Seanad debates

Thursday, 11 December 2008

Social and Affordable Housing

 

4:00 pm

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Bhain mé sult as an méid a bhí le rá aige ar an rún a d'ardaigh an Seanadóir Buttimer, mar cheist iontach gar do mo chroí féin í. Bíodh sin mar atá, tá ceist difriúl le plé agam os comhair an tSeanaid anocht, ceist faoi eastát tithíochta atá curtha ar fáil ag Clúid in Bundoran i gContae Dún na nGall. I wish to refer to the voluntary housing scheme that Clúid operates in the Silverhill estate in Bundoran, County Donegal. Clúid provided 46 houses in the estate. It receives funding of up to 90% of the total value for such developments. I understand in the region of €5.4 million was allocated for the scheme in Bundoran. The work Clúid has been doing, not only in the north west but throughout the State, is to be welcomed. The association has provided up to 3,000 units of social housing in estates and is to be commended on this.

Despite this, the tenants in the estate in Bundoran have serious problems that have been unresolved for many years. I have seen the estate at first hand and I spoke to people who are suffering because of the difficulties they are experiencing. The problem is that the ESB bills for heating the houses — they use a storage heating system — are excessively high, amounting to up to €600 every two months. My electricity Bill was posted to me just this week and it was close to the average for a house, that is, just above €100. These tenants were on the county council waiting list and have become tenants in the voluntary housing estate. The consequence of the tenants receiving bills of €600 is that they are forced to leave their accommodation. They are unable to afford to pay such large sums and therefore the houses are not meeting the needs of those on low incomes or the disadvantaged families for which they were designed to cater. A family left the estate in the past fortnight because of the electricity bills.

The affected families face problems as they attempt to be rehoused given that they have left their Clúid homes voluntarily, as stated by the county council. In some cases they have left bills unpaid. Other difficulties arise in addition to the high cost of electricity. Clúid has acknowledged that there is a problem and that the heating system it provided initially has not been the best, to say the least. It estimates it would cost approximately €250,000 to have the existing system replaced with a more efficient one. It has applied to the Department for this funding but it is not optimistic it will receive a positive response. I hope the Minister of State will have a positive response this afternoon.

Two other relevant issues arise, the first of which is that all the tenants are forced to pay €3 per week as a maintenance levy. They are questioning what it is for because there are many problems in the estate. One problem, for example, is that the smoke blows down the chimneys in a number of the houses unless the doors are left open. This is just making it harder to heat the houses. The second issue pertaining to the scheme, which is nearly eight years old, is that, under Clúid's terms of reference for each unit provided, €7,000 was to be made available to the community fund. This was to equate to €320,000 for community projects. There are many community projects such as the playgroup in Bundoran that could avail of this funding. That funding still has not been made available, and perhaps that could be investigated. I know I did not ask this in the question I have laid before the Seanad but perhaps those issues might be investigated as well.

I hope the Minister of State will have some positive response to make because this situation is forcing families on the county council waiting list into serious debt and to leave voluntary housing. It is a unique situation because Clúid has a good reputation, and for one reason or another this problem has remained unresolved for many years.

Photo of Noel AhernNoel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senator Doherty for raising this matter. I am taking the Adjournment on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State with responsibility for housing, Deputy Michael Finneran, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on issues pertaining to social and voluntary housing and co-operative housing in particular.

This has been the best year on record in terms of investment in voluntary and co-operative housing. The overall investment this year will be in the region of €390 million, an increase of €127 million on 2007. Starts within the sector reached record levels last year and this trend has continued through 2008. This positions us well to meet the challenging target of 6,000 new starts by the voluntary and co-operative sector for the 2007 to 2009 period, as set out in the social partnership agreement, Towards 2016.

The provision of high quality accommodation by approved housing bodies is an integral part of the Department's overall response to delivering on social housing need. The voluntary and co-operative housing sector is a valued partner in providing homes for low income families and for persons with special housing needs, including the elderly, the homeless and persons with an intellectual or physical disability.

In the past 25 years the voluntary and co-operative housing sector has delivered 22,000 units of accommodation nationally. Clúid Housing Association is a not-for-profit, approved housing body and has been the second biggest provider of voluntary housing in Ireland over recent years.

