Vol. 440 No. 4
13 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for the Environment if he has satisfied himself that the targets set in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 1993, particularly in relation to the carrying out of the remedial works scheme and the bathrooms sub-programme, are capable of being achieved within the timescale set; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
209 Mr. Barrett asked the Minister for the Environment if he has satisfied himself that the targets set in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 1993, particularly in relation to the carrying out of the remedial works scheme and the bathrooms sub-programme, are capable of being achieved within the timescale set; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 13 and 209 together. The physical standards relating to structure, sanitary facilities, etc. specified by these regulations in relation to rented residential accommodation will apply to dwellings let by local authorities with effect from 1 January 1998. It is the responsibility of each local authority to ensure compliance with the regulations as part of their programme for the management, maintenance, upkeep and improvement of their housing stock.
Funds are allocated under a number of programmes operated by my Department to assist local authorities in discharging this responsibility. An allocation of £20.7 million has been provided this year, an increase of £3.5 million over 1993, under the remedial works scheme for the carrying out of major works to "low cost", pre-1940 and rundown urban local authority housing estates. The allocation under the programme to provide bathrooms or showers in local authority dwellings lacking these facilities has also been increased from £2.5 million in 1993 to £4 million in 1994. The total provided to date to local authorities, including the 1994 provision, under these two programmes amounts to over £128 million. In addition, £3 million has been allocated this year for the replacement of sub-standard windows in large urban local authority flat complexes.
I have impressed on local authorities the necessity to meet their obligations under the regulations and I am satisfied that they should be capable of complying with them.
I am aware that all local authorities will have to meet the targets set in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations, 1993 by 1 January 1998. All the local authorities have received so far is a circular from the Department of the Environment; they have not received the necessary funding to carry out the works required. Many houses in the Galway borough and county council areas are in need of repair. I am sure this is the case in other areas also. This is a further example of regulations having been introduced in this House without providing the necessary finance for the local authorities to implement them and carry out the works required. Can the Minister of State indicate when the extra finance will be provided to the local authorities to meet their obligations under the regulations which were passed in 1993?
Across the range of schemes, from the remedial works scheme to the bathrooms and windows schemes, there has been a huge increase in the amounts of money available to the local authorities in the recent past. In addition, the local authorities spend £80 million per year from their own resources on the maintenance and management of their housing stock, which numbers 100,000 units. This is a considerable sum of money and represents £800 per house per year. This is supplemented by the grants available from this Department. I am satisfied that the funding available to the local authorities from their own resources and the grants available from this Department which have been substantially increased under all headings — in some cases doubled — is sufficient and will allow them to bring their housing stock up to the standard required to meet their obligations under the regulations by 1998.
Does the Minister of State agree that the targets set cannot be achieved?
No.
While the statement that local authorities should ensure that bathrooms are provided in every house by 1 January 1998 sounds good, the reality is that resources are not available, particularly in Dublin, to meet the targets set. The Minister of State has said that there has been a dramatic increase in the amounts of money allocated for local authority housing. While I agree there was an increase last year on the figure for the previous year, since 1987 the Government has ignored the local authorities in a disgraceful manner with the result that there are now long waiting lists. For example, in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council area there is a waiting list of 1,200 persons, yet this year in the region of 100 to 120 houses will be provided. This results from the negligence of the Government since 1987. Can the Minister of State indicate the heading under which the funding for the provision of bathrooms and the replacement of windows has been increased? Is it subhead B1?
The number of local authority houses without bathrooms stands at approximately 3,300 nationally. Six hundred tenants have indicated to the local authorities that they do not want bathrooms. A further 600 houses fall into the category of the remedial works scheme. This leaves a total of about 2,000. This year bathrooms will be provided in 700 of these. I am satisfied, given the present provision to local authorities from the Department, that we will meet the targets set well before the deadline of 1 January 1998. If one says that provision is being made only under the house building programme one can say that we will never reduce the waiting list, but that forms one part of the package only. It is not even half the total provision under all headings for social housing. In the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown constituency, other forms of provision will meet roughly half of the total waiting list in this year.
If the Minister said that local authorities were to spend 100 per cent of their rental income on management and maintenance of their housing stock, most local authorities would agree. Most of them are not doing that. About 50 per cent of all local authority housing built more than ten years is deficient, needing window and door replacement and other essential repairs to the structure. Is the Minister insisting on better standards of material and workmanship in the construction of local authority houses? Much of the deterioration is the result of the inferior quality of materials used in the last ten or 15 years. Perhaps he would elaborate on what he means by maintenance and management of local authority housing stock.
