Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 28 May 2024

Vol. 1054 No. 7

Local Authority Housing Maintenance and Repair: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Thomas Gould

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

— housing policy is not only about the number of homes delivered but the quality of those homes for tenants living in them;

— as the State's largest landlord, Government has a particular responsibility to ensure, through funding for local authorities, that social housing tenants live in good quality homes;

— investment in the maintenance, retrofitting and regeneration of social housing stock is too low;

— too many social housing tenants are living in poorly maintained homes; and

— in 2017, the European Committee of Social Rights deemed the State to be in breach of Article 16 of the European Social Charter and that "a significant stock of local authority housing is of substandard quality"; and

calls on the Government to:

— ensure that the social housing stock is maintained to the highest standard;

— create a dedicated annual fund for local authorities to supplement their existing response maintenance budgets;

— significantly increase the funding for retrofitting and regeneration to speed up the delivery of much needed refurbishment of older inner city flat complexes;

— significantly increase the funding for the social housing retrofitting programme to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy poverty;

— increase the funding for local authority adaptation grants for older persons and people with disabilities;

— on a phased basis, bring local authority tenancies under the remit of the Residential Tenancies Board, to give local authority tenants the same rights as social housing tenants in Approved Housing Body tenancies; and

— give active consideration to the recommendation contained in the Report of the Housing Commission, for the introduction of periodic stock condition surveys, with a particular focus on social housing.

I wish to share time with my colleagues.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Is that agreed? Agreed.

Deputy Thomas Gould

Where is the senior Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, for the discussion on this very important motion? The man who is responsible for housing in this State does not even have the decency to come to the House this evening. Absolute contempt is being shown to the hundreds of thousands of people who live in 176,000 social homes when the Minister does not have the decency to turn up. It is a scandal. People are living in cold, damp and draughty homes. Where is the Minister? He sometimes criticises Sinn Féin. We are here today with solutions for this Government to take on board for these people. They are real solutions for people. This motion is a plan that needs to be put in place.

I have with me a photograph of a house in Mayfield in Cork. There is a hole in the roof. This lady has been living in the house for 13 years since the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Government brought in the austerity measures. Her name is Georgina. She reported this to the city council and she has poured money into the house. She has painted it and cleaned it and has spent a lot of money on electricity and gas to try to keep her children warm. In her own words, she is crippled by the money she is spending to try to keep the house habitable. She is, frankly, depressed and feels she and her children are living in an unhealthy situation. That is a shocking indictment. The only thing Cork City Council has done is that, in 2019, it replaced a toilet that was broken while the walls around her are crumbling, with the plaster crumbling off the walls and mould growing on the surface, which is damp.

In a house in the Glen in Cork, there is no fascia and soffit. I have a photograph which shows the walls of the house in which the people are living. Would we expect anyone to live in a house like this, where the residents cannot even paint the walls because the plaster is coming off the walls? Look at the mould and dampness. That is what the ceilings are like. Ciaran and Mary told me they can see the water dripping down the walls of the house and the mould and dampness it is causing. Mary says she is constantly on antibiotics and steroids and she has no doubt her living conditions are affecting her health.

In Gurranabraher, where I live, a lady contacted me. There was a storm in 2021, three years ago, and there have been many storms since. Elizabeth and George told me that the council said their roof needed replacing given its condition after the storm. Three years later, no one has fixed it. Members can see the situation in this photograph I am holding. They can see the dirt and the mould. Elizabeth and George are painting it and cleaning it but it comes out through the walls again. The photograph shows their windowsills and plug sockets. If someone gets electrocuted or something unforgivable happens to someone, who will be responsible?

This is not just in Gurranabraher, the Glen or Mayfield and we have it in Fair Hill, Farranree, Blackpool, Shannon Street and right across Cork city. It is because of Government cutbacks after the financial crash of 2007, 2008 and 2009, when the Government stripped local authorities of workers and resources. It is damage this Government is continuing to do to ordinary families.

I will leave the House with this last point because my colleagues want to come in. If there is a leak in a house and it is repaired when it happens, it can be done reasonably cost-effectively but if that leak is left for three or four years, it causes extensive damage to the house because the cost of repair work doubles, triples or quadruples when the house has been left to rot. I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, takes back to the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, that it is unacceptable not to come to the House tonight to listen to solutions for the 176,000 council properties in this State.

