Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, to the House.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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The Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013 makes technical changes to section 31 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 relating to the charging of local authority rents, which is an important element in the social housing framework. The Bill is necessary because the Parliamentary Counsel has advised that text in section 31(5) of the 2009 Act precludes the enactment from being commenced in a sequence that ensures a clear statutory basis for housing authorities to charge rents for their dwellings during the transition from the existing rents regime to the new rents system. To rectify this problem, the Parliamentary Counsel has advised that section 31(5) should be amended so the enactment can be brought into operation in a manner that enables enabling housing authorities to make their new rent schemes under section 31(5) before their rent-charging powers under section 31(3) come into operation.

I am also taking the opportunity presented by this amending Bill to delete text from section 31(6) that conflicts with a rent system in which charges are determined by reference to household composition and income and, where applicable, the cost of facilities provided to dwellings. I am fully in favour of local authority rents being linked to household income. Therefore, I am proposing to delete from the enactment references to specific rent-setting criteria other than income. Responsibility for setting local authority rents under section 58 of the Housing Act 1966 has been devolved to individual city and county managers since 1986. While all housing authorities charge rents related to the income of tenant households, similar households in similar accommodation are charged varying amounts of differential rent, depending on which local authority is letting the accommodation. Individual authorities also differ on issues like the types and amounts of income that are reckonable for differential rent purposes.

There is no justification for this disparate approach to rent setting for accommodation that is funded wholly by the Exchequer. Section 31 of the 2009 Act, therefore, facilitates a significant harmonisation in rents charged, while retaining the principle of rents related to household income and leaving some discretion to individual authorities to determine rent policies in their areas. The new system will be more equitable and transparent, with regulations providing for rents made up of a base element for each household member and a differential element based on a proportion of net household income in excess of a threshold that varies according to household composition. The regulations will set out a common method for determining household income across the country for rent purposes and provide for a transitional period so as to allow for a phased introduction of material adjustments to rent levels arising in individual cases under the new system.

Under section 31 of the 2009 Act, individual housing authorities are also empowered in their rent schemes to include charges in the rent relating to the costs of works and services provided to the dwellings under the Housing Acts, and regulations will set out the manner in which charges will be determined. Another feature of the new rents system is that, for the first time, council members will have a statutory role in determining local rent policies within the parameters laid down at national level. This aspect of the new arrangements received widespread support from Deputies during the Dáil debates on the Bill.

The new rent schemes that housing authorities will make under section 31 of the 2009 Act will apply to beneficiaries under the new housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme to be administered by housing authorities, which will replace rent supplement in the case of households with a long-term housing need. The household contribution to the rent payable for HAP dwellings will be determined under the new rents system for local authority housing. An immediate spin-off of this will be the removal of a barrier to employment that currently exists in the rent supplement scheme, whereby a rent supplement recipient who returns to full-time employment loses entitlement to that payment. Thus, the new HAP scheme, allied to section 31 rent schemes, will go some way towards providing additional security to households in the early stages of returning to employment.

Proposed legislation for the housing assistance payment scheme will be included in a second housing Bill that I hope to bring forward later this year. Also included in that Bill will be a new procedure for the repossession of local authority dwellings to replace section 62 of the Housing Act 1966, which the Supreme Court declared in February 2012 is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights in certain circumstances. The proposed Bill will also underpin current requirements in regard to the entitlement of non-Irish nationals to be assessed by local authorities for social housing support. I am also planning to legislate for a new tenant purchase scheme for existing local authority houses along incremental lines. I will be working to bring the substantive housing Bill to enactment as quickly as possible in order to maintain the momentum on the programme of social housing reform currently under way.

To return to the Housing (Amendment) Bill 2013, I look forward to the support of the House for what is a short, technical enactment required to facilitate the effective operation of existing legislation.

Caít Keane (Fine Gael)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The Bill amends section 31(5) of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 and I will not go through the technical detail of the amendments and deletions it makes as the Minister of State has already done so. I welcome this legislation, the primary objective of which is to achieve a level of harmonisation of local authority rents at national level in order to prevent huge variations from one area to another.

