Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 11 Oct 2001

Vol. 542 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Local Authority Housing.

Mr. Hayes

For the past eight months I have attempted to find out from the Minister with responsibility for housing the number of local authority homes which have no central heating. Despite repeated parliamentary questions to the Minister of State, Deputy Molloy, it is clear that neither he nor his Department has any handle whatsoever on this issue.

Fuel poverty is a reality. From the information I have obtained from 28 of the 41 local authorities, covering 73,000 houses out of a possible 99,000 in total, it is now clear that a shocking number of low income families have no recourse to a permanent source of heat for the winter months. We have, in effect, 19th century Victorian housing conditions in 21st century Ireland. This is an absolute disgrace. There is no recognition at the heart of Government of the appalling failure on the part of local authorities to install heating systems in order that their tenants can be adequately protected.

The recent Fine Gael survey has lifted the lid on this problem and highlighted the scale of the scandal. The failure on the part of the State to introduce a national conversion programme can be seen in the percentage of local authorities which have failed to install central heating systems. How can council tenants be expected to pay rent when their landlord does not even provide central heating? As it would not happen in the private sector, why should we expect it to take place in the social or the local authority sector?

I ask the Government to make an urgent statement on its plans to rectify this injustice. At the very minimum, I expect the Minister with responsibility for housing, who I note is not present in the House, to ask each local authority to draw up plans to convert all houses to central heating within three years, and commit matching Government funds to ensure this programme is successful. Is it any surprise that against this background of squalor in modern Ireland the country's poor are more likely to suffer from asthma, other respiratory illnesses and generally poor health? The most effective way to improve the living conditions of poor people is to provide them with a decent form of central heating.

From the data provided, a clear picture emerges of huge variations among many councils. At approximately 18%, Dublin Corporation has the lowest percentage of homes without central heating of any local authority in the country, while my council, South Dublin County Council, has the highest, at approximately 80%. This year alone in south Dublin the State, through the local authority, will install a mere 60 central heating systems in homes when it is estimated that over 6,000 homes in the county have no central heating. Amazingly, some local authorities still consider a back-boiler or solid fuel as a proper heating system on a par with gas or electricity. However, the vast bulk of local authorities await much needed funds from central government to bring their houses up to an acceptable heating standard.

The Government should do three things. First, it should complete a national survey within six months of the number of homes without central heating. Second, each local authority must amend its existing rent differential scheme in order that families living in council houses with no central heating are charged a different rent than those which have central heating. I recommend that families without central heating should be charged one half of the rate they are currently paying. Third, the Government should accept a national policy that would convert all homes to central heating within three years. Additional resources would be required for this to be achieved. There is a substantial amount of money within the capital accounts of each of the 41 local authorities. As councils cannot spend money without the permission of the Department of the Environment and Local Government, I ask the Minister to sanction spending on these central heating projects.

We can solve this problem, but it requires political leadership and courage. One of the most important things the State can do for poor people is to ensure and guarantee decent standards of heating apply in their homes. This proposal is not over the top. It is modest, sensible and the correct position to take. How can the Government spend in excess of £500 million on building a national stadium when close to 50,000 low income families have no central heating? It is a disgrace and something the Government must address.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment and Local Government (Mr. D. Wallace)

I thank the Deputy for giving me the opportunity to set out the position on this matter. In 1994 local authorities were advised by my Department that full central heating should be provided in all new local authority dwellings. Since then 250,000 dwellings have been provided by them.

With regard to the older rented housing stock, it is established practice that the management, maintenance and improvement of such dwellings, including the installation of central heating, are the responsibility of the local authority. For this purpose authorities may use the full proceeds of their rental income and miscellaneous housing receipts, supplemented as necessary from their general revenue resources. The most recent statistics available from local authorities indicate that in 2000 they spent £146 million, or 185 million, on the management and maintenance of their rented stock.

While responsibility for management and maintenance rests with the local authority, my Department provides 100% capital funding for authorities under the remedial work schemes to assist them to carry out major works to designated housing estates, mainly pre-1960 and run-down urban estates. The installation of central heating may form part of the works undertaken in such cases. In addition to the funding available under the remedial work schemes, local authorities may seek my Department's approval of the use of their internal capital receipts which are surplus to the requirements of their local authority housing programme and remedial work schemes for improvement works, such as the provision of central heating, to their dwellings. A number of local authorities have used this approach to install central heating in their rented dwellings.

Earlier this year my Department sought, by way of questionnaire to local authorities, specific information on the number of local authority rented dwellings which have full, partial or no central heating. I understand the Deputy has already been supplied with the information derived from this questionnaire, which had been received in my Department on 13 August 2001. Efforts are being made to ensure the early submission of information still outstanding.

The Deputy will be aware from an examination of these returns that we do not yet have a definitive figure for the number of local authority dwellings lacking central heating. However, my Department estimates that out of a stock of 100,000 rented dwellings, perhaps up to 50,000 lack an adequate central heating system. The estimated cost, at current prices, of installing full central heating in these dwelling would be over 250 million.

I wish the Deputy to know that I would be concerned to ensure that, as far as possible, local authority tenants, especially vulnerable tenants, such as the elderly, should have central heating available to them. I will keep this issue under review and it is the reason my Department is actively working on it.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.15 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday, 16 October 2001.