Deputy Chris Andrews

The public housing stock is the forgotten element in the Government’s housing policy. Those living in the flats and houses owned by Dublin City Council already know that. I do not know a block of flats managed by Dublin City Council that does not have serious issues, whether public health issues, dampness, mould, neglect, leaks, floods, electrical faults or rats - the list goes on and on. There is no serious attempt by the Government to address the neglect of housing in inner-city communities. The Government regularly talks about energy efficiency and insulation, and it pats itself on the back for the different schemes it has in place.

Those living in social housing, however, are forgotten about. Just one example is the front doors of those living in the flats not being replaced until a new tenant moves in, while a tenant paying top rent has to put up with a door that would not keep a burglar out, never mind the cold or a draught. When it comes to the Government's schemes, it is one scheme for the rich and no scheme for those living in council-owned flats.

Those living in the inner city are like the forgotten people. Regeneration programmes take decades when they should take a few years. Andrew's Court and Glovers Court are prime examples of the slow regeneration process. In the meantime, these people are allowed to live in conditions that would not be acceptable in housing in private ownership. We need to see a real commitment to regeneration of council properties. We need also to see an increase in the funding for adaptation grants for those living in public housing. Many older people want to stay in their homes but cannot because of how long adaptations take.

Deputy Pauline Tully

Social housing repair and maintenance is probably the second most common issue I hear about in my constituency office next to those seeking assistance and advice in obtaining a local authority house in the first place. Many of the people who come in bring in photographs or send me videos or invite me out to their houses to see the conditions they are living in, which are absolutely dreadful. The houses are damp, there is mould on the walls and on the ceilings, there are holes in the walls and in the ceilings, there are single-glazed windows, there are draughts around the doors and there are holes in the roofs; it is dreadful. People are spending money they can ill afford to try to heat these homes and they are fighting a losing battle. They are buying products to clean off the mould and regularly replacing bedding and sometimes clothes because they are destroyed by mould.

There is also a significant cost to the health of the people living in these homes. I hear from parents whose children are constantly off school because they get colds or develop asthma or other respiratory conditions. Older people end up requiring hospital care because of the conditions they are living in.

Housing policy has to take greater consideration of the standard and quality of both new and existing homes. We concentrate a lot on the requirement for new homes, and that is absolutely important, but our existing housing stock has to be brought up to a proper standard. In 2017, Ireland was found to be in breach of the European Social Charter because of the substandard condition of many of our social houses. Local authority budgets were slashed during the economic crash and recruitment embargoes were introduced such that many local authorities are operating with a skeleton crew as their maintenance staff. Those budgets have not been restored. What I hear from the local authorities is that they are constantly trying to source electricians, plumbers and construction workers to do the vital work on their housing stock and they are competing with the private sector because those workers are also doing work in the private sector and it is impossible to get their work done in a timely fashion. Houses that are vacated are left sitting for months and sometimes years because they cannot get the workers to do the work that is required to reallocate those homes.

Successive alternative budgets by Sinn Féin have included measures aimed at addressing poor-quality housing and ensuring that new housing meets key standards. That needs to be taken into account by the Government. As well as building more homes, we need to bring our existing stock up to a proper standard. Directing scarce labour resources to the coldest homes is the best use of public money we can see. It is socially equitable and will show the best return in public investment in achieving climate targets.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

I cannot tell the Minister of State how many times I have been in the following situation: I knock on a door and say, "How are you? We are canvassing for Sinn Féin. What issues are important to you?" The person says, "Come in here 'til I show you." They bring me into the house, upstairs and into the kitchen and they show me black all along the walls. I can feel the cold. I touch the walls and I can feel the droplets from the damp into these 60- or 70-year-old houses that have scarcely had anything put into them by local councils over the intervening period. It is an absolute scandal, and the only reason it has not received more attention is that it is happening behind the doors of local authority houses. It does not get the attention it deserves.

