these particular three areas from which a choice must be made. That is not defined by my Department, it is decided at local level. We are seeking more local autonomy in many respects, so that certainly needs to be addressed at local rather than national level. If 40% of houses offered in Cork are refused, then three refusals is not enough. One would need five or six refusals to deal with that. Alternatively, one will have to change the areas of choice or have better estate management. There are many such matters that concern local authorities, as I see it.

Would the Deputy pick three and put it into law, or leave it with regulation whereby one can vary it? However, there certainly is a challenge to local authorities as regards the discussion we have just had. They do make their scheme of letting priorities from time to time.

There are opportunities at local level to address all of these issues but prescribing in law the exact number of refusals does not appear to me to be the way to resolve the legitimate issues that Deputies have identified. The house must, for example, meet the applicant's housing needs. That argument will have to be made at local authority level if the house does not suit the applicant's housing needs. I am not accepting the amendment because it is too rigid in providing for three refusals which cannot be varied by way of regulation. The issues raised by the Deputies are ones that local authorities need to address.

See this speech in context