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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Vol. 1023 No. 1

Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate

Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to come back to this important subject as the third national strategy is prepared and published. I want to use this opportunity to recognise why we are doing this and to keep the awareness of why we are doing this at the forefront of our minds.

I acknowledge the presence of Deputy David Stanton, who, when he was with the Department of Justice, brought through the groundbreaking legislation on coercive control and who has chaired the interdepartmental group on gender violence for some time. I also acknowledge Deputy Alan Farrell, who has done huge advocacy to raise awareness around how women feel at risk in various different situations, including while on public transport and while out and about. Deputy Farrell has been a huge advocate and champion in trying to advance the cause against sexual and gender-based violence.

Although we have had the very serious outpouring of care in the response after the death of Ashling Murphy, it is important that we remember all of the women who have died as a consequence of femicide. The Ceann Comhairle will be aware that we are trying to do this throughout the year to remember the women at different stages. I will take the opportunity now to read into the record of the House the names of the women who died in the months of May and June since 1996. In the month of May there were 21 women: Angela Collins, Kitty Gubbins, Georgina O'Donnell, Helen Donegan, Martina Halligan, Donna Cleary, Patti Bainbridge, Mairéad Moran, Niamh Murphy, Marie Hennessy, Breda Cummins, Rita Apine, Anastasia Kriégel, Mary Ryan, Lorraine Crowley, Georgina Eager, Siobhan Stapleton, Bente Carroll, Patricia Murphy, Patricia O’Connor, and Giedre Raguckaite. In the month of June there were 12 women: Mandy Wong, Sinead Kelly, Gertrude Dolan, Veronica Guerin, Karen Guinee, Sara Neligan, Tracey O'Brien, Jolanta Lubiene, Lynn Cassidy, Antra Ozolina, Skaidrite Valdgeima, and Valerie French Kilroy. These names are from the Women's Aid Femicide Watch, which was published in March 2022.

I shall now outline some of the figures: 249 women have died violently between 1996 and 2022; 18 children have died alongside their mothers; 158 of the women died in their own homes; 196 cases have been resolved; in the 87% of cases that have been resolved, the women were killed by a man known to them; 13% of the women were killed by a stranger; and one in two victims were killed by a current or former male intimate partner, which is 55% of the resolved cases. It can, of course, be a woman of any age but women under the age of 35 make up 50% of the cases in Ireland. In almost all murder-suicide cases, which is 22 out of the 23, the killer was the woman's partner.

The reading of the women's names into the record is more important than I had realised. I was contacted by a woman last week who reminded me about one of the women, whose name I read out previously, who had died in 2004. They had known each other and the woman rang to tell me the story of how she had pleaded with the woman not go back to that house and how she felt it was only going to end one way. She spoke of how it matters to people, to the friends of the victims, to their families, to the nieces and nephews, to the children and to the brothers and sisters of victims that we remember these women and that we remember why we are doing the work on the third strategy. They were voiceless in death. Unless we take this time - and I am glad of these few minutes - to acknowledge them here they will remain voiceless and their experience will remain voiceless. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to do it this evening.

I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising this matter. You do us all a service by naming the women involved. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, for being here to take this matter.

I thank the Deputy for reading those names into the record of the House. It is important to remember that these were women with families, and their lives were cut short tragically and violently. It is very important that we acknowledge and remember them. I thank the Deputy for doing that. I also acknowledge our colleagues Deputies Stanton and Alan Farrell in the work they have done around coercive control and attacking gender-based violence. It is very important that collectively we work collaboratively across the House in tackling this issue.

This strategy will be the most ambitious to date and will be structured around the four pillars or goals of the Istanbul Convention, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and co-ordinated policies. It will set an overall goal of zero tolerance in our society for DSGBV. The strategy has been developed in partnership with the sector to ensure it is targeted, comprehensive and effective in achieving all of the goals set out. Earlier this year, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, briefed those working in the sector on the progress of the strategy and, as part of that ongoing consultation, a wider public consultation run by the Department of Justice concluded in March. Officials in that Department are currently working to finalise the strategy for submission to Government in light of submissions received in this final consultative phase.

