Vol. 432 No. 7
8 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for the Environment if his Department is considering any proposal to offer to sell the State's housing stock to institutional investors, as was reported in a newspaper (details supplied) on 8 June 1993; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
71 Mrs. Doyle asked the Minister for the Environment the plans, if any, he has to sell off local authority housing stock to institutional investors; and if he will make a statement in response to the recent comment on this proposal by the Minister of State at his Department, Deputy Emmet Stagg.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 71 together.
There is no legislative authority for the sale of local authority dwellings to institutional investors and I have no plans to introduce such legislation.
Will the Minister of State deny the report which appeared in The Irish Times on 8 June to which my question refers? Was that report inaccurate? In addition to there being no plans for legislation are there any plans to sell local authority houses to financial institutions?
I am aware of the report referred to and I can assure the Deputy that it was printed without my knowledge or my having been contacted. I am surprised at such a journalistic lapse in a paper a copy of which I receive each day.
In regard to the sale of local authority houses, under section 90 of the Housing Act, 1966 as substituted by section 26 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992, local authorities are authorised to sell dwellings as follows: (1) where the dwelling is occupied by a tenant, it can be sold to the tenant in accordance with the purchase scheme adopted by the authority, in effect, a tenant purchase scheme; (2) to another housing authority or to a body standing approved of for the purposes of section 6 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1992 i.e. a voluntary or non-profit housing body, and (3) a house can be sold, also when the dwelling is not occupied by a tenant, to any person, including another housing authority. Legislation does not provide authority for the sale of local authority dwellings to institutional investors on the lines mentioned in the question.
The Deputy asked if we intended to sell council houses to institutional investors. We have no intention or authority to do so. We intend to introduce shortly a new purchase scheme to enable tenants buy their local authority dwellings. The scheme will be on-going and no fixed closing date will apply to it. Therefore, tenants can make applications to purchase if and when their circumstances permit.
With regard to the tenant purchase scheme, will the Minister tell us when the long promised scheme will be announced and come into effect as there are many tenants awaiting it? We have heard the word "shortly" for a long time and I would like to get an exact date. With regard to the power that exists to sell local authority houses to voluntary bodies and other housing authorities, does the Minister intend to sell local authority houses to these bodies who might in turn obtain the funds from financial institutions?
To answer the second part of the Deputy's question, I have no intention or authority to take any such action. With regard to the long promised purchase scheme, I have been only a short time in office and we have not had a purchase scheme since 1988. We are at an advanced stage of finalising the new purchase scheme.
The Minister's predecessor promised it before him.
It is close to finalisation and will be announced in detail and circulated to local authorities before the end of this Dáil term.
If I understood the Minister's response to these questions correctly, he said that at no stage did he state or, by way of implication indicate, that his policy was to sell State housing stock to institutional investors. Can he state categorically that he never at any stage made any statement that could have been interpreted as such? Also, lest my concerns are misplaced about the right wing shift of the Minister's philosophy——
I would have a long way to go before I got to where the Deputy is.
——can he confirm to the House that his views, also reported in the national press, to privatise maintenance of the Dublin local authority housing stock were also misquoted or were never uttered?
We are straying very much from the subject matter of this question.
The Minister has strayed very much from his original philosophy.
I wish to assure the House, and particularly Fine Gael Members, that I have not strayed from the philosophy I have always held and will continue to hold. It is not a matter of my policy being misinterpreted. I have no responsibility for the article in the newspaper. I understand the journalists concerned attempted to contact me, failed to do so but went ahead with the article on the basis of some rumour, probably emanating from the opposite side of the House, given what has been said to me today.
Would the Minister think so?
I am not responsible for misinterpretations of what I said.
Be sure to spread the smear widely; smear enough of us.
If the Deputy wishes to put down a question regarding maintenance and management I would be delighted to have the opportunity to deal with that subject in detail.
In view of the fact that this article, which the Minister has attacked mentioning the name of the paper, referred also to a new purchase scheme, which the Minister today accepts was a correct interpretation, and referred also to a new improvement grant scheme, which apparently is correct, how could this journalist have been so silly as to get the third part of the story wrong in relation to institutional investors? Two or three weeks ago I correctly described the Minister, who has now mentioned a new purchase scheme, as the largest slum landlord in the country because of the situation in regard to Dublin Corporation, and I should like to know if he will continue to sell off houses and so intensify that situation?
There is a question on the Order Paper today concerning an improvement grants scheme and I have addressed the question of the purchase scheme raised by Deputy Gilmore. With regard to the Deputy's last point, the purchase scheme will not be operated by me. I am the Minister responsible for housing but I am not the owner of any houses.
The Minister presides over them.
The scheme will be a matter for the local authorities. They are the owners of the houses, not the Minister or the Department.
The Minister has washed his hands of the problem.
The Deputy is drawing in a red herring by suggesting that the Department is a slum landlord.
If the Minister authorises the sale, surely he is the landlord.
Let us not have a shouting match.
A total of £80 million was spent by local authorities last year on the maintenance and management of local authority houses and we obtained a poor result for that. Arising from that, and the powers under the 1992 Act, we have sent a memorandum to the local authorities on the maintenance and management systems that should be put in place. We are requesting that that be done as quickly as possible. The purchase scheme is at an advanced stage of preparation and will be announced before the end of this Dáil term.
I share the Minister's view in relation to the maintenance of local authority dwellings. In regard to the new purchase scheme will the Minister of State ensure that all purchasers take out a mortgage protection policy? This was not the case in the past and I am currently dealing with a widow who did not have such a policy and who will be forced to revert to renting the house even though the family have been buying it for the past 12 years. The Minister of State should ensure that all such purchasers have such a policy as they would be required to if they were buying a house in the private sector.
May I ask the Minister why he did not take an opportunity under the corrections and clarifications section of The Irish Times to correct the false story put out in relation to private investors? Why did the efficient press officer at the Department of the Environment not write a letter to The Irish Times contradicting the false story?
Opposition Deputies seem to be particularly worried about the fact that something was printed that was not entirely accurate. If we were to devote our time to correcting such matters our staff would be fully tied up with time for nothing else. It would be very bad use of staff.
That says very little for the Minister's view of the print media.
On the valid point made by the Deputy about a mortgage protection policy, that matter will be examined. The suggestion has merit but as the detail of the scheme has not been finalised yet I do not know whether that matter will be included.
I find it extraordinary that the Minister did not take the opportunity to correct a story that he believes was so inaccurate.
Ceist, le do thoil.
I am worn out reading press releases from the Minister.
I am glad the Deputy reads them.
And he does not live anywhere near Kildare.
Is it not the case that the Minister, on publicly testing out the idea of selling off local authority houses, found it attracted so much odium that he is now running from it under the guise that the press got it wrong?
When the purchase scheme comes into operation the Deputy will better understand how the correspondent from The Irish Times misinterpreted the reality.