We have cases where the quality of the housing is profoundly affecting the health of the tenants. There are children with asthma, pensioners with emphysema and COPD and things like that, and they are living in these desperate conditions. What is worse is that they contact the local council - it is true in my area but it is right across the State - and there is no prospect of improvement anytime soon. Bags of clothes and blankets and pillows are thrown out because they are up against the wall and the black and the damp rise against them. That should not be happening. It should not be happening in well-maintained homes. My God, if I were to bring a case like that to the RTB, it would not be long in telling me that this is unacceptable. It is just as unacceptable when it is happening and the State is the landlord.

Too many people are being absolutely neglected in this regard. It is a shame the Minister is not present. I understand he is busy, but this is one of the biggest issues in his portfolio. He is responsible for the welfare of tens of thousands of people as the State's landlord, and the conditions people are living in in council houses and council flats right across the State are not good enough.

Finally, I will flag a particular issue on the south side of Cork city relating to the balcony flats in the Togher area that have had very little maintenance done to them. They are subject to serious damp and cold. I refer to Cherry Tree Road, Clashduv Road, Togher Road, Sycamore Place, Hazel Road and Maple Place. It is very clear from the Housing Commission report that some of these flats need to be either completely overhauled or knocked and rebuilt. I call for the urgent regeneration of those apartment complexes.

Deputy Martin Kenny

This is an issue across the entire State. I am sure every one of us who is out canvassing or anywhere else will have seen the situation in local authority houses and other houses. There are many HAP tenants in privately-owned houses that are in very damp and very poor condition. The tenants have serious respiratory and other problems as a consequence. I recently visited a HAP tenant in a house in my constituency and brought with me a builder who knew the job and knew the situation. He told me the issue there was insulation. There was the cold coming in from the outside and there was the heat on the inside. What happens? Condensation. What happens when there is condensation? It creates dampness and the water flows down the wall. We see it everywhere, including in the black mould and the issues with rotten furniture.

I am aware of an incident that if it were not so serious would be amusing. A local authority staff member was called out to an elderly person who had their cabinets in their kitchen. The drawers were all broken, mainly because of the rot that was coming through because of the dampness. What did the builder do when they came out to fix it? They put three blank drawers on it to take the bad look off it and left the person with no drawers. If it were not so serious, it would be something that would be seen in a sketch on the television. These are the kinds of problems people are dealing with, but there are very serious issues out there as well.

I recently became aware of a situation where there was a couple in a house and the dampness was so bad and the problems were so bad that they were moving. They slept there only in the summertime. In the wintertime they went away to live with the man's mother because the house was so damp and so bad that they could not live in it. This has been reported continually to the local authority. The local authority comes out and looks at it and says, "We will try to do something about it", but nothing ever happens.

Another issue in the context of all that is that many of these households are told that if another local authority house comes up soon, they will be moved to it and then they can get in on a scheme. That is one of the problems we have. They have to wait until they have houses empty before they will do work on them, and that needs to change. That is a note the Minister of State needs to take. People need to get the work done on their houses while they are living in them, not wait until they move somewhere else or until they pass away.

My final point relates to insulation and the insulation grant. I came off the phone earlier this evening to a person who was looking to get the grant for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland to wrap their house. They were approved for the grant and thought everything was fine, but then, when they went to draw it down, they were told, "Sorry, you cannot get the grant because in 2010 a previous owner of the house got wall insulation whereby the walls were pumped". The grant they got at that time was €400. It would cost more to inspect the house than what they actually got in the grant, but now they are being turned down to get this grant, having spent the money wrapping their house with insulation. There needs to be a serious look at how all this is happening for people around the country because this Government is simply letting people live in poverty.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

In today's Ireland, hundreds of thousands of ordinary workers and families face an impossible situation. They are confronted with a housing crisis of unprecedented proportion. Successive Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Governments have utterly failed on housing. Bad planning, mismanagement and downright dereliction have resulted in one of the worst shortages of social and affordable housing in Europe. Where the stock does exist, very many residing there are living in substandard conditions. These are draughty, cold and overcrowded homes, with damp, mould and, in some cases, pests.

From health, social justice and plain decency perspectives, this is not good enough. Living in social housing should not mean living in homes that are harder or more expensive to heat. It should not mean living in an unsafe environment or doing damage to your or your children's health.