To deliver on the high ambition of the strategy, it will be accompanied by a detailed action plan for the rest of this year and next. This action plan will ensure our work is targeted, precise and deliverable. It will set out how each of the aims will be achieved, which Departments and agencies are responsible for them, and the timeframe for delivery. The Minister intends to bring both the finalised strategy and the action plan to Government in the coming weeks, well before the summer recess, and they will be published as soon as possible thereafter. I commend the Minister for her work. She is taking this issue very seriously, to the point of acting with determination and a sense of urgency, which we all want over the next number of years and beyond.

Femicide is the most extreme end of gender and sexual violence. However, it is part of a bigger problem and what leads to it is a cultural acceptance of entry-level harassment and misogyny, which Deputy Alan Farrell called out in a very public way in his experience on public transport. It is the controlling behaviours that have been exhibited, which Deputy Stanton tried to address through his legislation on coercive control. People said there was no point, that one could not prosecute a pattern, an idea or a set of behaviours, but that was shown to be wrong. I commend the Garda for following up and prosecuting what people said could not be prosecuted, that is, that controlling and manipulative set of behaviours.

So much of this issue is rooted in education. The Joint Committee on Gender Equality is working away every Thursday morning down in the committee rooms. We have heard from the secondary school students' unions, Safe Ireland and academics. It does not matter who we speak to; it all comes back to education. We need fact-based and consent-based education that respects personhood from the earliest age and is open and transparent about sexuality, facts and equality. Unless every child in Ireland receives this appropriate education, we do not have a chance. When Deputies in this House drop their kids at school they might look around the playground and wonder which of these children will suffer this fate in 20, 25 or 30 years, or any other form of misogyny or harassment, and which of them will be the perpetrators. What are we going to do today and over the next five and ten years that is different from the education I got, or the education other Deputies got 20, 30 or 40 years ago? What are we doing to make it radically different and give us some chance of delivering a better outcome for those children 20 or 25 years from now? Objective education for all children is the only hope of a solution.

The Deputy is absolutely right. Fear of harassment and violence should never be normalised, be it in the home or as people go about their daily life. The prioritisation of this hugely important work is evident in the policy and legislative developments implemented by this Government, as well as those currently being progressed. It is also evidenced by the increased budget allocations that have been secured this year in order to address such heinous and unacceptable behaviour. That said, we know we need to achieve a lot more. We need to increase the provision of refuges and have committed to ensuring that everyone who needs a refuge space will have access to one. As part of its work to finalise the new strategy, the Department of Justice is examining how to advance the recommendations made in the Tusla accommodation review, on both improving the delivery of these spaces and how quickly they are delivered.

The Deputy is correct about education. It is a vital part of this issue. Education must begin in our schools and preschools, in primary and secondary schools and right throughout our education curriculum, in order to ensure girls and women feel safe in their communities. That point is very important. The strategy the Minister is developing will take that whole-of-government approach, including to education. It is vitally important that it does that. There is no doubt that we can break this cycle, collectively, and that is something we are committed to doing. There is a huge responsibility on the education system to try to deliver that. We want to achieve that zero tolerance the Minister has referred to. I commend the Deputy for raising this issue, and not just this evening. She has campaigned and advocated continuously for a complete culture change in how women and girls are treated in our society.

Legislative Programme

It is with deep regret that I raise this issue again, along with my colleague, Deputy Fitzmaurice. We raised it some time ago and were given assurances that work was ongoing on the matter. I then submitted a parliamentary question on it. To say the reply was opaque and less than satisfactory would be putting it mildly. We are talking about a Bill that had passed the Dáil and the Seanad, where some amendments were made, and fell because an election was called in the beginning of 2020. This is basically an Aladdin's lamp Bill. The issue was that the bogs that were degraded and had been cut were being swapped for pristine bogs that would be designated as natural heritage areas, NHAs. Unlike Aladdin's lamp, this really was new for old and there was no genie one had to rub to find the old one was better.

It is hard to understand how it has taken the Department three years to come to this point - or not come to it, which is the issue - and we still have not had sight of a recommitted Bill. Either the amendments from the Seanad were satisfactory or they were not. One would think that if they were not satisfactory, the Government would have gone back to the original Bill passed by Dáil Éireann and recommitted that to the Dáil or introduced a new Bill, the wildlife (amendment) Bill 2022. We need a certain date by which this Bill will be introduced into the Dáil so it can get swift passage through and become law, as was promised before the previous Government was formed back in 2016.

