Camillus Glynn (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Michael Finneran, back to the Seanad. If anybody knows anything about housing, it is he because he has many years under his belt as a member of a local authority.

This Bill is very timely because it addresses circumstances that have obtained for some 40 years. The question of social and affordable housing, which has featured for quite some time, has been addressed on a somewhat piecemeal basis and this Bill will restore order to what can only be termed as the ad hoc procedures that obtained heretofore.

There are a number of provisions in the Bill that are particularly welcome. They have been already touched on but I will repeat them because they bear doing so. The incremental purchase scheme will enable existing social housing tenants and households qualified for social housing support to become owners of houses newly built by housing authorities and voluntary and co-operative bodies. The scheme provides for the transfer of full ownership of a house to a household on the purchase of an initial share of the equity. Clearly, this is a very important provision. It gives the purchaser a sense of ownership and this will drive the tenant in a direction he might not have gone heretofore. He will have pride of ownership, which is very important. Most of us who had to put our hands in our pockets, dig very deep and convince the bank manager, SDA, Housing Finance Agency or building society that we constituted a reasonable risk will know how difficult it was when we started making repayments. Purchasers, when they buy the initial share in their house, will understand what people who go through this experience must endure. As the old saying goes, borrowed horses very often have hard hooves.

It brings tears to one's eyes to see the manner in which certain houses received by tenants deteriorate in a relatively short period, perhaps within six months. Thankfully, I do not refer to all houses. Houses for which people would pay huge amounts of money in the private sector are given away, provided by the taxpayer and the ratepayer at a differential rent. To see them abused in the manner in which they often have been is heart-rending, to say the least.

I am pleased that Westmeath County Council, of which I was a member for some 25 years, has a proud record of providing accommodation for the Travelling community, who rate among some of our best tenants. I hasten to add that we have the other kind as well, but that is not alone pertinent to the Travelling community but to the settled community also. However, it is only fair to say that some of our best tenants are members of the Travelling community. The manner in which they keep their houses is a credit to them.

The Bill includes new powers for elected members to adopt strategies for the prevention and reduction of anti-social behaviour in the local authority housing stock and an extended definition of anti-social behaviour to cover graffiti and damage to property. This is welcome, and I welcome any measure that will give powers to locally elected members. However, I want to introduce an important caveat in this regard. A lady recently brought her son to my home. The family was living in a certain housing estate in a certain Midlands town and the son was being bullied beyond all human endurance, which is the best way I can put it. The family was advised by the local authority and the Garda Síochána to move. Why should the offended have to move? Why not the offender? It begs the question.

The problem is that if the offender is to be taken to task, somebody must go to court, point the finger and identify the person or persons causing the problems, and explain the problems being caused. It is a difficult problem but it must be tackled because it will not go away. In this case, the family did move, which is a defeat for law and order, as I know it. We are all entitled to live our lives in a peaceful and harmonious way. We must get down to the nub of dealing with anti-social behaviour. It can only be beaten through people power, with the help of the Garda and the local authority. There is no doubt that elected members also have a pivotal role to play.

I welcome the Bill. It comes after 40 years and gives a basis to the adage, "It is never too late to do the right thing." This is the right thing to do. It will be the jewel in the crown if the Minister of State can find an answer to anti-social behaviour. By that, I am talking about graffiti, people being bullied and, of course, drug dealing. I am told ad nauseam about what is going on by people who come to my office, in the same way my councillor son, my secretary and every other elected member in the area has been told this. There is no point in talking about it. We have talked the talk. Now, we have to walk the walk. We must deal with this problem.

The Bill will broaden the choices available to those seeking social housing by establishing a more developed framework for contractual arrangements to secure rented accommodation for social housing. These provisions are based on experience with the rental accommodation scheme, which involves housing authorities progressively taking responsibility for accommodating people in receipt of social welfare rent supplement who have a long-term housing need. By the end of 2008, between the rental accommodation scheme and other forms of social housing, the Government expects to have rehoused more than 16,000 households with long-term housing needs that were previously supported through rent supplement.

To be honest, while rent supplement is a very important part of addressing social need, I have always considered it a waste of money. I would far rather see that money invested in providing housing, although I understand there is a short-term solution and a long-term solution. The Bill takes many strides in the right direction. What I have heard from all sides of the House should give the Minister of State great comfort because the Bill has great support across the board, which I welcome. I commend the Bill to colleagues on all sides of the House. I look forward to Committee Stage, when I am sure suggestions will be brought forward.

I will conclude on the following point. We must grasp by the scruff of the neck the issue of anti-social behaviour in our housing estates. There is no point talking about it because we have talked long enough. We must deal with it immediately, and the Bill is a basis for doing that. It enables local authorities and their members, as well as tenants, to deal with it. Together, we can beat this problem. An unco-ordinated approach will not work because that is what we have had thus far, and we have got nowhere.