Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Moran for raising a very difficult situation for a lady who is in great pain and difficulty. Unfortunately, as Minister of State, I am precluded under housing legislation from intervening in individual housing cases and therefore the issue must be dealt with by the local authority in according with its allocation scheme. While I take the point that there is a national responsibility in terms of my allocating funding generally, an individual allocation must be done by the local authority. Under section 63 of the Local Government Act 1991, a local authority is, subject to law, independent in the performance of its functions. The law on the allocation of local authority housing is section 22 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and the associated regulations, for which I, as Minister, have responsibility.

In accordance with the legislation, the elected council members set down council policy on the allocation of local authority housing in its allocation scheme. This policy-making power extends to determining the order of priority in accordance with which dwellings are allocated by the authority and reserving a proportion of dwellings for allocation, among other things, to different classes of household. It is the job of the manager of the local authority to make allocations, including decisions on transfers for existing local authority tenants, in accordance with the scheme. In this connection, the allocation scheme adopted by Dundalk Town Council provides that transfer applications will be considered in situations where a transfer would relieve a serious medical condition, such as in this case, including physical or mental disability.

Section 22 of the 2009 Act provides that the manager of a local authority may disregard the order of priority given to a household under an allocation scheme where the household is being provided with social housing support arising from specified exceptional circumstances, including exceptional medical or compassionate grounds. Section 22 of the 2009 Act empowers the Minister to direct a housing authority to change an allocation scheme and to issue directions to a housing authority regarding the operation of its allocation scheme. However, the enactment specifically provides that the latter power shall not be construed or operate to enable the Minister to direct the allocation of a dwelling to a specific household.

In view of the legal position I have outlined, it would be inappropriate for me to comment on the facts of any particular request for a transfer to another local authority dwelling in order to avoid any suggestion that the Minister is intervening in the case. The Senator has described a very difficult situation. She is probably aware that I allocated funding last week and one of the categories for it was people with a disability. Although the power to allocate is, unfortunately, with the local authority, I hope this issue will be resolved.