I concur with what Deputy Ó Cuív has said. We brought this issue up in the Dáil previously. We had a meeting with Department officials on it and I thank the Minister of State for that. On that day, we were told the Bill was basically going to be brought back or rewritten. There were obstacles but the officials said they had found ways around them and we were going to have it. That was my understanding. It was going to be gone through before the summer recess. I have looked at schedules and maybe I have missed something but I cannot see it there. The Government does not realise the torture this is causing. There are people who want to plant land and cannot because this Bill is held up. There are people who want to build a house and cannot because the very minute a council looks at the application, the area is put down as an NHA and the council walks away. That is what they do. When the forestry service gets something that is in a designated area, it is bye-bye. That is the seriousness of it. With the planting situation at the moment, we have hit 50%. When you have people willing to do things, you need to work with them. I have been involved in all of this down through the years. As Deputy Ó Cuív pointed out, this was not done by ordinary people.

It was ecologists and scientists who went out and checked the different bogs. It is not only bogs. There is one place I know where a person's shed, where the cows are milked, is within it. Those are the facts in County Leitrim, on the border of Roscommon, and it is as fine a field as has ever been seen. It should never have been put in but it was put in and, in fairness, the National Parks and Wildlife Service was going to rectify that. What it did was grade it all, and we were putting away what was not required and was of no use. The service was going to give compensation and so on.

I thank the Deputy.

What is happening? Will we have the Bill back before the summer recess in order that these people can be taken out of their misery?

I apologise to both Deputies because I did not expect to be back here again to discuss this. I thought we would have advanced the Bill but it has been complex. The principal purpose of the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2016, as initiated, was to provide for the review of raised bog habitats, the making, amendment and revocation of natural heritage area orders and, for those purposes, the amendment of the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000.

As the Deputies will be aware, the Bill was originally presented to Dáil Éireann. There was a very constructive debate on the Bill in both Houses, including in respect of extending its scope to provide for a review of blanket bog natural heritage areas, and later in the Seanad in respect of placing a duty on public bodies to promote the conservation of biodiversity. The Bill had completed all Stages in the Dáil and the Seanad and had been returned to the Dáil for consideration of the various amendments made by the Seanad, for what is colloquially known as the cream list stage, when the Bill lapsed with the dissolution of the Thirty-second Dáil on 14 January 2020.

Standing Order 227 provides that where a Bill passed by the Dáil is subsequently amended and passed by the Seanad, those amendments are then returned to the Dáil for its consideration. Standing Order 228 provides that the Dáil may accept, amend or reject the Seanad amendments. Amendments in the Dáil to the Seanad's amendments may be moved only where they are "consequential upon the acceptance, amendment or rejection of a Seanad amendment". There is no mechanism under Standing Orders to move amendments to a Bill returned to the Dáil under Standing Order 227, other than as set out in Standing Order 228.

As discussed when I met the Deputies in December last, the restoration of the Bill to the Order Paper is not straightforward. Once the complexities have been resolved, however, and the amendments made in the Seanad re-examined in consultation with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, OPC, to ensure they have been worded correctly and are legally robust, it is the intention of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to bring a memorandum to the Government to seek approval to have the Bill restored to the Order Paper. At the same time, the Minister will also bring a memorandum to the Government to obtain approval to the amendments made in the Seanad to the Bill. This process is at an advanced stage and is expected to be completed shortly, although I cannot give an accurate date for that. I met officials this morning about the issue to try to get it advanced as quickly as possible. My hope is it will be completed before the summer recess.

Perhaps the Minister of State will confirm whether the Bill will be recommenced in the Dáil or whether there is going to be a new Bill with the same information in it, just to go through the procedure ab initio. It seems to me that if there were this much difficulty with the Standing Orders, the best thing to do would have been to reprint the Bill, title it the wildlife (amendment) Bill 2020 - we had hoped it would be 2020 but the year is now 2022 - and bring it back to the House, with whatever examination of amendments was required. I cannot believe it has taken three years in the system to examine a number of amendments made in the Seanad, which no doubt were well debated there. I accept the point about the wording, which is always an issue.