It is important to stress this will not preclude the determination or the drawing up of a rental scheme by local authorities in their own areas. We are always talking about the devolution of functions. It is very important that functions which are devolved to local authorities are left there and, indeed, we look forward to further devolution of functions to local authorities. It is critical that any assessment of local authority rent charged to an individual takes account of his or her ability to pay. This is what differentiates social housing from private housing and that objective is central to the new legislation. There will be a differential rent scheme to the extent that a person's ability to pay will be the key determinant and the Bill will seek to ensure there will not be a huge variation in rents from county to county.

It is important that this would happen. Many initiatives have been introduced by the Minister of State's colleague in the Department of Social Protection, particularly with regard to the job activation scheme, which fits job training opportunities and individuals, and focuses on the individual as a recipient of welfare and as an active jobseeker.

I am glad the Minister of State mentioned rent supplement and the part that will play. That must be the philosophy. Everyone presenting for a rent subsidy should also be assessed individually and, if appropriate accommodation is available within the local authority housing programme, an offer should be made. Rent supplement should be a secondary response where there is no possibility of the provision of accommodation from the local authority.

The Minister of State mentioned the housing assistance payment scheme, about which we have not heard enough. Perhaps she would elaborate further on it. Ten minutes before I came to the House, I was contacted by somebody who wanted to take up a part-time job, but because she was in receipt of rent supplement it was not worth her while taking up that job because she would lose a certain amount. This girl was really willing to take up that part-time job. I welcome the announcement about the housing assistance payment scheme and would welcome more information on it from the Minister of State.

In addition to the financial side of owning a house, we must consider the need for people to settle down. It is better for people if they are living in, getting to know and being part of their communities rather than moving from one rental scheme to another. The Minister of State has said on occasion that having people look upon their communities as their own and work in those communities is part of her philosophy. In respect of the rent allowance scheme, where children are going to school and established in a social infrastructure, it is unreasonable to uproot them and take them from one town to another just because a local authority house is available in that area. I know the Minister of State's philosophy on that, and she has spoken on many occasions about social cohesion.

I commend the RAS as it is a very good case of direct local authority provision. Integration of the RAS, the housing assistance scheme, the rent supplement scheme and housing policy generally is necessary and the Bill will achieve that aim. It is reforming legislation. We must recognise that the rental accommodation market has increased radically. The number of people renting in Ireland in both the private and local authority sectors has increased by 47% since 2006. To an extent, we are becoming more like the continental Europeans and house ownership as a first option is fading, maybe out of necessity in many instances. We have to accommodate this new reality. Past legislation has given rise to tenants' rights that did not exist in the past and that makes tenants more secure in rented accommodation. The Government's response in that area is integrated.

With the RAS and long-term leases, local authority tenants do not have the prospect of purchasing their houses. This is critical because it means they do not have the responsibility of looking after them and becoming part of the community. If we want to develop more responsible citizens in communities, home ownership is important in the community building process. I do not know if the Minister of State has carried out an evaluation of the period when local authorities used to sell properties to tenants to ensure they bedded down in a community rather than moved on and out of the community, or an examination of whether they could be allowed to purchase their homes again. I accept that financial pressures are significant and nearly every debate in the House is premised on that. I know the Minister of State with responsibility for the NewERA project, Deputy O'Dowd, said on Second Stage in the other House that in ideal circumstances there would be a notable ongoing programme and that it is intended to ramp up construction as soon as possible. Could the Minister of State tell us what she envisages in that regard?

With regard to housing adaptation grants, there are increasing numbers of people eligible for these grants who are being told more or less that unless they have some critical medical condition, they will not see the adaptation work done in the next couple of years. It is not fair to build up the hope that there is a scheme in place if it is there in theory but not in practice. It should be either scrapped or designated for certain people to let people know where they stand. Again, it is a question of giving people continuity, if they can get their houses repaired because they are dilapidated rather than moving house.

The Minister of State has said a lot about the rental accommodation scheme. I know that many landlords do not take people from the housing list because they have a choice, particularly in the Dublin area. There are 100,000 families on the housing list. In my own area, south Dublin, there are 10,500 families on the list. We must face up to the growing problem in housing provision, especially in Dublin and other major urban areas. The DAFT website shows that today 2,300 properties are available to rent in Dublin. There is a problem and I thank the Minister of State for bringing this reforming legislation before the House today. I welcome it.