Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very disappointing that the Minister of State comes to the House to address this issue but has not read the report and is only now hearing the testimonies I have given him. I am very disappointed and, again, I echo what the Tánaiste said in his last two criticisms of responses from Ministers, or those who advise them, as inadequate.

I ask the Minister of State to cast his mind back to a European Committee of Social Rights ruling that stated Ireland was in breach of the European Social Charter. This was a class action taken by communities throughout the country in relation to local authority accommodation. It ruled that Ireland breached Article 16 of the charter which states that: "The family as a fundamental unit of society has the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection to ensure its full development". The ruling found that the provision of family housing is "to ensure the right to housing of an adequate standard for not an insignificant number of families." This ruling was made after a collective action was taken to the European Committee of Social Rights but it has never been acted on by this State. It has never been put in legislation and has never been ruled upon, but it is about local authority tenants and their rights. The Minister of State may not be aware of this either, but local authority tenants do not have recourse to the Residential Tenancies Board. A significant cohort of tenants in this country are completely excluded from any independent complaints process.

I ask the Minister of State two things. I ask him to really use every power both he and the Department have to hurry up the question of the regeneration of Oliver Bond House. That is the first and most important thing I ask. The other is to speed up legislation to address our breach of the rights of tenants under the European Social Charter. Local authority tenants, no matter where they are in the country, have no independent body to which they can go to make complaints. It is a bit like somebody who feels they have suffered a grave injustice going to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, and having gardaí investigate gardaí. Local authorities do not investigate their own complaints properly. Oliver Bond House, Bernard Curtis House and Balgaddy are the evidence of that. I could go on naming them but the dogs in the street know this is true. Local authority tenants live in appalling conditions. This is the 21st century.

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