I have an example in my constituency of a family of four. There is a serious issue with their home. Due to a bonding issue, cracks are forming in the walls, paint, plaster and tiles are peeling away in several rooms and leaks are forming due to water escaping between bad or damaged tiling. They cannot so much as put a strip of sellotape on the wall before cracks start to form. This is a serious problem but when you take into account they have a child with a disability who cannot have a support bar placed in the bath, it becomes an even more dangerous situation. Despite being contacted several times, the local authority has yet to perform the necessary renovations.

This story makes clear that solving Ireland's housing crisis is not just about significantly increasing the housing stock but also about ensuring all homes, new and existing, are of a decent standard. Alongside increased funding for estate regeneration and response maintenance, Sinn Féin would prioritise the retrofitting of social authority homes in a way that works for people. That needs to happen. I urge the Minister of State to support the motion.

Deputy John Brady

The single largest landlord in the State is the Government. The least accountable landlord in the State is the Government. The worst offender in terms of ignoring its responsibilities to its tenants is the Government. Tens of thousands of tenants live in substandard and badly maintained accommodation across the State. In Wicklow, I deal with families and children weekly who are in damp, black-mould-infested houses. These children are regularly on antibiotics or steroids, often developing severe respiratory problems. This is not the fault of the local authorities. The responsibility lies squarely with the Government because the Government is not releasing sufficient funds to allow councils to carry out the badly needed maintenance and repairs.

If that is not bad enough, there are several thousand vacant and boarded-up council houses across the State. In my constituency of Wicklow, there are over 140 vacant and boarded-up homes, some of which have been boarded up for two to three years. To have one house boarded up in a housing crisis is a disgrace but to have 140 houses in Wicklow boarded up and vacant is a national scandal. The Government will not release the funds that would allow councils such as Wicklow to do the pre-letting works needed. That is despite repeated requests from the council to the Government. Councils do not have sufficient funds to do this themselves, nor do they possess the skilled workforce to carry out the work, as they did in the past, due to recruitment embargoes and austerity measures. They are now reliant on private contractors, which serves to push up the cost of the works.

The funding needs to be released, the houses need to be fit for purpose and the scheduled maintenance must be allowed to happen. There can be no boarded-up houses in the State, whether private or owned by the State in the trust of the local authorities. That is a scandal. We have people on lengthy waiting lists, sleeping in cars and in overcrowded box rooms in houses the length and breadth of the State. The Minister of State needs to release the funding to ensure work is carried out on these substandard properties and to ensure there are no boarded-up houses in the State.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Alan Dillon)

I thank the Deputies for their contributions. The Government is not opposing the motion but will make clear the concerns being raised are being addressed through the various stock improvement programmes run by the Department and the steps being taken to move from a response based on repair and maintenance as problems arise to a strategic and informed planned maintenance approach to the management and maintenance of local authority social housing stock.

I will make some general points. There are just over 146,000 local authority-owned social housing properties in the State, which have an estimated market value of over €25 billion. The proper management and maintenance of this valuable State asset is an important matter for the Department. Of equal importance is the requirement that local authority tenants occupying these properties and paying their weekly rents are living in homes which provide good comfort levels. In accordance with section 58 of the Housing Act 1966, local authorities are legally responsible for the management and maintenance of their housing stock, including pre-letting repairs and vacant properties, the implementation of a planned maintenance programme and carrying out of responsive repairs. Local authorities also have a legal obligation to ensure all their tenants' properties are compliant with the provisions of the Housing (Standards for Rental Houses) Regulations 2019. Local authority officials and elected members have an important role in making adequate budgetary provisions for housing repairs and cycle management, utilising the housing rental income available to them as part of the annual budgetary process.

Notwithstanding the legal obligations on local authorities to manage and maintain their own stock, the Department provides significant annual funding to local authorities for management and maintenance under a number of funding programmes. Nearly €200 million per annum of Exchequer funding is being provided to local authorities under the various stock improvement programmes.

Under the planned maintenance voids programme, the Department has supported local authorities in refurbishing vacant social homes and returning them to productive use. This funding programme was introduced in 2014 and to the start of 2024 returned 23,315 properties to use with funding of almost €336 million from the Department.

As we transition to planned maintenance, €5 million of the €31 million planned maintenance voids budget was ring-fenced to help support the completion of multi-annual stock condition surveys, the implementation of an asset management ICT system and an element of planned maintenance. The transition to planned maintenance as set out in Housing for All is continuing and it is envisaged the 2024 programme will be a continuation of the approach adopted by the Government since taking office. The Department will also look to ensure future funding streams align with this approach.

