Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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186. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when the housing (regulation of approved housing bodies) Bill will come before the Houses of the Oireachtas in view of the fact that over 500 voluntary housing bodies are not subject to statutory regulation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46052/18]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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My Department is working with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel to finalise the text of the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Bill for publication, subject to Government approval, shortly. While it was hoped that the Bill would be published before now, the complex nature of some of the issues involved in drafting the legislation has required additional time to work through. The Bill is expected to be published during the current Dáil term.

The Bill provides for the regulation of the social housing provider sector for the purposes of ensuring proper governance and the financial viability of the sector. This is to ensure that the State’s contribution towards Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) and tenants’ interests in relation to those housing assets are safeguarded. Similarly, the Bill will provide assurance to tenants, the public and investors that the sector is well regulated.

Currently, AHBs have to be approved under the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1992. In anticipation of the introduction of the new statutory regulatory framework under the Bill referenced to above, an interim Regulation Committee for the AHB sector was established in 2014 under the auspices of the Housing Agency, which, supported by a Regulation Office based within the Agency, oversees implementation of a voluntary regulation code (VRC) for AHBs.

Since the Code was put in place, any AHB applying for housing funding from my Department and local authorities must furnish proof of compliance with the voluntary code. Only those AHBs that have undergone a satisfactory assessment as part of the annual assessment process by the Regulation Office are considered eligible for funding for the provision of social housing. At present 256 AHBs, including all the larger Tier 3 AHBs, encompassing some 95% of the AHB social housing stock, have signed up to the code.