The local authorities should be spending the revenue from their housing on management and maintenance. That does not mean just maintaining the houses but also managing the estates and schemes. In the last year we have done much to improve the management and maintenance systems. It is not just a system of complaint and response but a planned system to maintain and manage local authority houses and get the tenants involved in partnership with the local authorities. The total rent from all tenants is about £80 million and that should be spent by local authorities on management and maintenance of houses. It is the right of the tenants that they should. As well as the rent, 40 per cent of the income from sales goes into that category. That is available to local authorities to maintain and manage their housing stock of approximately 100,000 units.
The Minister referred to the £3 million allocated in the budget for a window replacement programme which was very welcome, certainly in Dublin city. Dublin Corporation has submitted a detailed list of flats complexes throughout Dublin city where they hope to replace windows this year. When will the Minister be in a position to say how much of that £3 million will be made available to Dublin to implement that programme? Unless the money is made available soon there will not be time to complete the work. The corporation is ready. They have given their costings and their list of flats complexes.
Of the £3 million, I allocated £2.425 million to Dublin Corporation, £150,000 to Limerick Corporation and £424,000 to Cork Corporation. Dublin, being the largest place with the biggest problems, got the lion's share. All the local authorities agreed to match that money pound for pound. That means we will get £6 million worth of new windows for the £3 million provided by the Government. The local authorities are going ahead with the programme they have presented to us.
Is the Minister living in the real world? He stated that councils must put some of their own resources into the repair and upkeep of local authority houses. They can only do that if they increase their service charges. I know the Minister's colleague, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, always voted against that when he was on Galway Corporation. Does the Minister now want that? Should he not take into account the views of all the local authority members who know the real problems and know those repairs cannot be carried out? I read in yesterday's paper that the Minister for the Environment wants to prevent members of local authorities being Members of the Dáil. They have a very useful role to play in the Dáil by bringing back the real message from the local authorities. As a member of a local authority I can report back to the Dáil that money is not available. Often there is a three and four year waiting list for simple repairs to local authority housing. We simply cannot do the work because the money is not available.
Any local authority that has a three or four year waiting list for ordinary maintenance needs to improve and change its system of management and maintenance and the use of the resources available to it.
That is arrogant nonsense.
That is not nonsense, it is fact. Where the system has been changed there is a good delivery of services with the same resources.
Come to Dún Laoghaire and we will show you the facts. Do not lecture us about local authorities.
No local authority is entitled to hive off the money it gets from its tenants that is dedicated for maintenance and management of local authority housing. It is wrong for any local authority to use that resource for any other purpose. That resource amounts to £80 million a year and, if properly managed, a good service can be provided.
Is the Minister trying to tell us that the cost of installing a bathroom in some houses in Dublin is the same as the cost in other counties? He is not taking into account the design of the houses, the need, perhaps, to knock two houses together to provide modern facilities. When the Minister says that in an area where 1,200 are on a waiting list he is providing 125 houses this year and funds so that half of the remaining 1,000 can house themselves under the social housing scheme, I have to ask if he is living in the real world.
I refer the Deputy to my speech in the House last week on this matter. The bathroom programme is 75 per cent funded by my Department and 25 per cent funded by the local authorities. The remedial works scheme is 100 per cent funded by my Department, so the difference in cost between Dublin and elsewhere is irrelevant.
The Department is not allocating enough to meet targets.
We are allocating a greatly increased amount over any previously given.
It is not enough to meet targets.
The Minister states that the local authorities are legally obliged to spend the £80 million of rental income, and the other income given to them by the Department, on the upkeep of their housing stocks. Without naming local authorities, I can assure the Minister that that is not happening. The Minister is ultimately responsible. What steps is he taking to ensure that local authorities are spending their rental income on maintenance and care of their housing stock which is so badly run down?
We have issued a memorandum on the maintenance and management of local authority housing to all local authorities, under which they are obliged to draw up a new system of management and maintenance for local authority housing stock. Most local authorities have now complied with that. Some have produced excellent proposals while others are weaker than the best. There will be prizes allocated to the best by the Housing Institute in the near future. If the Deputy is saying — and he knows his own local authority best——
It is misleading and a misrepresentation of what I said to say that I named any local authority. The Minister knows as well as I do what is happening.
It is for the local authorities to manage and maintain their own housing stock and there is a resource there for them to do that.
Is the Minister in favour of a service charge?
