Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I have seen the experience of RAS from a council perspective since approximately 2006, when the scheme was introduced. Amazingly, in Dublin the private sector increased from 19% in 2006 to 32% by 2011. I have always felt that RAS simply lined landlords pockets again after the 2008 crash and was not able to solve the housing crisis in the city at the time. The scheme was introduced to allow people work and access rent allowance from the local authorities. HAP is very similar to RAS and there are no major differences. In the past two years we have seen a change in RAS and landlords are not buying into it like they have done with local authorities. Dublin City Council, for example, was able to offer tenants RAS accommodation and such people were taken off the housing list.

RAS has security of tenure for four years and a landlord or his or her family can either move back into the property or sell it, which would entail the tenant leaving. In the past two years there has been no other RAS accommodation for transfers. People who could not afford to stay in Dublin before or who moved because of jobs may want to return to an area and they must inform a tenant that they will be returning to their property. The tenant in such cases has nowhere to go and cannot get a property that allows rent allowance. Local authorities are aware that RAS accommodation is difficult to obtain. We are dealing with people from different parts of the social spectrum trying to get a home. It is madness but the local authority has washed its hands of the matter. Issues such as this are not dealt with by the Private Residential Tenancies Board as it is up to the tenant or landlords to deal with such matters.

We have tried to obtain transfers for tenants and I know a particular family with a disabled child in RAS accommodation. In many ways the system is reasonable because properties must have building energy ratings and be habitable. Moreover, a landlord gets his payment directly paid to a bank account. Nevertheless, the overall system is not working because landlords are leaving the scheme because they can get more money from renting privately. They will not touch local authority tenants, which is a problem. The supply of private rented accommodation is also decreasing.

How will the Minister get landlords to buy into the HAP system? Perhaps it will be better known, once the papers pick it up, as the "hapless" system. There is no accommodation out there and landlords will not be interested as they are pulling out of RAS. Rent allowance is not being accepted and landlords will certainly not participate in the new HAP scheme. The Minister of State has indicated that tenants will have to come off the housing lists and potentially go on a transfer list. As people have said, she is living in cloud cuckoo land. She has indicated she can implement a ministerial order to facilitate a transfer list but there is nowhere for people to transfer to. We have a housing supply crisis both in private and local authority housing. This needs to be addressed.

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