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Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Steven Matthews: ...of an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue their remarks and it is imperative they comply with any such direction. Members and witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against either a person or entity outside the Houses or an official either by name or in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

.... Rather, the officials of these bodies make a determination on reviewing a person's residency criteria and issue a document that only states the nature of the stamp held by the person and how long that stamp is valid. We ask if it will be the staff of the local authority making these assessments and whether they are in a position to do so. We do not set out to critique the staff of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: ...of social housing versus homeless emergency accommodation is often conflated and we should not contribute to that confusion. I presume the witnesses all agree that social housing should be long-term, permanent secure homes and that the emergency homeless accommodation should be just that - emergency and short-term for those who have an immediate need. My understanding is that what the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

John Cummins: ...I wish to take up Ms Wall on the last point she made about eligibility for HAP. To go back to the point made by Senator Fitzpatrick, we are trying to determine the emergency response versus the long-term response. There are discrepancies across the country in how some local authorities view HAP compared with others. In Waterford, for example, which is where I come from, HAP is not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

...wrong with addressing the housing situation that we are in, whether that is the provision of emergency accommodation, which should only be emergency short-term accommodation, or the provision of long-term stable social housing. Probably everybody here recognises that it is a good thing to try and address it. The devil then is in the detail in terms of how one goes about that. What we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

...the numbers. If you can be sure that you can address one and address the other, that is something to think about. The second thing is that it would move people, and potentially families, from long-term stable accommodation into short-term emergency accommodation. As the Senator rightly pointed out, that should only be for short-term emergency needs and there is a real question over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

John Cummins: Regarding the residency requirement in general and to go back to the point made by Senator Fitzpatrick, if people who do not intend to reside in the State for the long term are up against, for want of a better phrase, other people who are on the list and absolutely intend to remain in the State for their lifetime, surely it can be seen that this is what is trying to be captured in this...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Ms Rose Wall: The proposals as they are drafted could exclude people who do intend to reside in the country long term but who may not have been here for the reckonable residence period. It could also be the case that other members of their household might not have been here for the reckonable residence period.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Ms Mary Heavey: That is definitely one part of it, but what more frequently comes up in our work is that the individuals who come to us have a long-term right to reside in the State, but their particular basis for residency is not covered by the circular. Again, the circular itself is not law. It is purely administrative guidance. The circular is contrary to EU law in that it does not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Ms Mary Heavey: I will make one final point. We believe the general scheme, as currently drafted, does not include a full list of the people who have an entitlement to be here and have a long-term right to reside here. There are people who have arrived to reside here under other European case law, and they have derivative rights. We believe that the list is not full or complete. That is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

...it will have on us. I have seen no evidence that this is actually an issue. I accept that people are worried about it but nobody has actually said that significant numbers of people who have no long-term commitment to Ireland are getting on the social housing list. The Department need to dig into that and present that sort of data to inform the committee's decision-making.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: ...for social housing in that the person has been living in the area for a certain period, he or she works a certain distance from the area and his or her children are in school. Habitual and long-term residency are not the same thing. Habitual residency is where my centre of interest is currently. There is no test for anybody applying for social housing as to what their long-term...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: ...we all agree that we should decouple social housing from the emergency accommodation situation. The emergency accommodation response should not be dependent on a person qualifying for permanent long-term social housing. I acknowledge that my experience is focused on Dublin city. Dublin City Council is the largest local authority and it responds to the greatest demand for emergency...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

.... The benefit of having a designed body within the Department that has an administrative duty to look at these appeals is that a body of knowledge is built up. Deputy Ó Broin talked about long-term need. The fact that a person applies for social housing could contribute to the assessment of their intentions into the future. If the Department of Social Protection is making a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: ...to get a social house, whether this is really about HAP eligibility. Is there somebody somewhere who thinks that there is a group of people who get HAP and who are not really interested in getting long-term social housing? Is it being suggested that they are the people we want to exclude from the system?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

...the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019; and proposed amendments to the Building Control Acts 1990 to 2020. I will now briefly outline the approach to each of these parts. Long-standing policy in respect of social housing is to provide housing to those with a long-term need. The fact that the supports themselves are provided indefinitely goes towards the need...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Mary Fitzpatrick: ...but there is broad acceptance and support for primary legislation. There is not any dispute on that. It is recognised that legislation is required and that social housing should be provided on a long-term, permanent basis and that emergency accommodation and shelter must be provided to those who need it, based on their need. I think we have a common understanding of all of that. In...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Mr. David Kelly: In reply to the first one, the legislation does not deny anybody access to emergency accommodation. It only deals with the entitlement to social housing support, which is a long-term provision.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Mr. David Kelly: People may suggest that it will do one thing but I need to stick to what the legislation does, which is look at entitlements to long-term social housing support. If issues arise in relation to that being conflated with emergency accommodation, it is something the Department can work on with the local authorities. Data was provided by the DRHE, which showed quite a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024: Discussion (23 Apr 2024)

Eoin Ó Broin: ...to some of these matters in the next round. In the meantime, I have another question. The Department is introducing the concept of future intentions. While social housing support is ultimately long term, there is currently no way of assessing, when somebody applies for social housing, what their long-term intentions are. In some senses, people's long-term intentions will in part be...