Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is welcome. I support the words uttered by Senator Paul Bradford. I wish her well in the mammoth task she is faced with. There are 90,000 people waiting for social housing, 10,000 of whom are on lists in Galway, for example, and 30,000 of these have been on a list for over four years.

There are a total of 90,000 people waiting for social housing, with 10,000 on the lists in Galway, and 30,000 have been on waiting lists for over four years. All of my comments aim to be helpful, to see how we can work through this problem. When one looks at those extraordinary numbers and considers that the Minister has secured funding this year for 2,900 units, and well done to her for that, one sees how difficult it is to decrease those long lists.
A question has occurred to me and a number of other public representatives, particularly at council level. Why do we not decouple the social housing list from rent allowance? I presume rent allowance will now be called HAP. I believe there should be two different sets of criteria for people who receive rent allowance or housing assistance payment. It is very easy to work out who needs a leg-up temporarily and might need rent allowance in the short term. In my view, they should never be on a social housing list. Then there is the other set of people who will meet the at-risk criteria. Those people should be on a social housing list. By carrying out that exercise the Minister will radically reduce the overall numbers on the social housing lists. To be honest, those lists are used as a stick to beat the Minister because that target is unattainable in the short term. The Minister should look at the criteria and divide them accordingly. That does not mean housing assistance payment would not be required by both sets in the short term.
Second, I welcome the measure to deal with anti-social behaviour. To get a house for free from the State is a gift. To abuse it is dreadful. A house is a person's sanctuary. One sees the stress families have been under due to debt and the fear of losing the home they have bought. On the opposite side of the coin, one sees somebody not only wrecking the home they got for free but also wrecking the community. I listened to Senator Moloney's comment that if there are two refusals, the person should not be left on the list. Sometimes it is not that simple. I have dealt with a number of people on the east side of Galway city whose homes and communities have been wrecked by anti-social behaviour. One example is a lady with intellectual disability, whom I was very grateful was able to come to see me, whose windows and doors were covered with human faeces. She could no longer go into the house and had to live with somebody else. The house then became vacant.
Another young woman, a lone parent with three or four children, had to get a psychiatric report to prove she could no longer stay in her house. She has since been offered two other houses, but they are in the same area so she is still in the area where she feels under threat every day. She is now talking about making herself homeless. I cannot recommend that. There are incredible situations where people are living in human misery because of anti-social behaviour, so I am glad the Minister will empower councils to tackle it.
I also welcome the tenant purchase scheme. The Minister has done well. I visited Chicago a number of years ago and was very impressed by the mayor, Richard Daley. At that time there had been 40 years of mayors named Daley. However, his goal was to ensure that he could wipe out social housing, on the basis that everybody could have their own home. That should be our goal, so everybody will have a home in which they can live and of which they can be proud.
On the issue of boarded-up houses, at the time of the local elections a month ago there were 78 such houses in Galway. They had been boarded up for months. Senator Colm Burke and I have spoken in the House about having a seven day turnaround rule for councils. They should know the houses are due to become vacant and be ready to move in with a team. A family is waiting for the house and they should be housed in it. The Minister should incentivise such a turnaround at council level, be it through an extra minuscule percentage from the local government fund, extra property tax retention or, if they still exist, bonus payments for directors of services. There should be outcomes-based payments so there is an incentive to help people get into the house quite quickly.
I have a question for the Minister. A number of lone parents have approached me about their desire to get on the RAS so they can work, as opposed to being on rent allowance. Will it be easier to work if one is on the new housing assistance payment? Will it be easy for somebody who is currently on rent allowance to get onto RAS? To give an example, I am aware of a lone parent who has three autistic children. Her husband has disappeared and she is getting no support from him. She wants to get a few hours of work while the children are at school, but she cannot do so because she needs the rent allowance. Will this scheme make a difference to that woman's life? She needs the work not just for the money but also for the mental stimulation, the release of getting out of the house and to be productive. Perhaps the Minister would clarify that.
Finally, I wish to alert the Minister to another crisis coming down the tracks. It is in student accommodation. At present, the Daft.ieand Rent.iewebsites are advertising houses for rent but no students need apply. One previously heard about no blacks or Irish being allowed to apply for accommodation in other countries, now it is a case of no students need apply. The Minister will also be familiar with the phrase "no rent allowance" in advertisements. Given the crisis in private accommodation, if students are not allowed to apply we will have homeless students. Many of these young people are quite vulnerable because they are only learning how to transition from home into private rented accommodation. I accept that some students have been less than good when in private property, but there are other ways of dealing with this, for example, through higher deposits for houses available to students and so forth. There should be a block on stating that certain people cannot apply. Perhaps the Minister would comment on that and on whether she is familiar with this situation. I have incredible figures which I can give her.