I am not aware of any court judgement that gives rise to consideration of an amendment of section 14 of the Housing (scellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 , which provides that a housing authority may refuse to allocate, or defer the allocation of, a dwelling to a person on specified grounds, including that the authority considers that the person is or has been engaged in anti-social behaviour or that an allocation to that person would not be in the interest of good estate management. Section 1 of the 1997 Act defines “anti-social behaviour” to include drug dealing and “estate management” to include the avoidance, prevention or abatement of anti-social behaviour.
The court case referred to relates to section 62 of the Housing Act 1966, which sets out the procedure for repossession of a dwelling by a housing authority. Dublin City Council has appealed the High Court ’s 2008 judgement in that case to the Supreme Court. I refer to the reply to Question No. 462 of 12 February 2013, which sets out the position regarding the 2012 Supreme Court judgement in 2 other cases relating to section 62 of the 1966 Act.