The ICT solution is being implemented nationally to manage the housing asset and the planned maintenance programme. It also provides the ability to carry out and gather the data and stock condition surveys and it is intended that the new asset management solution will be rolled out to all local authorities during 2024.

Under the energy efficiency retrofit programme and the shadow retrofit phase 1 and phase 2 programme run between 2013 and 2021, over 74,000 local authority dwellings were retrofitted with a total Exchequer spend of over €166 million. In 2021, we saw the introduction of a new and significantly enhanced ten-year deeper retrofit programme in response to a commitment made under the programme for Government. This called for the retrofit of 500,000 homes to a building energy rating, BER, of B2 by 2030, led by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, of which approximately 36,500 are expected to be local authority-owned homes. The programme requires local authorities to move to a level of retrofitting resulting in a post-works BER of B2 or cost-optimal, with eligible works under the programme to include attic insulation, cavity wall insulation or external wall insulation, windows and external doors, heat pumps and ancillary works. A budget of €65 million was allocated to local authorities in 2021, while 2022 saw an increase in funding with a budget of €85 million allocated to local authorities under the energy efficient retrofit programme to retrofit 2,400 properties.

In 2023, the budget for the programme was increased by €2 million, bringing it to €87 million to retrofit 2,400 properties, with a further increase of €3 million in 2024, bringing the budget available this year for the programme to €90 million. Since 2021, a 40% increase in funding has been made available for this very important work.

In relation to the energy performance of local authority stock, it should be borne in mind that 51%, or 74,000 of 146,000 properties, have had a shallow retrofit, that is, attic and cavity wall insulation, since 2013. This cost in the region of €166 million. Under the newly revised programme, as of the end of 2023, a total of 5,766 dwellings had had a retrofit of B2, with new windows, external doors and a heat pump. This is 15% of the overall target completed to the end of 2023. Approximately 25% of the local authority stock is already at target B2 level and will not need retrofitting, given that these properties were built since 2008 or had an overall upgrade deep retrofit under one of the major regeneration programmes in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Louth and Sligo. The ambition is to have more than 70% of the local authority housing stock with a BER of A or B by 2030.

Under the disabled persons grant scheme, the Department funds local authorities to carry out necessary adaptation works to local authority properties to cater for the needs of elderly and disabled tenants and families living in overcrowded conditions. Since 2014, the Department has provided funding of more than €147 million to local authorities to support them in this work. Budget 2024 provided €25 million to keep this important work going. Under the national regeneration programme referenced previously, the Department provides funding which targets the country's most disadvantaged communities, namely, those defined by the most extreme social exclusion, unemployment and anti-social behaviour. The programme ensures that the most disadvantaged communities are placed at the centre of all considerations surrounding physical, social and economic regeneration. The programme has delivered 740 new homes, with a further 188 currently on-site and 1,932 in the pre-construction phase across Limerick, Cork city, Dublin city, Dundalk and Tralee.

In Dublin city, large regeneration projects are under way to replace older flat complexes with high-density, high-standard, mixed-tenure homes. There are projects in O'Devaney Gardens, St. Teresa's Gardens and St. Michael's Estate in Inchicore. Last week, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, opened a new social housing complex at Dominick Street in the north inner city. There are regeneration programmes to refurbish and replace flats at St. Mary's, Dorset Street, Constitutional Hill, Matt Talbot Court, Glovers Court, Pearse House, St. Andrew's Court, Oliver Bond House and Dominick Street West.

The Cork north-west quarter regeneration programme is well under way. It includes the demolition of 450 houses and their replacement with 678 high-quality homes. To date, 121 new homes have been completed, with a further 103 homes to be completed later this year. In addition, the Limerick terminal upgrade programme, also funded under the regeneration programme, is close to completion and has resulted in the refurbishment of 1,580 existing social and private homes, achieving a B2 rating.

Under Housing for All, more than €70 million was invested in the national regeneration programme in 2022 and 2023. It is estimated that €50 million will be spent on improved regeneration projects throughout 2024.

