Ivana Bacik (Independent)

With the permission of the House I will share time with Senator Pearse Doherty.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I welcome the opportunity to have a debate on housing. It is very important to have this debate. I read with interest the statement of the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, and I am pleased he has addressed in such detail the issue of social and affordable housing. I wish to take issue with one point the Minister of State made. He stated there were some difficulties with the PPP projects of regeneration, especially in inner city Dublin. This is the understatement of the year. Having spoken with the residents of St. Michael's Estate, Inchicore, on previous occasions I know how much consultation took place and the tortuous nature of the process to finally get an agreement. I am sorry to see the agreement collapse and it is an indictment of the way the Government has been dependant on private developers and the construction sector. It is not good enough to blame international factors and the so-called credit crunch, as the Minister of State does, when in fact the problems resulted from a squandering of the boom and an over-reliance on the construction sector by this Government. The problems were entirely of its own making.

How does the Minister of State propose to offer adequate protection to tenants in the private rented sector? Although there have been some improvements, notably the requirement that landlords register, there is still evidence in this city of appalling conditions in flats and apartments, especially where old buildings have been inadequately converted. Another issue raised numerous times is the matter of owner occupiers and especially those occupying apartments who deal with management companies. Have such people any recourse if management companies clearly abuse their position of power?