Select Committee on Finance and General Affairs debate -
Tuesday, 8 Apr 1997

SECTION 16.

Mr. N. Ahern

I move amendment No. 26:

In page 10, lines 24 and 25, to delete "exceed the amount of the weekly rent payable" and substitute "be less than the amount of the weekly rent payable plus £1".

The Bill provides that unpaid rent arrears may be deducted from social welfare entitlements, provided the amount to be deducted is no greater than the rent. Suppose a tenant is £10,000 in arrears and the local authority seeks to have the amount deducted on a weekly basis from his social welfare entitlements, even if, say, £10 per week was deducted for the next ten years there would still be arrears outstanding. In view of this, the amount to be deducted should be a minimum of the weekly rent plus £1.

Ms McManus

I cannot accept the amendment. The purpose of this provision is to ensure that the rent is paid. No local authority should allow tenants to run up arrears of £10,000.

Mr. N. Ahern

That is beside the point.

Ms McManus

The purpose of this provision is to ensure that the rent is paid and to deal with the question of eviction because of arrears. It addresses the problem and is manageable. It ensures that people have enough to live on if they are on very low incomes. However, we cannot include arrears in that figure.

Mr. N. Ahern

That is illogical. We should not be seen to ignore the arrears. It is not unreasonable to provide for the repayment of part of them.

Ms McManus

The local authorities do not have to ignore arrears; they can deal with them as outstanding debts. We are providing for an arrangement where the tenant will have to pay rent, if necessary by deduction.

Mr. N. Ahern

The amendment is sound and the provision in the Bill is stupid. Will the Minister of State reconsider matters?

Amendment put and declared lost.

Section 15, as amended, agreed to.

Sections 16 and 17 agreed to.

NEW SECTION.

Ms McManus

I move amendment No. 27:

In page 10, before section 18, to insert the following new section:

18. — Where there is no tenancy in a dwelling, any payment offered to or accepted by a housing authority or other person acting in the capacity of a landlord shall not be deemed to create or have created a tenancy in the dwelling.".

Amendment agreed to.

Chairman

Acceptance of this amendment involves the deletion of section 18 of the Bill.

Section 18 deleted.