Under the housing adaptation grant for older people and people with disabilities, the Government's main focus is seeking to spread the grant's benefits to further increasing this funding that is available at national level, including wider access to funding at a local level. In 2023, an initial Exchequer provision of €66.5 million combined with a Supplementary Estimate provision of an additional €6 million facilitated the payment of more than 13,000 grants. Housing for All commits to reviewing the housing adaptation grant scheme for private dwellings. A report on this review has been prepared by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which is currently being reviewed and considered by the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Members would appreciate receiving copies of the Minister of State's speech.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh

It is a pity I did not have a copy his statement. He referred to a figure of €200 million. Considering there are 146,000 social housing units, that amounts to only €1,300 per unit. The Government will not get much bang for that buck. Considering the position of a lot of people who are living in flat complexes in Dublin city or other houses that are badly built or not fit for purpose, there is a lot more.

The Minister of State finished by referring to regeneration projects and mentioned St. Michael's Estate. It took more than 20 years to get to where we are, with a totally derelict site. No building work has started other than a senior citizens' block which is to the side and is not part of the main complex. The same is true of St. Teresa's Gardens. The main part is still there but there is no community there because the communities were taken out. I am on the regeneration board of Dolphin House. How many master plans do they have to go through before any further work will happen there? There is none. There is no plan. They are being told, after 20 years, that they need to wait another ten years. That means another ten years of living in conditions that are not fit for purpose. It means people living in dampness and their children suffering the consequences of that dampness. It means that people's doors are ill fitting because successive Governments have screwed the council in this city and elsewhere by not providing them with proper maintenance budgets. They try to do as much as they can with the small budgets they have but they cannot fix all the problems because they do not have the money. Every year, people on the list for maintenance are lucky if they get it done in the first couple of months. After that, the budget is gone. It is only once in a while that can be stretched.

These are people we are talking about. They are paying rent and deserve good-quality homes. It is not that they are living off the backs of everybody else. These are workers, human beings who do not deserve to have chest infections every week or to have to bring their children to the children's hospital every second week. They are people who deserve to have draught-free homes. I could go on and on. It is not good enough. It has not been good enough and there has never been a proper approach to it by Governments.

Deputy Mairéad Farrell

These are the words of a county council tenant:

The overflow in our attic was fitted incorrectly, so eventually it burst and came down through the lights in my bathroom and down through the ceiling into the sitting room and kitchen. There is water damage in the ceilings, both upstairs and downstairs. The extractor fan is hanging by one screw.

These are the words of a city council tenant:

The leaks have damaged a lot of my belongings. Afraid the ceilings are going to cave in as they are all cracked, radiator is all blue, sink is hanging on by a thread, window in front room won't close properly, bad draught on my neck, no shower to wash ourselves.

These are responses I received from people in Galway who completed a housing maintenance survey, which I conducted. It is so clear from speaking to people across Galway that many are living in substandard accommodation. The reality is that this has a serious impact on their health. The results of this survey are alarming because they show, once again, how dysfunctional our housing system is. Nearly 90% of respondents said that they are currently dealing with problems in their homes. As we know, the most common problems are mould, dampness and window issues. Problems with external doors, leaks and heating issues are also extremely common. These problems have a huge impact on the people who live in these houses. Mould has serious implications in terms of breathing, coughs and chest infections. Many parents tell me that they are constantly bringing their children to the GP with recurring chest infections or coughs that they cannot get rid of. They also tell of their clothes stinking of mould, making them unwearable. It is really having an impact on people's physical and mental health. It is the State that is the landlord in this case. What is really concerning is that one third of the people who completed the survey said that no one has come to check their properties. Local authorities have to make housing maintenance an absolute priority for the health and safety of Galwegians who are renting.

We need action to ensure minimum standards in rental accommodation are met, particularly in State-owned accommodation because this is where we can act. We need investment in our housing maintenance teams. We need to look at the State as the employer that it is and bring on apprentices to help in this and meet our needs and the needs of the people of Galway.

Deputy Seán Crowe

As previous speakers said, ending the housing crisis is about not just building new homes but also maintaining the housing stock we have. Every Deputy will give examples of what is happening in his or her constituency. We heard about black mould, which is common enough. We tried to get our local authority to use the county architect scheme to get people to come together and bring in their expertise. Dampness can be created when houses are being built but overcrowding is also a reason for black mould. We are not doing enough. That is the key message we are giving tonight.

