Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach all but refused to answer my question on promised legislation on the matter I am raising today and so I am going to try again. The question is about segregation of Part V council tenants. In light of the situation in the Davitt apartment complex in Drimnagh and others around Dublin and in light of the fact that Part V tenancies are set to become even more important for housing supply with the increase in Part V requirements in Housing for All from 10% to 20%, how will the Government ensure that there is no physical or social segregation of Part V tenants now and into the future? The Taoiseach would not answer that question yesterday.

We now have numerous examples of council tenants being housed in segregated blocks, not given access to communal facilities that have been promised to them and not given the chance to pay fees to access amenities. Council tenants in the Davitt complex were not given access to the bike sheds. An Bord Pleanála approved planning permission on the Davitt complex with 119 car parking spaces for 265 apartments based on an argument by the developer that included the Davitt complex having extra bike parking spaces. Council tenants were not given access to bike lockup. How is this not being denied access to a communal amenity?

The complex was built on build-to-rent standards where the developer was allowed to trade off less private space and storage in individual apartments in exchange for more communal amenities. All communal amenities should be accessible for everybody in the complex. In the Planning and Development Act the need to counteract segregation based on social background is mentioned twice. It is mentioned seven times in the Housing Agency's Part V resource pack. It is mentioned three times in the ministerial guidelines on the Planning and Development Act.

In Drimnagh, council tenants in the Davitt House flats beside this complex have been left for decades in slum-like conditions with no maintenance, no retrofitting, damp, mould and cold. Living next them are Part V tenants in the Davitt complex segregated into one block, block D, with no access to the playground, car park or bike sheds. Next to them are non-council tenants with access to a car park, a cinema, a gym and a library. If this is not segregation based on social background, I do not know what is. I have serious concern for the future of the Government's housing plan if it is already neglecting and segregating council tenants. What will the Government do to make sure these issues of segregation are fixed now? These apartments were supposed to be pepper-potted into the complex so that there would be no segregation.

This is the Government's housing plan and it is expanding it. If there is an issue with councils implementing it, what will the Government do to step in and fix it?

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