Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)

I do not want to start a fight between Senators but despite the limited amount of money we have, we are trying to give people choice with this policy and focus on people's needs. That does mean using leasing and encouraging voluntary housing associations to raise money in other ways. That is why we have things like the CAS scheme whereby they get a certain amount of money from the public purse but are also facilitated in raising money in other ways. We also want to regulate them because it will make it easier for them to borrow from financial institutions.

I would contest any suggestion that there is not a change of policy. It is not about developers any more, it is about people living in homes we are trying to provide for them one way or another. The move on rent allowance is a policy decision. We want to get rid of the poverty traps whereby people were afraid of losing their rent allowance. We want to get them onto a scheme that is similar to the local authority differential rent scheme. That is a policy decision to get people out of poverty traps and give them the opportunity to go to work.

The disabled person's grant and the mobility grant were mentioned and I agree that they are important. In so far as we could, we protected that fund. I recently announced money for local authorities in that area. Local authorities get good value for money in responding to people's needs. To some extent, they must match the funding themselves, so not all local authorities sought as much money as they needed because they had to find matching funds from their own budgets. However, we have tried to protect that as well. We also want to respond in terms of local authority housing stock, which is why we have a fund to upgrade vacant stock and provide those houses. It addresses two issues, first, the fact that there are a considerable number of vacant houses throughout the country, and second, the need to raise the quality and standard of local authority housing. We therefore have funding for that area as well.

The Donegan case was referred to, which essentially concerns anti-social behaviour and the ability of local authorities to take action where such behaviour occurs. The judgment basically did not allow the local authority to take action because of European human rights law. We are examining that matter because the reality is that, as well as having rights, people have responsibilities. Local authorities need to be able to deal with anti-social behaviour in their estates.

While it is not within my remit, Senator van Turnhout referred to apprentices looking at unfinished houses. Some local authorities use community employment, CE, schemes to finish apprenticeships. I know of some such cases and it seems to be a practical way of responding to the needs of young people who want to finish their apprenticeships. We need to find way of addressing such problems, which is what this debate is about. I thank those Senators who have contributed so far.