I will give one example that relates to a vacant home. On 1 September 2001, there was a fire in Tallaght where a young 12-year-old child was murdered. The local authority gave a commitment afterwards that it would refurbish a shop unit and turn it into houses. That was 23 years ago and work on those houses has still not begun. There is talk of naming a couple of buildings after the child who died but this occurred 23 years ago. That is just one example of what is going on.

I will also give an example of the challenges faced by people who have medical issues. Sean Byrne, a friend of mine who was involved in estate management, was looking for a ramp to be put into his house, which is a simple thing. This man had worked with the council for about 30 years in estate management helping on a voluntary basis, yet he could not get a ramp put outside his house. To make a long story short, he died before he could get it done. There are many cases like that of Sean Byrne. I know of another man in a similar situation. He needs to get his bathroom moved to get a shower unit installed but he cannot get it done. We need to do more. That is what the motion is about.

Deputy Johnny Mythen

We all know and agree there is not enough affordable and social housing available for councils to allocate. However, we also know there are councils across the entire country that are years behind on the maintenance and upkeep of their housing stock. The day-to-day maintenance of social housing is primarily funded by the rents paid by tenants. However, when it comes to county council budgets for planning for maintenance, there are huge shortfalls. Time and again, renters are getting similar responses from county councils. I will quote correspondence from some recent cases. A county council stated that, having examined the matter, "Housing maintenance are not in a position to consider replacing the doors as currently there is no Planned Maintenance budget." A second reply states that when planned maintenance funding is available, a certain housing estate, which is mentioned, "will be considered". Residents of estates such as Father Murphy Park and Gimont in Enniscorthy and the Windmill Hills estate in Wexford town are in desperate need of replacement windows and doors.

The messaging we hear every day is that we must reduce our carbon footprint and be more energy efficient, yet councils are short of inspectors and way behind on retrofitting homes where real meaningful energy poverty can be tackled. There is a responsibility on the State to ensure maintenance budgets are supplemented to enable them to carry out these essential works. The Government must take heed. If there is no sea change in the funding model for councils across the country, including Wexford County Council, communities will continue to be neglected, resulting in them becoming areas of deprivation, and we will see an increase in energy and fuel poverty. What is needed is the restoration of social and affordable housing at a rate of approximately 50,000 units per year. Local authority grants for people with disabilities must be increased and reflect current inflationary prices. The maximum grant stands at just €30,000. Retrofitting and refurbishment grants must be simplified and made more attractive to regenerate and reinvigorate our small towns and villages, especially over shops and commercial premises. Lastly, more inspectors are needed to carry out inspections and bring local authority housing stock back into decent condition under building construction standards and introduce periodic stock surveys, as recommended in the Housing Commission report.

Deputy Brendan Howlin

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. The Labour Party welcomes it. There is not a word in it that we would have any reservations about supporting. All the asks set out are reasonable and sensible and I see no reason the Government would not accept and implement it.

Housing, as Deputy Bacik has said repeatedly, is the civil rights issue of our time. It affects every family and individual. It is the single greatest issue holding us back from the real progress this country is capable of achieving. It is the reason our schools cannot fill teaching posts, our hospitals are understaffed and so many of our young people are looking abroad because they cannot find affordable accommodation at home. Day after day, week after week, all of us are getting emails and have people calling to our offices talking about the housing crisis. Things are truly desperate.

This is obviously a huge topic. It has many facets. We have concentrated on the supply issue, correctly because of the lack of supply. However, I welcome the opportunity this motion presents to look at housing in the broader context, that is, particularly tonight, the issue of social housing maintenance. We have not discussed it very often in this House. Often, if we do touch upon it, it is in a tangential way. Tonight we have the opportunity. This is a very significant issue. State-owned housing should be the standard bearer, a national exemplar, of the quality of housing we present. Many of the new estates that are being opened now are of that standard. Wexford County Council has opened a number of nearly zero energy building, NZEB, houses, which are fantastic, but we have a significant stock of houses that require significant investment. Local authority tenants required to pay differential rents are looking at the most recent allocations and saying "By God, I wish we could live in a house like that". They would like to live in a house that is warm and comfortable but for many council tenants across the country, this is not the case. We have issues of damp, mould, drafts and leaking drains. We have inadequate maintenance, leaking roofs and an endless wait for the type of refurbishment and repairs that are so urgently required.

