Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This Bill extends the protection rights of tenants of approved housing bodies. In fact, it strengthens the law for tenants in that if there are any disputes over, say, unpaid rent or whatever, that they have the access to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, PRTB, to deal with them. Previously, that was not as clear and that is why these provisions have been introduced in this legislation. It strengthens the rights of tenants, giving them the protection of the PRTB, in the same way as if they were the tenant of a private landlord. They will have access and the right of referral of a dispute to the PRTB which is underlined in the legislation. It is important as it brings clarity as I outlined earlier.

The housing (regulation of approved housing bodies) Bill will deal with concerns around governance, financial viability and sustainability of approved housing bodies. As I stated on several occasions already, their core function is to provide social housing. It is written into their articles of association and agreements. When they are allocating houses, they have to do so in compliance with the local housing authority, namely, the local authority. That has been working well and will continue to do so.

This Bill strengthens tenants’ rights in legislation. As regards Deputy Barry Cowen’s queries about approved housing bodies, they are independent and own the properties. Technically, they can sell those properties but their core function is to provide social housing. What we hear from them regularly is that they want to retain those properties for the provision of social housing.

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