Dáil debates
Thursday, 7 December 2023
Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions
Housing Schemes
10:20 am
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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14. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the review into the differential rent scheme for local authority housing support will conclude; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54166/23]
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I raise the review of the differential rent scheme for local authority housing support. When is the review expected to conclude? I would be grateful if the Minister would make a statement on the matter.
Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. The Housing Act 1966 provides for the charging of rent by local authorities on social housing tenancies. Rents are based on household income levels, with those on lower incomes paying lower rents. This system is known as the differential rents system. It is a critical piece of the State's welfare apparatus, subsidising housing costs and supporting households who cannot meet their long-term accommodation needs from their own resources. The system currently comprises 32 income-based schemes which differ across local authorities, with amounts charged and approaches to calculating rent varying considerably.
Housing for All commits to developing proposals to review the existing differential rent system and to provide for a standardised national local authority social housing rent model. The objective is to develop and implement a model that provides the best blend between fairness, progressiveness and sustainability.
My Department has completed an initial scoping exercise to determine the focus of the review. Further work is required to consider the practical application of such a scheme in the context of other reform package measures, as well as the broader circumstances of social housing funding programmes and the cost of living issues. Proposals will be submitted for my consideration in due course and any decision to implement a standardised national rents scheme will be considered thereafter, as appropriate.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I thank the Minister of State for that information. I welcome that the Department recently undertook a scoping exercise. I hope the review into the differential rent scheme will start and finish as soon as possible. I know that Family Carers Ireland made a submission, and I will deal with that in my supplementary contribution. For now, I will speak about how we ended up in this situation in the first place. The mass sale of social housing from the 1970s onwards is where the cracks in the model began to show. Originally, the premise was that better-off council tenants would subsidise those less well-off by paying higher rents as their means allowed. In the 1950s, this made perfect sense. Unfortunately, the State then made decisions to allow significant tenant purchase of council houses and that has now resulted in price gouging, second homes and Airbnbs stopping families from living in estates in their own towns and villages. Allowing the more affluent tenants to purchase their council houses reduced the local authorities' incomes and forced upward the rents for those left. It also reduced the financial power of local authorities to build new stock and we have seen the knock-on effect of failing to replace the housing stock we allowed to be bought. This is a scheme that was supposed to protect vulnerable people but, unfortunately, it left them even more at risk of poverty. The situation can create poverty traps and discourage tenants from seeking additional income.
Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The differential rent scheme was, as the Deputy said, designed to provide rent at an affordable rate to tenants and provide income to local authorities to ensure they can maintain those properties. That has not changed and remains the model. One of the reasons we are doing a review of the differential rent scheme is to deal with the inconsistency between local authorities. The Deputy will go on to talk about the fact that the income people receive from different sources is, or is not, taken into account. We are committed on that level. We want to ensure a good supply of social housing. We supplied 10,263 last year, across the spectrum. We had the highest number of new builds in many years. Our focus is to meet the targets we have set down for this year.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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My constituents in Clare should not be paying the fourth highest rate of local authority rent in the country just because the local authority has decided not to disregard their full- or half-rate carer's allowance. The current system means that because of geography, identical household types are paying considerably different rates irrespective of the quality or size of their accommodation. Such inequality needs to be addressed, as the Government has recognised in relation to the scoping exercise and the commitment to a further review.
I recently met Vicky and Fiona from Family Carers Ireland. As the Minister of State knows, that organisation made a detailed submission to the scoping exercise, highlighting some of the serious inequality faced by family carers as a result of the current differential scheme. The current scheme has created a significant disparity in inequality when it comes to carers. Given the focus on the importance of care in this week's Dáil business, and the timely announcement of a referendum, it seems like a good time to raise the issue. According to the 2022 census, there are 8,245 family carers in my constituency of Clare. Any carers who live in Clare and receive a full or half-rate carer's allowance are immediately at a disadvantage.
Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy. Carers do great work and the people for whom they care are hugely important. The Deputy has raised the issue in her constituency of Clare. We welcome the submission from Family Carers Ireland. It is something we will take into account in our scoping and review exercises. We want to ensure we bring about consistency in the schemes. I take on board the points the Deputy has raised.