Seanad debates

Wednesday, 15 June 2016

Poverty and Homelessness: Motion

 

10:30 am

Photo of Colm BurkeColm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate. It is important that we look at where we are in respect of housing. Yes, we have problems and there are many measures that can be taken immediately to resolve some of them. I will give the Minister a simple example that relates to downsizing. Quite a number of my constituents who occupy three or four-bedroom houses have told me that they have been contacting their local authority for four, five or, in some cases, eight years looking to move to a one or two-bedroom unit that is more suitable because they have moved on in years and need to be near shops and services. There are suitable units available for them but they find there is no response from the local authorities. They are occupying three or four-bedroom houses that would be suitable for families. I am astonished. If one goes to other areas, be they in the private or public sector, there is a much faster response in respect of dealing with issues. This is one area where local authorities could react immediately. I know of at least six houses in one local authority area that would be very suitable for families.

I do not understand why it can take up to two years to bring a vacant house back into use. I am talking about houses that are handed back after a person has died. There seems to be a huge delay. I understand that some local authorities will send out a different person to look at the house and one could find at least six to seven different people going out to look at a house regardless of whether it is the plumber, electrician or the person who will look at the windows. Why can local authorities not set up a team that would go out on the same day and carry out an assessment of what needs to be done? I know of one local authority where the keys are handed back to the housing department, the housing department then sends them down to the electrician or plumber to go out, it takes another six weeks for the keys to come back to the housing department, they are then sent out to another person to go and look at the house and it takes another six weeks. It seems to go on and on. Surely in this day and age, we could co-ordinate house inspections and how this matter can be managed to ensure the house is brought back into use at a very early stage. Somebody contacted me last week who surrendered their house to a local authority because they had entered a new relationship and moved in with their new partner in another area of the city. Unfortunately, the relationship did not work out and the person contacted me to find out whether they could move back into their old local authority house. I told them that I did not think the house would be vacant to be told that it was and that all the shutters were up 18 months later. This raises very serious questions. At a time when we badly need houses, we are not responding in time.

Some of my colleagues have raised the issue of how we manage finances. We are paying out money in social welfare and rightly so because we need to give supports to people regardless of whether they are retired or on various allowances such as disability allowance. However, we are paying out €20 billion per annum, which works out at €57 million per day. I do not like the impression that is created that the State is not giving the necessary support. Yes, there are areas where not all the supports that exist cater for some people, but in fairness to the State, we pay out €57 million per day in social welfare. It is about ensuring people who fall between the two stools because they do not qualify for the various supports are identified and dealt with. Likewise, we must ensure housing support is provided to people who require it.

When one looks back over the past 20 years, a scheme once operated under which if someone put money on deposit, another 25% was added to it over a period at a time when we were getting a huge amount of money in from housing. If one looks back to before 2008, it is sad to see how little of the money coming in between PRSI paid in respect of people working for building contractors, VAT paid by building contractors, capital gains tax and stamp duty was used at the time to provide local authority housing when we needed it. It is always difficult to say that we will rely totally on the private sector because that is exactly what happened. It was fine relying on the private sector when there was an oversupply of housing but that suddenly changed. When the Government changed in 2011, there was an oversupply of housing at that stage. This has changed in the past two years.

We also need to look at structures relating to housing, for example, how letting in the private sector is short-term. In other European countries, one can get a 20-year lease and the same is true if one is in the commercial sector. Someone renting a shop unit or office can get a 20-year lease with five-year rent reviews. They are then obliged to fit out their own offices so they are not relying on the landlord. We need to look at arrangements in other European countries for people who cannot afford to buy a house but who want certainty and permanency. They are able to save some money and invest in a property. In Germany, a person renting a property carries out all the internal work in a property such as putting in the fitted kitchen, bathroom, curtains and flooring, but they have a very low rent for 20 years so they have certainty and security of tenure.They also have far lower costs in terms of wear and tear compared to our system. We need to examine new structures like that. In order to do so, the necessary legislation must be in place. If we want to make any change in housing policy, we have to provide certainty for people who are renting in the private sector and that is what we need to focus on. We need to develop a structure very quickly.

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