Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am disappointed, however, because I saw the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, in the canteen. It is disappointing that the Minister cannot make himself available. Regardless of who someone is or what party or political group one represents, if any, if a Minister is in the building then he or she should endeavour to do his or her very best to attend. I have other opportunities to engage with the Minister on a range of matters because I am a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. I am more than happy, however, to drop the Minister a line to tell him how disappointed I am. It is disrespectful to the House for the Minister to not come in. I know Ministers are busy, but so are we and the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, is very busy. That was clear from the answers he gave to the earlier Commencement matters. That said, I do not doubt his commitment and ability to pass on this message.

I ask the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to empower the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, or somebody else, to monitor local authority standards on housing. Local authorities randomly inspect the properties of private sector landlords. Who is keeping an eye on the local authorities, however? People with young children have come to me because they have mildew on the walls of their residence. They have been told to go out and buy a bottle of bleach by the local authorities and those people have that in writing, by the way. They were told they had to ventilate their residences better, use bleach and take the mould off the walls.

People across the country, and probably in the Minister of State's constituency, are living in appalling accommodation which is part of our social housing stock. Who is monitoring that situation? This is an important issue because tenants often fear that continuing to harass the local authority about the poor standards of their accommodation will result in some sort of rancour, to the detriment of a transfer or move to another property. It is not acceptable for local authorities to be acting as judges and juries in their own causes.

An independent inspectorate is needed to ensure that our local authority social housing stock is maintained to high standards. I acknowledge that some authorities are making better progress than others. We still have situations, however, where there is bad ventilation, damp and even pyrite in some of our social housing. We have serious problems, in certain spots, concerning local authority standards. I ask the Minister of State, at his convenience, to ask if the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government will consider putting in place whatever mechanism for inspections might be possible to give comfort to tenants in those situations.

There is no point in all of us, from all parties and none, bellyaching about standards and doing nothing about the problem. This is our forum during Commencement matters and that is why I want to bring this topic to the attention of the Minister. The record will show my disappointment that he is not here. Leaving here today, I commit to contacting some local authorities and I undertake to send photographs of the problems to which I have referred. I will zone in on the constituency of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government himself. I will identify a few appalling houses in his electoral area and bring them to his attention within the next week. I thank the Minister of State.