Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I welcome the Bill, which will add significantly to existing legislation relating to housing. It points to how such legislation might be further improved. I do not believe the Bill is meant to be comprehensive in any way. It adds to existing legislative provision but there is no doubt that much needs to be added to it by way of amendment in order to improve it. The debates on the Bill in this and the Lower House will assist in that regard.

Several NGOs have referred in positive terms to the general thrust of the Bill and intend to make concrete proposals in respect of how it might be improved. I hope their suggestions will be looked on favourably.

There is inconsistency regarding the way in which housing, particularly social housing, is allocated. Much of this has arisen as a result of the development of different practices among the various local authorities. Senator Bacik referred to the differences in housing application lists between one local authority and another. It is obvious that some authorities employ good practices while others do not. The local authority of which I had the privilege to be a member for 11 years — Cork City Council — did not deal with this matter in the most open and honest of ways. There is a need for a dramatic improvement regarding the way in which the council operates its housing list. The council discriminates most particularly against single people — most markedly against single men — and different waiting times apply in respect of particular areas of the city where people might request to be housed. This leads to an unbalanced social approach to housing allocation.

Those who work within the housing department of Cork City Council do so with honest intent and are continually trying to square the circle. Their jobs would be made immeasurably easier if the legislation directed — perhaps ministerial regulations could also be made in this regard — that there be a consistent, nationally-based system of housing allocation. What works for people in Dublin city or County Waterford does not appear to work for those in Cork city. We should not be prepared to stand over the different approaches taken to the allocation of social housing.

Part of the inconsistency to which I referred earlier relates to how various State support mechanisms have been used. For example, the RAS payment — this also applies in respect of the various forms of rent allowances and supplements that existed in the past — has been made despite private rented companies not being listed with the Private Residential Tenancies Board. That type of inconsistent approach has led to people being given State support for housing of a poor standard. It is a double standard which will eventually be worked out of the system but the fact it has been allowed at all is a black mark against our national policy.

The role of private rented housing, which in Irish terms is still low compared to other European countries, should be about more than putting a roof over people's heads and should be about having the highest quality housing. As someone representing the Green Party, it is fair to say that our private rented stock is the poorest of all housing stock in terms of heat efficiency and appropriate environmental standards. There is a role for the Government in regulating for those standards and in providing appropriate supports where necessary.

We are failing to reach our potential in developing voluntary housing, although there have been improvements in funding and in Government and local government interaction. Voluntary housing still comprises only a very small proportion of our total housing stock. I had the privilege of working with a housing body for a number of years, namely, Cork Community Housing Co-operative in Cork city which developed a very good housing project in Wellington Square-Magazine Road.

As a public representative, I had the privilege of accompanying the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to a recent opening of a very innovative project at Skiddy's Alms House. That is a locally based voluntary housing organisation but in recent years, we have seen the development of Irish arms of organisations such as Clúid which is the Irish arm of the St. Pancras Housing Association from the United Kingdom. These groups, along with groups such as Focus Ireland and the Simon Community, are developing valuable social housing approaches on a medium-term and long-term basis which local authorities are not structured to deliver. We need a support mechanism which uses that potential more than has been the case in the past.

Focus Ireland, the Simon Community, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and another organisation the name of which I cannot recall and which will give out to me make up the Make Room campaign.