Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I made this point on Committee Stage but it is important. The AHBs do not have the capacity to do what the Government wants them to do. Unless they are given the sort of resources that local authorities have, they will not be able to do this kind of thing or, more generally, play the sort of role which local authorities are able to. This is something on which they have given evidence on a number of occasions at various committees. While they play an important role, I worry that, in addition to the retreat from the direct provision of housing by local authorities which I perceive and the well discussed and debated over-reliance on the private sector, there is an over-reliance on the AHB sector, which does not have the resources to cope at a number of levels including estate management and dealing with problems that arise in tenancies. They just do not have the resources and now the Minister is going to add an extra burden. All tenancies should be registered regularly, but the resources have to be provided. If these bodies are asked to do things which they do not have the resources to do, an excessive burden is being put on them. I want to flag the more general concern I have, which is that the AHBs are going to be put under pressures which they simply do not have the capacity to cope with, even as it stands.

That fact leads into something else, which is that we now have a whole range of tiers of social housing. There is premium social housing, which is a council house. Here there are many supports, maintenance and welfare services. Then there is AHB housing, which is the next tier down. This is better than being in the private rented sector but it is significantly under-resourced. Then there is the tier of the housing assistance payment, where one is a third-class social housing tenant. Social housing should be social housing. Everybody who is in social housing should have the same supports, backup, rights, securities and so on, but the Government is creating a tiered, hierarchical social housing system which is completely unfair and which discriminates against the people who do not get the premium housing. It is wrong.

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