Ivana Bacik (Independent)

I should have said the two amendments are being discussed together because amendment No. 44 would delete paragraph (d), which refers to the frequency of reviewing and updating assessments. This is a particular issue because the review and updating of assessments is carried out only every three years. That does not take into account changing circumstances. We are all seeing how rapidly the economic climate, property prices and people's ability to make repayments are changing. Events are moving very quickly and in the real world these matters will move quickly. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive has adopted an annual review of needs assessments. In this jurisdiction we need a much more regular system of reviewing assessments. That is why I asked for the word "annual" to be inserted and for paragraph (d) to be deleted, almost as a corollary of that.

We have a problem with a lack of objective criteria for needs assessments across local authorities. That is probably uncontroversial to say; it is widely accepted. I welcome the general tone of this Bill, which I hope will provide for a more consistent set of criteria. The Bill still leaves ultimate power to local authorities. The powers of the Minister to provide for an overall national system of needs assessment should be much more strengthened in the Bill. That is what I seek to do in this series of amendments, briefed by the agencies I mentioned in the Make Room coalition.

The Northern Ireland model is useful for us because it shows the Housing Executive has recognised that to perform annual reviews is a better and more efficient way to ensure needs assessments are up to date. In Northern Ireland there are also quarterly updates. On Second Stage I said there is a problem generally with this in terms of collecting data from local authorities and I can see how that might be a problem in carrying out reviews. I proposed that the Central Statistics Office, CSO, might have a role here, as it does on Garda figures.

As a criminal lawyer I am very conscious that until very recently crime figures were kept and collated by the Garda Síochána. A very short number of years ago the CSO took over responsibility for collating and keeping a national database of crime statistics. Everybody, including the Garda, regard this as a much better method of keeping crime figures. There is room here for us to also change how we collate our housing data. This would assist in ensuring we could have annual reviews of needs assessments. I ask the Minister to indicate that he might consider inserting the word "annual" into this provision to bring us to an equivalent situation with Northern Ireland and ensure we can keep more efficiently up to date with changing economic circumstances for people in need of housing support.