Nevertheless, when a Bill is going through the Dáil and the Opposition brings in an amendment the Government deems to be a good idea, the normal process that happens every day of the week, with which the Ceann Comhairle will be very familiar, is that the Minister comes back with a properly worded amendment, drafted by the OPC. I find it awfully strange that the OPC could not give the Government a new wording for any amendments, the substance of which it accepted but not the wording. I welcome that the Bill will be back before the summer, if that turns out to be the case, but some day I am going to write a dictionary of terms used in the House such as "shortly". Does that mean one, five or ten years, for example?

There is a simple question the people who have been frustrated over the past three or four years and who want to do some good things for our country want to be answered. When I was going to school, "shortly" never meant a defined period of time. The simple question is whether the Minister will go with a memorandum to the Cabinet and whether we will have the Bill, whether that is the old one, a new Bill or some other Bill, before the summer recess in order that we can kick it into gear and get it sorted. That is all we want. We are not unreasonable people. We had the meeting with the Minister of State and we thank him for all that. My understanding on that day, however, especially in light of the way Deputy Ó Cuív explained the matter in his experience, was that there would be a way of getting around it and getting the Bill back. If there is not, that is fine, we can just call it the wildlife (amendment) Bill 2022, away we will go and we will hammer it through.

We cannot keep waiting. Will the Minister of State please confirm whether a memorandum will be brought to the Cabinet and the Bill will be brought before the Dáil before the recess in July?

To be helpful, the Bill can be recommitted in the Dáil from the point to which it was dealt with in the Seanad, with the Seanad amendments to be considered.

That is exactly it. I acknowledge it is frustrating and it has been complex, and I appreciate the frustration of both the Deputies and the communities they represent. I will endeavour to get a definite date for them both and to give certainty to this. I take on board the points in regard to what "shortly" means. It has been frustrating from our perspective as well. It will not be a new Bill. We are in a separate process of reviewing the Wildlife (Amendment) Act, but that is for another day. It is our intention to get this completed. We appreciate the Deputies' concerns.

Will the Minister of State give us an indication as to how many amendments were made in the Seanad?

We will raise this tomorrow at the meeting of the Business Committee and we will do so at each such meeting until we get a date on which it will be returned to the House.

I would welcome that.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle.

Homeless Accommodation

The issue of homelessness in Limerick is spiralling to new and concerning levels. We have never seen it so bad. There is a complete absence of available emergency accommodation for those who desperately need it. Homelessness service providers have spoken to me, as they do regularly, and have advised me there are simply not enough available beds in the city. In fact, they understand there are none available at the moment. People who were once able to afford their rent can do so no longer and there seems to have been a significant increase in the number of notices to quit being issued across the board, given all my Dáil and council colleagues tell me the same. The recent issuing of such notices en masse to the residents of the Shannon Arms apartment complex is evidence of this, and with the severe lack of affordable rental units available in and around the city, it is no surprise there has been an increase in the demand for homelessness services.

My office, as I am sure is the case with those of all Limerick Deputies, has been inundated with calls from those at risk of losing their residence. Many are working families, often in great distress, who feel utterly abandoned by the State in their hour of need. Many simply do not earn enough to be able to afford a mortgage, but neither do they meet the income thresholds to avail of social housing supports. Even if they did, the Limerick housing list extends to 2,214 people and they have no hope of being housed, with thousands more people in precarious housing assistance payment, HAP, properties who live in fear of getting a notice to quit. Emergency accommodation in Limerick often includes a variety of properties such as hotels, bed and breakfast accommodation, hostels and temporary accommodation, and there is now a deep concern some families will be unable to access any of these forms of accommodation.

Where are these people supposed to go? For too long when it comes to housing, governments have relied on the housing assistance payment, but HAP is at the discretion of the landlord and in many cases landlords will not accept tenants who want to avail of that payment. Even if they do, the payment itself is modest. HAP's usefulness has passed and without review it can no longer be fit for purpose. What we need is an increase in the number of available social and truly affordable houses. Today in my office, we were dealing with a family in which both parents are working. They are due to be evicted and have simply nowhere to go. There are no affordable units to rent and they earn too much to avail of State support. The limits that would allow them to get some State support have not changed since 2011. Their notice is nearly up and there is nothing we can do for them.

