John Carty (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister. The purpose of this Bill is to improve housing services and many of the sections are most welcome. Section 11 provides that housing authorities should provide and maintain services ancillary to housing development, including roads, shops, playgrounds, places of worship and sites for various facilities. It is important that this be done, especially in large urban areas. Too often in the past there were housing developments which did not even include a green space where children could play. That leads to anti-social behaviour since the children have no place to burn off energy. There should be areas in housing schemes where children and young people can play football, hurling and other sports. That is most important so I welcome this section. When the Bill is passed I hope local authorities will ensure that these services are put in place.

Under section 14 the elected members of local authorities are obliged to make housing available and to put plans in that regard in place. I note with satisfaction that a time frame of six months is included in the section for a plan to be put in place and implemented. It is worth noting that elected members along with the management have an input into devising the plan. With elected members involved, the plans will have a greater connection with members of the public. After all, it is the elected members whom the public approach in the first instance about anything related to housing, be it securing housing, rent increases and so forth. It is good that the elected members are being given more power in this regard.

Section 22 deals with the rental accommodation scheme, which I welcome. It gives people an opportunity to get into the property market and own a house. However, over the years I have had a gripe with local authorities over one issue. When people get an increase in their social welfare payment in the budget the councils usually increase rents when preparing their estimates. That is wrong. The Government should put a cap on rents to prevent councils, when social welfare recipients get an increase in their social welfare payment, imposing an extra charge on them because of that increase.

I compliment my local county council. Over the years it has tackled people who behave in an anti-social manner in housing estates. I am delighted there is a section in the Bill which deals with this issue. County councils should be more proactive in ensuring that when people get a house in an estate they will not cause trouble in that estate or, perhaps, cause other people in the estate to have to leave it. My local council has done this in a number of cases.

I thank the Minister for bringing forward this comprehensive Bill. When it is passed I hope it will be implemented by the local authorities.