Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 45 recognises that there is a real problem where RAS tenants are in danger of losing their homes due to an inability to keep up with rents or other issues. When RAS was originally introduced many years ago, people were given a commitment that when they signed up to it they would get another RAS property or would be considered a priority for local authority housing. It was understood that they would never be put out of their home and would be on a three, four or five-year contract with RAS.

In 2011, further changes meant that people going onto RAS were individually informed by the local authority that if they signed up to RAS they would be removed from the housing list, which is what happened. We have therefore ended up with a situation whereby many RAS people cannot get properties. I have been dealing with people who have been made homeless as a result of RAS, yet they were promised they would get places either under RAS or with the local authority. It is an absolute scandal that this has happened.

Some 30,000 people are currently on RAS. The Minister of State said the building programme will make 6,000 units available next year. Some 1,500 of those units are going to the RAS section so this is not permanent housing. It is not social housing in which people can get on and enjoy their lives. They can be thrown from Billy to Jack in such situations, whether under RAS or the rent supplement scheme. People are ending up out of their areas because they are offered a RAS property on the other side of the city. In addition, such people were removed from the housing list so they lost their time on record.

On the face of it, HAP, the housing assistance payment scheme, looks okay. The problem with it, however, is that people on the housing list will be removed from it. The Minister of State's officials made that clear at the meeting the other day. I specifically asked them if this meant that people who are removed will be deemed to get adequate housing, and they said "Yes". The Minister of State has not been very clear on this matter. She has argued that such people can go onto the transfer list, but according to the local authority rules tenants must be in a property for two years before they can go on a transfer list. The Minister of State is forgetting that rule which applies to all local authorities. Therefore, they go back to square one and still have to wait two years to go there. It is an absolute scandal.

Many people are now in danger of losing their position on the housing list. The problem with HAP will have to be worked out because we know that a lot of people got rental supplement top-ups. Once HAP starts to examine different individuals we will see large discrepancies. I do not know how local authorities or the pilot schemes will deal with it.

Can the Minister of State tell us what is the future of RAS? We have identified that there will be more rental accommodation schemes next year, so what will the future be? It is very similar to HAP. Some people on RAS are still on the housing waiting list, while others are not. Can we get a commitment from the Minister of State at some stage that she will re-examine the HAP scheme as it applies to people on the housing waiting list? We want a definitive answer that they will not be removed from the housing waiting list and will keep their position in the queue. That is very important.

I have had RAS tenants in my office who thought they would never be homeless. Some of them have ended up sleeping in their cars and even in skips or doorways. That is happening on the Minister of State's watch.

This amendment seeks to avoid a situation whereby people in RAS will be put out of their homes or will be denied another RAS place. They should be allocated a priority place, which would make sense. That is what was originally intended, but was never followed through because the rules changed in 2011.

We will have the same problem with HAP if we do not address this matter by establishing rules. We should not punish people who have been on the housing list for many years. We have to find a mechanism to state that housing is deemed inadequate. At the time, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin tabled a simple amendment concerning housing that was not adequate, but the Minister of State did not accept it. She should have done so because it would have solved this problem facing those on the housing list. In that case, local authorities could not claim that housing was adequate.

Under the provisions of the Bill as it stands, local authorities have the ability to put people out of their accommodation and off the list. That is not right.

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