Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When I was listening to the Minister of State's reply to the initial comments on these amendments, it seemed to me that there was a major contradiction in what he was saying. He said that Part V is an integral part of the provision of social housing, even though he is legislating for a reduction in the limit from 20% to 10% and providing for a leasing option, thereby removing the need to provide social housing. We could end up with no social housing being provided, even though the Minister of State has said that his approach is an integral part of increasing the availability of social housing. The leasing issue is an important one. We are going to have developers leasing back properties to local authorities. My reading of it is that these properties will be used for either the housing assistance payment scheme or the rental accommodation scheme.

Councillors tell us about the number of people who visit their constituency clinics seeking to get out of the RAS system. It is a disaster and is not working. There are landlords who are not taking care of the properties. When one complains to the county or city council, it gets in touch with the landlord but the landlord simply says, "That is the way the property is. There is nothing I can do about it."

Now we will have a situation where local authorities are not responsible for providing social housing and will not have the responsibility to maintain the properties in which these tenants will live. That will be left in the hands of the developers and landlords. It is a flawed policy. The Minister of State cannot say that Part V is integral to the increased availability of social housing and then introduce a policy such as this, whereby the council can lease properties instead of providing the social housing. There is a huge contradiction in what the Minister of State is saying.

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