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

We also support the Bill and its principle, although I have questions. My first response is to ask why it has taken so long. I was in the Department when we did the early work on the voluntary code. From my experience at that time, I know there was a strong request from the voluntary housing sector that they should have a Government structure and should be regulated, mainly because it would give the public an assurance their housing associations were properly run and managed and, as importantly, it would give them a status to raise funds such that they would find it much easier to raise finance to build social housing along with the funding they received from the State. They wanted to do this, particularly the larger voluntary housing associations. We did the earlier work on setting up the interim voluntary code established in the Housing Agency. The larger ones mainly signed up to the code at the time. I very much welcome the fact we have reached the point of introducing the legislation to establish a regulator. The way in which it is being done is the right way to do it.

My experience is that the contribution of the voluntary housing sector was strong, particularly at a time the country did not have an awful lot of money. There was very much a willingness to play their part in providing housing for people when there was not as much public funding as I hope there is now. We should also acknowledge this.

There clearly are different types of voluntary housing associations or AHBs and this is where the three tiers come from. The history of many smaller bodies is that villages or towns decided to build houses for their older citizens in order that they could retire to a safe environment The voluntary housing associations largely just managed those homes rather than build new ones. There are probably still many of these around the country. The much larger bodies had more ambition. Some of those bodies in the middle tier perhaps sometimes focused on supplying housing for a particular category of the community. We have a mix in the sector and I hope we can treat them all fairly in the system that is being set up. Some of this will need to be teased out as the legislation progresses. In his opening contribution, the Minister indicated there would be Government amendments but they would be largely technical. We all want to ensure we have the opportunity to table amendments where appropriate.

One of the significant problems is the issue of funding. I support what has been said regarding credit unions. This is something we have debated in the context of other housing and finance Bills and legislation. Credit unions need a special purpose vehicle, SPV. When I have tabled parliamentary questions, the response every time has been that the Government will facilitate them by setting up an SPV. They need the Government, the financial regulators and the Central Bank to work with them on establishing such a vehicle they can feed into because they have money. They are in all of our communities and they can make a contribution. We have all been lobbied by them because they feel they have not been assisted appropriately by the Government through the establishment of such a vehicle. The willingness is there. The Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government probably does not need to do this but we need the credit union movement and the Government to come together to address this.

The other significant issue is the Government balance sheet. Approximately a year ago, I attended a presentation at a hotel in Dublin at which the Minister of State was speaking where stakeholders in the sector came together. I forget who organised the meeting but it was on what we could do to address this issue of the voluntary housing sector being on the Government balance sheet. I do not know what progress has been made and perhaps the Minister of State will address this in his response. Strictly speaking, it is not the business of the Bill but it is a major factor in the scale of the contribution the sector can make to the housing crisis and providing homes for people. I do not know whether the Minister of State has made progress in this regard but I would like to an update.

With regard to the various sizes and types of voluntary housing associations, I support Deputy Ó Broin's comments on fees, which are referred to in sections 11 and 35. The fees are not outlined in the Bill. I presume they will be set at a later stage. They should not be an obstacle. Deputy Ó Broin made the point that if the fees are to cover costs, they may be too high for the sector, but if they are not to cover costs, what will they achieve? Perhaps the Minister of State will give his views on this.

An issue in the lead-up to the legislation was the number of voluntary housing associations and the opportunity to merge or deregister them. I do not know what the up-to-date position is. Have some of them been deregistered or merged? I happened to be on the board of a voluntary housing association that put itself out of existence and transferred assets because there were too many associations and our perception as a board was that we did not need to exist any more. We transferred some elements of what we were doing to one of the larger voluntary housing associations and at least one property to Dublin City Council. This was a long time ago. Perhaps we have too many. I do not know how much discussion has taken place in the sector in this regard, particularly on whether some of the smaller bodies need to continue what they are doing or whether the local authorities can take over some of their functions. It is onerous for somebody to be on the board of any organisation because of the governance responsibilities. Some of them have difficulty in getting people to take on the responsibility. This is important for the sector.

I agree with Deputy Ó Broin on the issue of investigations under section 47. The wording is quite loose. If there were to be an investigation, it should be based on concern about the way in which a particular voluntary housing association is operating and it should not just be based on the opinion of the regulator. There should be concrete reasons an investigation would be instigated. This would be only fair to the associations concerned.

I welcome the Bill because the sector has wanted it for some time. When will local authorities be brought under its umbrella? I realise it would involve a lot of work and commitment on the part of the State to support local authorities to achieve the standard required. Tenants in local authority homes should not be at a disadvantage in comparison to tenants in the voluntary housing sector or the private sector. I would be interested to in an update on this.

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