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

It is useful that we are having this discussion. I thank the Fianna Fáil members for giving us the opportunity. I believe we need to think through issues of this kind. Everybody here supports mixed tenure and wants to see more mixed communities rather than having all of the social housing tenants in one part of a city or town and private occupiers and owners in other areas. This discussion also raises the issue of maintenance and replenishment of local authority stock. That is an important policy issue. We cannot have policies around tenant purchase in isolation, separate from the activities of local authorities in actually building and acquiring houses. I would like to see some clear guidelines in the context of the review of the tenant purchase scheme whereby local authorities would be required to consider the maintenance and replenishment of their stock in the context of their decisions about the sale of properties to tenants.

I have a bit of a problem with the specificity of what can and cannot be sold, as set out by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, although I understand some of the reasons for refusing the sale of certain categories of property. I would prefer to see the local authorities having a bit of discretion as well as responsibility in making these decisions. I hope it would give them some encouragement to be more proactive in building units and taking up opportunities that are there. For example, a provision was set out earlier this year whereby, if one were building 15 units or less at a value of €2 million or less, one needed only one application process with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. It was clearly designed to speed up the building of small groups of houses and apartments that local authorities could get down to building quickly. Yet, as I understand from the response to a recent parliamentary question, there has not been one single application from a local authority under that scheme. It would not be any harm at all if local authorities had to balance in some way the replenishment of their stock with the selling of their stock. On the other hand, there are obviously the people who want to buy their own homes. That has to be put into the mix as well. It has to be a balance. That is why the exclusion of Part V units does not seem to me to be something that should be set in stone. I agree with the principle that Part V units should be saleable.

I do not think it will make a huge difference at the moment in terms of housing stock because I doubt there are very many Part V units. As the Minister said, under the Government led by Fianna Fáil, developers were allowed to pay money to local authorities instead of building houses. In most cases, that money never turned into houses for local authority tenants. Since then there has not been an awful lot built. I have not tabled too many parliamentary questions on this matter, but I wonder how many Part V houses there actually are. I doubt if there are many.

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