Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I congratulate her and her staff on introducing the legislation, which is a culmination of much work by successive Governments. The legislation is to be welcomed because it will lead to the inclusion of approved housing bodies under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004.

We can all associate with the grim picture of the 1980s painted by Senator Hayden because we knew of the existence of substandard and inappropriate accommodation in our towns. We have come a long way from those times, as she rightly said.

This strengthening of legislation is very much to the benefit of the landlord and the tenant, in particular. It is important, given the current economic circumstances in which many people find themselves that decent accommodation is available to all our citizens at a reasonable rent. It is a basic human right to have good and appropriate accommodation. It is particularly the right and entitlement of a tenant and while the landlord also has rights, he or she has responsibilities. He or she has the right to run a legitimate business and to get paid for it at the end of the day. The strengthening of the legislation, therefore, will be to everybody's benefit.

The Minister of State referred to anti-social behaviour and the need to strengthen provisions in private tenancies. We are all conscious of the problems on local authority estates. Anti-social behaviour is spreading and it is very much evident on private housing estates. As she correctly said, there is no silver bullet but we have a responsibility to give security and protection to the vast majority of our citizens who are law abiding on both local authority and private housing estates. I do not know how we should address this. As Senator Landy said, the Garda can only do so much but more resources, including staff, must be deployed on local authority estates to work towards the elimination of anti-social behaviour. Many elderly people on these estates are frightened and it is not fair that people who behave in an anti-social manner appear to be able to continually re-offend and get away without significant consequences. There are fine local authority housing estates in my part of the country but the local authority cannot secure people who need housing to occupy fine houses because of anti-social behaviour. It is a significant challenge to address.

I welcome the Minister of State's proposed deposit protection scheme because unscrupulous landlords treat tenants badly. In some cases, tenants are prevented from securing alternative accommodation because they cannot get their deposit back. However, we must also recognise the problems faced by landlords when their properties are damaged and rent is not paid.

I would like to raise another issue that is not provided for in the legislation but since the Minister of State is present, I would like to draw it to her attention. House ownership is the ambition of most people and there is discrimination against local authority tenants who wish to buy out their home but who are not in full-time employment. For example, I was approached by a woman whose main income, which is from social welfare, is significant and who would like to buy the house she lives in as she has invested a great deal of money in it over the years. She would like to pass it on to a family member who has a disability but she is prohibited under the scheme in place from acquiring the house. She is paying significant rent for it but she could pay a little more and buy the house outright over a number of years. I am running into a brick wall in trying to crack this issue for her. Will the Minister of State consider these cases? It is in a local authority's best interest to have a fantastic tenant who is prepared to invest her money to make the house comfortable as she enters the later years of her life. She would dearly love to own that house but she is prohibited from doing so because of the criteria related to the purchase of local authority housing.

I compliment the Minister of State on this legislation, which I am most happy to support. I hope it will be implemented as soon as possible.