This family of seven will be homeless and on the streets. We cannot direct them to a temporary emergency accommodation solution as the units are all full. We have a cost-of-living crisis, rising unaffordable rents and landlords selling up and exiting the market. These factors combined are pushing people to their limits. We need an immediate ban on evictions to be introduced while we work through this cost-of-living crisis. I appeal to the Minister of State to personally intervene to ensure emergency spaces are opened and hard-working families are not put on the streets. A ban on evictions is needed immediately but an increase in the social income thresholds is also desperately needed. As it stands, the cut-off point is too low and excludes many of those who need such support.

We are facing a tsunami of evictions in Limerick and it must be stopped. As I said to the Minister of State, I have never seen anything like the current number of notices to quit and nor have any of the services in Limerick. I want to put that on record. The Minister of State should not say he has not been warned about what is happening. The rental crisis is one the Government and the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage desperately need to resolve. Failure to do so will leave many families without a home. This is a crisis to add to the twin problems of homelessness and overcrowding. Sinn Féin believes much more can be done. It is time the Government stepped up to ensure increased investment in delivery of affordable and cost-rental houses.

Despite the challenges we are facing in Limerick, I commend the work of the providers of emergency accommodation in the city, including the council's homeless action team, Novas, Focus Ireland, the Simon Community and others that do great work. However, tonight, tomorrow and the day after they face the unenviable task of telling people they have nowhere to put them. They are under huge pressure and do tremendous work but are now limited in what they can do. Just before I finish, I mention in particular a voluntary, community-based organisation in Limerick called Help the Homeless where Jackie Purcell Duhig, Annemarie Sheehan and other volunteers do sterling work. The organisation is really the final front line. It feeds and clothes people in often appalling weather, like we have today.

We need action on notices to quit and an immediate ban on evictions.

I thank the Deputy for the question. I was in Limerick last Friday meeting officials in relation to my portfolio but I also dropped into Limerick Men's Shed and I commend all fantastic work being done there.

I will try to address some of the questions the Deputy has raised. Supporting individuals and families facing homelessness is a key Government priority. The role of my Department is to ensure that a framework of policy, legislation and funding are provided to ensure housing authorities are in a position to address homelessness at a local level. I assure the Deputy that resources and funding are not an obstacle to the urgent efforts required. Budget 2022 reflects this commitment by allocating €194 million for homelessness services.

It is acknowledged that there are currently severe pressures on access to emergency accommodation in Limerick city for a variety of reasons. I understand that Limerick City and County Council is doing everything in its power to address this matter. Under Housing for All, the Government has committed to working to eradicate homelessness by 2030. The plan includes 18 distinct actions tailored to eliminate homelessness. These actions recognise individuals experiencing homelessness have additional support needs and include specific measures to address these needs. They include measures to engage with and support rough sleepers into sustainable accommodation, the continued expansion of Housing First, a focus on the construction and acquisition of one-bedroom homes and, importantly, ensuring provision of the necessary health and mental health supports required to assist homeless people with complex needs.

Tackling homelessness requires an inter-agency approach. In order to drive better co-ordination in respect of policy measures and actions, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has established the national homeless action committee, NHAC. All of the key Government Departments, agencies, NGOs and stakeholders are involved. One of the initial priorities of the NHAC is to examine additional measures to prevent individuals and families from entering into homelessness before they receive the notice to quit the Deputy spoke about.

The key to addressing homelessness is an increase in the supply of housing. That being the case, the Government has committed to the increased supply of public, social and affordable homes. We will increase the social housing stock by more than 50,000 with an emphasis on new builds. In budget 2022, we backed this objective with funding of €4 billion for the delivery of housing. In this regard, Limerick City and County Council has a target of over 2,600 units to be delivered under Housing for All. There are already 1,000 units in its pipeline and the council is currently working to add additional projects and units under a variety of delivery streams.

