Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I hope the House will not mind if I share my time with Deputy Connolly.

I am delighted to contribute briefly to the debate. I agree very strongly with the comments made by the Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts to the effect that State-funded properties should ultimately be owned by the State.

That should apply to all voluntary projects, which many Members have been involved in over the years. It has to be ensured, however, that either the memorandum and articles or the granting of moneys ensures that the State, and the people of Ireland, are the owners of the properties. I echo that point because people have often been fearful in community projects, such as housing co-operative developments, that somehow or other the co-operative could be alienated into the private sector, with the State and community losing out.

I commend the general work of AHBs and voluntary housing organisations. I want to highlight their estate management in particular. Our experience over the past quarter of a century in Dublin Bay North and my old Dublin North East constituency has been that AHBs have an outstanding record in estate management. That can be compared with the record of Dublin City Council. The Minister will be aware, as he represents a Dublin constituency, that its record has generally been poor. It has not been up to standard and that has allowed the development of anti-social behaviour in districts where that should never have started. It would not have happened if a proper estate management and maintenance system had been implemented by the council. That is a large housing authority, of course, with about 28,000 properties, nearly as many properties as all of the voluntary housing bodies put together.

Dublin Bay North has an impressive history in this area. We have had housing co-operatives all over the country, as the Leas-Cheann Comhairle will know. I remember an important co-operative in Kilbarrack going back many years. The past 25 years saw the arrival of the National Association of Building Co-operatives, NABCo, and the Housing Association for Integrated Living, HAIL. They were followed by other similar organisations. The then Minister for the Environment, Michael Smith, went to the UK in the mid-1990s. He asked some of the voluntary housing bodies there to visit Ireland. St. Pancras arrived here at that stage. That organisation was set up after the First World War to provide housing for soldiers returning from the horrors of the Western Front. St. Pancras later became Clúid, a body with which we are now very familiar in Dublin. We also have other outstanding bodies such as Respond, which was originally set up by the Capuchin religious order. We also have the Tuath Housing organisation and Fold Ireland, which the Minister and I were happy to inspect just a few weeks ago in my constituency. That body provides wonderful accommodation for senior citizens in Dublin Bay North on the Tonlegee Road. There is a long history and many other housing bodies have done very well over the years. Many of those are not in Dublin Bay North.

I have always been impressed with the management of those estates, which has generally been far superior to the similar services of Dublin City Council. Deputy Ó Broin outlined a key housing policy in his recent book and I share his view that we should return to properly funding and resourcing local authorities. They could be directed by a national housing executive to embark on a major plan to build local authority housing. Deputies will agree that there is no other way to address the horrendous housing crisis. Week in, week out and day in, day out, that crisis impacts badly on many people. Some 551 bodies are listed on the register of housing bodies with approved status. It is disappointing that only 273 of them signed up to the VRC. Those that did sign up, however, oversee some 95% of the total housing stock. According to the Housing Agency regulation office report of 2017, some 18 tier 3 housing bodies share 23,517 units of the total number of AHB homes. The Minister stated in his opening contribution last night that there were 552 AHBs, of which 274 were on the register. That again means, however, that just under 50% have registered.

This Bill provides for the establishment of the approved housing bodies regulatory authority. This is long overdue. We have been requesting this for many years. I recall asking the Governments of former taoisigh, Brian Cowen, Bertie Ahern and Enda Kenny, to do something like this for many years. We thought it was necessary because of the significant expenditure. I, like the Minister, am a former member of the Committee of Public Accounts, in two previous Dáileanna. We felt there had to be serious regulation of the sector. I am delighted that the regulator will be placed on a statutory footing and that a full legal regulatory regime will be put in place. There were various moves in this direction in recent years. These include the VRC, the regulation office in 2014, the financial standard and objectives in 2015, the governance standard in 2017 and the performance standard in December 2018. We still needed this legislation, however.

The Minister has given the AHBs ambitious targets as part of Rebuilding Ireland. Those bodies are expected to access finance and provide at least one third of the 50,000 homes targeted by 2021. Statutory regulation is important as well in the context of these bodies being the employers of many housing aid agency staff, as well as being landlords. This statutory regulation is, therefore, important and long overdue. That is the case not just for the tenants but also for the organisations themselves. Since 2011, as another colleague mentioned, the CALF has been providing 30% of funding to AHBs. Other reported funding streams include the HSE, at 40%, the Dublin Regional Housing Executive, DRHE, Tusla, and the Departments of Justice and Equality and Employment Affairs and Social Protection. That underlines the point being made by the Chairperson of the Committee of Public Accounts, Deputy Fleming. There is a necessity for regulation and to ensure that this great tranche of State property remains in public ownership. Section 9 in Part 2 of the Bill sets out the functions of the regulator, which will include preparing draft standards, monitoring and assessing compliance and collecting and publishing information concerning AHBs. The regulator will appear before the Committee of Public Accounts. That is valuable.

At the end of February this year, Dr. Donal McManus, CEO of the Irish Council for Social Housing, ICSH, presented to the Committee of Public Accounts regarding AHBs and social housing provision. As part of that submission, the council stated that there were approximately 33,000 AHB homes across the country. It is a huge estate, bigger than the holdings of Dublin City Council. The Minister will be aware of the size of some individual housing estates owned by the housing bodies. I recall when Clúid had just slightly more than 5,000 units. That is a larger number than many county councils. It is a major responsibility for the regulator to manage and maintain those properties all around the country.

The submission I referred to included a summary of the results of the 2017 housing association performance management, HAPM, survey. That gave us some valuable information. It is impressive to note that less than 5% of rent receivable was outstanding as rent arrears. Only 33 of the 69 bodies reported having rent arrears. As former city councillors, we are familiar with the issues regarding rent arrears on the Dublin City Council and Fingal estates over the years. There were also impressive findings under the heading of "repairs completed or responded to within target timescales". It compares favourably with the performance of Dublin City Council under its present management structure. There is also very good estate management. The average time for voids was 8.3 weeks in 2017. I recall when a large voluntary housing body contacted me last year. It asked me if I could pursue the local authority because it was so slow in making nominations to a newly-built apartment complex. More than 50 apartments were available, which was a precious resource for people desperate for rehousing. Those apartments were lying idle for approximately four months.

The housing body turned to me to ask the local authority to get a move on. That should not happen. It should be progressed very quickly.

Housing associations have an impressive history in many countries. In the UK, the National Housing Federation has 2.5 million homes. The UK went through a similar experience when Mrs. Thatcher tried to get rid of the national housing stock. She refused to allow local authorities to build estates. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, we copied the UK and embarked down the same road, and the Minister is now wrestling with 140,000 people on housing lists and in receipt of HAP while and 10,000 citizens are homeless tonight.

We should embark on a new local authority national housing programme. It should be the key priority of the next Government. I welcome the belated appointment of a regulator for this territory. It is amazing there has been a build-up of such a large number of homes and that we have not had a formal regulation system. Although it is late. I welcome the fact the Minister has introduced the Bill.

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