Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)

Subsection (6) provides that the Minister may make regulations providing for the description and classification of household need. It is intended that these regulations would include a revised classification system for housing needs centred on severity and persistence of need.

It is proposed to base the revised classification system, in as much as is possible, on the model developed by FEANSTA, with which the Senator is familiar. The proposed classification system has already been the subject of intensive consultation with social partners and housing authorities from the perspective of both the general and special housing needs, and on the whole they have been in favour of the proposals.

Providing the details for such a classification system in regulations will allow the necessary flexibility to adapt the model over time as circumstances and priorities change. Flexibility is not as readily available in primary legislation. As I mentioned on Committee Stage, the list suggested by the Senator is drawn from the 1998 Act, which in light of changing housing needs has proved to be limited in providing an accurate picture of both the nature of need and the relative priorities. People with multiple needs are not adequately captured by the current statutory definitions.

The proposed revised classification based on the FEANSTA approach provides a more developed method of reflecting the urgency and persistence of different types of need. It will provide the basis for the development through regulation of a better measure of need in the future. Under those circumstances I cannot accept the amendment.