The Clúid housing scheme at Magheracar, Bundoran, was completed in 2001 with the aid of a grant of €5.4 million under the Department's capital assistance scheme. The Magheracar scheme consists of 46 three-bedroom houses. Tenants were drawn from the Bundoran Town Council social housing list. The heating in use is the ESB's Goldshield electric storage system. Storage heaters are provided in the hallway, living room and kitchen with electric wall heaters installed in bedrooms. In addition, there is an open fire in all living rooms.

In 2002, residents advised Clúid of their concerns in relation to the efficiency of the system and the high energy costs over the winter period. In response to this, Clúid undertook an examination of the system by a qualified professional to ensure it had been properly installed and that it was operating efficiently. Clúid also sought the assistance of the ESB to monitor usage and to advise on operational issues. The examination concluded that the system was properly installed but, in many cases, it was not being operated in the most cost-effective manner. The system is designed to give optimum cost efficiency when 80% of electricity is used at the night rate. The examination showed that night counted for about 50% energy usage on average and this had a major impact on cost.

I share the Senator's concern that tenants should not be over-burdened in terms of energy and heating costs. The Department's social housing investment programme is focused on delivering high quality housing that is energy efficient and sustainable. Housing practitioners have been proactive in incorporating energy efficiency considerations into their housing schemes, well in advance of the new standards set out in the recently revised Part L of the building regulations.

I am sure Senator Doherty will appreciate that my Department's primary role in relation to voluntary housing is to ensure sufficient funding is provided to meet the ongoing demand for new schemes. Operation and maintenance costs are, in the first instance, a matter for the individual housing bodies. The Department will ask Donegal County Council, which is responsible for the administration of the voluntary housing schemes in the county and which nominates tenants for schemes, to liaise with the Clúid Housing Association on the matter of the energy costs for this estate and advise on how these might be minimised into the future.

I realise that reply is rather general and does not address what the Senator has asked about whether an application has been submitted for the replacement of the scheme. As a former Minister of State with responsibility for housing, I recall that someone was saying at that stage that these were built as summer homes. However, that might be an urban legend rather than fact. I hear what the Senator is saying, however. It might well be that Clúid has been talking to Donegal County Council. It does not appear from this reply that the council has made any submission for replacement yet.

Senator Doherty referred to a maintenance levy, and that is probably to insist the systems are maintained. I seem to recall a scheme somewhere else a few years ago where there were problems. It might have been a different type of system, but tenants were not maintaining it and there were some health concerns because of fumes. It may be that people have to pay a maintenance levy so that this is done.

On another issue, the Senator mentioned a figure of €7,000 which will be spent on community projects. When schemes such as this are built, if memory serves me correctly, there is a capital grant per unit for developments such as day care centres or community buildings. That is always done at the time the development is built. Sometimes it can be part of the project or might be contributed or joined in with some other project that is taking place. The money is normally drawn down at the time the building is taking place. It is for capital building, not operational costs or whatever as mentioned by the Senator. I have been asked that the records be checked to confirm the situation. Normally, it would be part of the scheme. However, sometimes, if some other group was providing other facilities nearby, the money might be transferred from them. However, it would have been up to the applicants at the time to draw down the 46 times €7,000. They would have been rather foolish if for some reason they did not draw that down, unless it was parked because there was a greater plan for it. I am taking this matter for the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, but I can ask him to examine the issue and see what the record showed at the time. Normally, that money would be spent at the construction stage, unless it was parked because of some adjoining project under consideration.

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I appreciate that he will raise the issue of the €320,000 with the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, and inform him that a representative from Clúid addressed Bundoran Town Council earlier this summer and said the money was still available to be drawn down and that the Department was waiting on an application from the community. This matter has been going on for eight years and I would appreciate if it was referred to the Minister of State, Deputy Finneran, because it might just be the push required to get the money drawn down.

I thank the Minister of State for the frankness displayed in his response to the other issues. The representative of Clúid — as I have been informed by Councillor Michael McMahon in Bundoran, who addressed the meeting in Bundoran — told those attending that an application had gone to the Department, but a positive response was not expected. Clúid also contacted Donegal County Council, but it does not have funds available to remedy the situation.

I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, to bring to the attention of Deputy Finneran again the fact that an application has been made. Perhaps he will correspond with me on the matter and see if anything can be done, even in the interim, to help alleviate the problems in which these tenants find themselves.