It is not the fault of local authorities. I know from talking to my local authority and my party's councillors across the country that it is an issue of resourcing. Far too often, council tenants are told their requirements have been approved and the improvements are necessary but that the resources are not available to do the work. This is a fundamental issue. The advent of the so-called Celtic tiger period, during which Bertie had two terms as Taoiseach, saw the virtual dismantling of the excellent housing departments that used to exist in local authorities across the country. Instead, a dependence was created on the private sector. We could lease back or purchase houses from the endless new estates, some of very dubious quality, that were being built at the time. The old idea was to have a housing department. We had excellent ones in County Wexford which had a five-year rolling programme identifying need, purchasing and servicing the land and building the houses, so there would be a constant flow of appropriate housing coming on stream. All of that was dismantled in the Celtic tiger period. When we inherited a broken economy and a collapsed construction industry, I tried to rebuild that system as soon as we got a few bob back. One of the first things I was asked to do was to provide more than 400 additional staff in the housing departments across the country to start rebuilding that again.

I hope, from this motion, that there will be a sense that we can rebuild that sort of energy within our housing departments and that they will be resourced to provide forward planning and identify and service land. This would ensure that five years from now, we will know where the next array of houses will be and how many there will be to meet need. They would constantly look at demographics to ensure the right types of houses are being built where they are needed.

We also need to develop adequate housing maintenance skills. We need more apprentices and to ensure that they are not being bought in but are intrinsically part of the workforce of the local authority, to have a team of permanent expert rebuilders, refurbishers, plumbers and masons - all the skill sets needed to ensure the quality of housing is maintained. Equally important is that if we had that capacity, we could bring in the vacant properties. We are all scandalised looking at the vacant properties. People on the street are homeless and we look at empty properties, sometimes empty for years. They should be compulsorily purchased. We should strengthen the law in that regard and have the capacity in the council to bring them back into public use at a fast pace. An allied issue is dereliction, which is a blight on our towns and villages. It needs to be addressed. I hope the Minister of State will reference that issue when he speaks later in this debate.

Most local authority tenants are extremely proud of their homes and communities and maintain them to an extraordinarily high standard. There is the occasional tenant who does not maintain the house, causes dereliction and brings down the quality of life for all their neighbours. We need to strengthen the capacity of local authority housing departments to have trained professionals to deal with those people. Some have very serious problems; sometimes it is addiction and sometimes mental health issues. We need the capacity to deal with those individuals who do not maintain their homes. We see it, in a beautiful estate - a wreckage of a garden in the middle of it, to the shame, annoyance and abuse, in terms of quality of life, of their neighbours. I hope the Minister of State will also take note of that.

A retrofit programme is under way for local authority houses - the warmer homes scheme and other schemes which are applicable across the country. Not all homes are capable of being retrofitted completely. I spoke to a specialist in the area who told me it would be cheaper to knock down the house and start again, in some instances, than to try to properly retrofit it. We must ensure this can be done in a reasonable timeframe. I have talked to several elderly people on the doors in the past few weeks who were told they would get around to retrofitting their homes but it would be a year away. A year is very important in that person's life. We need to put the resources in, including recruitment of skilled personnel, to ensure that can be shortened. We also need proper adaptation of houses for an ageing population. A previous speaker talked about the difficulty getting a ramp - for God's sake - and putting in proper supports in the house, in walking areas, supports in the bathroom, walk-in showers and so on. That should be part of the norm.

I will conclude on the issue of downsizing. There are lots of people in large houses they cannot maintain or heat and who want a comfortable, smaller house but it is not available in their areas. I hope the Minister of State will address that issue too, to ensure larger houses are utilised in an appropriate way for larger numbers of people. It is not that anybody should be forced out of their house in any circumstances but that those who want to downsize should have the opportunity of not having to move out of their communities. That means having smaller, comfortable accommodation available to them close at hand. This is an important motion. There are many aspects to it. I hope it will get the appropriate attention from the Government and be implemented. That would transform the quality of life for many of our people.

Debate adjourned.