I assure Deputy Quinlivan and others in the House of the work being done. Addressing homelessness continues to be an absolute priority for this Government. The points raised about the HAP are valid. The overall thrust of Government policy is to try to reduce reliance on that payment. While the ESRI report outlines that these rental income supports are an important part of the infrastructure, the Minister is committed to ensuring we reduce that reliance. The only way we will do that is by delivering social housing stock. We are committed to doing that and it is important we do so. I will raise with the Minister the issues of emergency spaces and the social income thresholds.

I thank the Minister of State. I missed him in the men's shed last week. I was there a few minutes after he arrived. St. Mary's Parish Men's Shed is a good facility.

I trust that with the answer he has just given, the Minister of State is being sincere. However, none of what he said bears fruit in the real world. Families are desperate. Rental prices are too high and too few, if any, properties are available. This has put immense stress on people. As I said, the homeless services are under severe pressure. They do a fantastic job but they cannot house people when there is no accommodation available. I want to know what we are going to do.

The Government's failure to provide a sufficient level of new social housing, coupled with the shrinking private market, is driving homeless presentations. The figures speak for themselves. The number of homeless adults and children has risen to over 10,000 according to the Department's own figures. On the Minister's watch, there has been a 24% increase in homelessness compared with the same month last year. As with house prices, there is increase after increase. The figures for adult homelessness tell us there are 283 adults homeless in Limerick. Obviously, there are many more people who have nowhere to stay and there are more on the streets than we have ever seen. Many are couch-surfing or just living in very poor conditions, often in extremely overcrowded homes. Many such people are not on any of these lists. The mid-west has 109 homeless children, the bulk of whom are in Limerick city. What is striking and also very disappointing about these figures is the number of young adults in homeless accommodation. People who should be in the most exciting period of their lives are battling with having to settle for homeless accommodation. There has been a 70% increase year on year in these figures.

There is something seriously wrong, and if the Minister of State thinks the Government's housing plan is working, he is delusional. I do not say that as a means of abusing him but I do not think he gets exactly what is happening on the ground. My office is inundated as a result of this and it is not the only one. As we speak, there is no emergency accommodation available. Where are people supposed to go?

To reiterate, there has been an increase in homelessness and a rise in notices to quit, along with a decrease in availability of HAP properties as landlords leave the market and rents for those remaining increase. There is, therefore, a real and significant challenge. Local authorities use commercial hotel and bed and breakfast accommodation but as the tourism market opens up, that accommodation is becoming restricted as well.

The Department sets the overall policy and legislative framework that provides the necessary resources and decisions on the range of homeless accommodation required. The funding of such services is a matter for the individual authorities. The administration of homelessness services is organised on a regional basis with a lead authority in place for each region. Limerick City and County Council is the lead authority for the mid-west region, which includes Clare Country Council. Some €8.2 million in Exchequer funding was provided to the mid-west region in 2021, with over €3.8 million in funding recouped to date in 2022 and further payments to be made. I again assure the Deputy that resources are not the problem.

We have a significant challenge, as I said, across a number of sectors. This will be addressed primarily in the medium to long term by the coming on stream of social and affordable housing. The Government is doing all in its power under Housing for All and Housing First to work with local authorities, including Limerick City and County Council, to ensure they are able to meet their requirements. There is no doubt it is a significant challenge.

I will take the specific points the Deputy has raised back to the Minister and we can expand on them in a further response, if that is okay.

Local Authorities

I thank the Minister of State for being here at this late hour. This is an important issue. I have come across a number of people who have applied to their respective local authorities for loans. The process seems to be cumbersome and drawn-out. To give an example, I we contacted by a couple who applied for a loan over six months ago. They were advised by the local authority that they had to get a mortgage protection policy with a particular insurance company and they proceeded to do so.

They filled out all the documentation over five months ago. They contacted the insurance company consistently throughout January and February and were advised that the company could not give them the information about whether they had been approved for mortgage protection. Eventually the local authority wrote to them on 8 March advising them that they had been turned down for mortgage protection. Therefore, they were back to square one and had to go and organise mortgage protection. However, it turns out that the mortgage protection company had notified the local authority on 21 January and the local authority did not notify the loan applicants until 8 March, a gap of six weeks. The problem now is that by the time it eventually came for approval to the local authority the house had gone back up on the market and the price has gone up by €20,000. That is not acceptable.

