Paul Bradford (Fine Gael)

I am grateful that the Minister of State has come into the House to respond to my representation on behalf of the Castlelyons Community Council in Cork, which has made an application for grant aid under the voluntary housing scheme. To assist the elderly in the area, Castlelyons Community Council, which is a long established and very effective community council in east Cork, decided some time ago to establish a voluntary housing association that would lodge an application for funding under the departmental scheme. It decided to work in conjunction with Cork County Council to provide 12 units of accommodation for the elderly in the parish of Castlelyons.

I understand that the application was made in 2006. There was ongoing contact between the community council, which had to constitute a sub-committee that would be a recognised housing body. There was communication between the community council, the Department and Cork County Council on the project. Significant fundraising was required from the local community to purchase the grounds for the proposed housing development. Fundraising was required to carry out the drawings and the design for the housing scheme and to lodge a planning application. That was successfully done with the support of many people in the community. It is fair to say that in Castlelyons, as in many other communities across the country where voluntary housing projects are being considered, there was a level of satisfaction and anticipation within the local community at the progress which was thought to have been made.

Unfortunately, difficulties emerged during 2008. There was a necessity for much debate and correspondence between the housing body, the Department and Cork County Council. Consideration had to be given to changing house design, though it was eventually deemed that the original proposals put forward by the local community council were the best possible plans. However, that caused some delay. A serious problem then arose in December 2008, when the housing group in Castlelyons was informed that the rules of the scheme for tendering had changed in March 2008. The Castlelyons group was not informed of this rule change, and I am led to understand that in late December 2008 the group was advised that as the rules had been changed, its application was basically null and void and would have to be withdrawn. This was obviously very disappointing for the group in question as it had conceived the project, raised the money, purchased the land, designed the houses and was expecting the go-ahead. Instead, it got a very negative response.

The group members are obviously very disappointed that a rule which was changed in early 2008 was not brought to their attention earlier. They are also disappointed that the time, effort and money spent to date now seem to have come to naught. They made the point to me that there should be a much greater level of dialogue and co-operation between the local authorities and the Department on this matter. Groups such as Castlelyons Community Council are doing valuable work with these housing projects, work which would otherwise come under the remit of the Department and perhaps would not get done. These groups conceive projects which allow people to live out their autumn years in their own houses in their communities. That surely is very desirable.

I ask the Minister of State to look at the rules of the scheme to ensure there is greater progress between the housing bodies, the Department and the local authorities. In this case, will the Minister of State review the entire file and acknowledge that a difficulty arose because of a change in the tendering system? If the system changed in March 2008, but those changes were not brought to the attention of the association in question until almost nine months later, is it possible to have the application reinstated and decided upon? I look forward to the reply of the Minister of State, who would, I am sure, acknowledge, as I would, the tremendous work done by voluntary housing bodies.

The emergence of such bodies was a very desirable concept some years ago. At that time,housing associations and bodies such as the Respond Housing Association, Threshold, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others, took over part of the role of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. They built houses and brought a sense of local ownership, community involvement and participation to social housing. This was a new departure and we moved away from the previous one size fits all concept of local authority housing. We must retain hope and optimism within these groups. For such applications as that of the Castlelyons Community Council, where a technicality appears to have blown the project apart, I hope the Minister of State and the officials at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government will work to get the project back on track at the earliest opportunity.