It reminds me of a time when I dealt with nothing but house purchases and when people were on 18% bridging finance. The entire process was drawn out. People were on bridging finance for up to six months. They could not draw down the loan until they were registered as owners of the property, the mortgage was signed and a mortgage was registered in favour of the local authority in the Land Registry or the Registry of Deeds. We are going back to the same system as we had in the 1980s, where processes are far too slow and hurdles appear to be constantly put in place. It is time there was an audit of every local authority regarding how many applications they are processing, the timeframe from the time the application is made to the time it is approved and then with regard to the draw down of funds. Again, I have received a complaint about the delay in the draw down of funds. Vendors are getting frustrated and they are using conditions in contracts to get out of contracts because they know they can get a higher price for the property they are selling. The price of property is going up by the day. It is a major problem. It is an issue we must deal with immediately. There must be a fast, efficient system.

The other issue is why local authorities are advising people that they must have a particular mortgage protection policy. It is normally left to the person's own devices to get mortgage protection. Yes, it must have certain rules and must be in accordance with what the local authority has in place, but why is it specifying that the person must go through its company first and if the company turns the person down, he or she can start to seek mortgage protection from another company? Finally, the mortgage protection company has been engaged by the local authority. That company advised this person that the company could not correspond with the person to tell the person whether cover was being provided. That is wrong. These are the people who will be paying the premium and they are the people who should be told first whether they have the policy.

These are the issues that are arising. I am hearing this constantly from legal colleagues as well. It is a long, drawn-out process. It was fine when the market was stable and prices were not increasing dramatically. It is a different ball game now, and we have to deal with it.

The local authority home loan is a Government-backed mortgage for first-time buyers and other eligible applicants delivered through local authorities. The scheme provides mortgage financing for those who are unable to secure a sufficient commercial bank loan. It was introduced on 4 January 2022, replacing the previous Rebuilding Ireland home loan.

My Department is in regular contact with local authorities regarding the local authority home loan and stands by to offer any assistance or guidance that is required to support the timely processing of these loans. At this stage I do not see a need for a policy change or audit regarding processing. However, my Department keeps the operation of the local authority home loan under review and will respond if further information comes to light, as the Deputy has brought forward tonight. I do not have county breakdowns but under the previous Rebuilding Ireland home loan 2,700 home loans were drawn down from 2018 to 2021. The data on draw downs is not yet available for the local authority home loan, which commenced on 4 January this year. The underwriters for the home loan have reported that 26 Rebuilding Ireland home loan applications and 213 local authority home loan applications were processed by the Housing Agency in April 2022. Of the 213 applications, ten were invalid, 82 were recommended for approval, which is 43%, and 121 were recommended for decline.

The Deputy also asked a question about the mortgage protection policy, which is left to the homeowner. I will make an inquiry within the Department about that for him.

I am concerned about this. It reminds me of the 1980s when there was a long, drawn-out process for getting loans. We are back to square one. We are in a world where the market is moving very fast and we must respond accordingly. It is like with the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme where landlords have started saying that if somebody is drawing the HAP, they would not take the person on as a tenant. This will happen now with vendors. They will say they will not take people on as purchasers if they are going to get a local authority loan. That will happen and there will be a large number of people excluded from the market.

We must deal with the real world. A credit committee meeting once a month is totally inadequate. That is an issue we must prioritise. We must examine it now and see what can be done to expedite the process. If there is a step-by-step process set out for the applicants and each of the boxes are ticked before the local authority gets the application, including all the documentation, it should not take six months for the application to be processed. This is happening with some of the other financial institutions as well; it is not just the local authorities. It is causing massive problems for young people who have only one opportunity of getting on the housing ladder. What if they miss it?

The couple I am dealing with, and I have dealt with a number of others who have the same problem, are unlikely to come back onto the market again. This is the sad problem we have. That is why this issue must be prioritised before we have the same thing as happened with the HAP scheme whereby the vendors will say that if it is a local authority loan they will not get their solicitors to send out contracts to people. I ask the Minister of State to give serious consideration to what I have said.

If I could comment, and I probably should not, it occurs to me that we are living through a housing emergency and if the Housing Agency can turn around a recommendation in five days to a local authority, that the local authority should then take a month to look at that recommendation is patently ridiculous. It is certainly not the local authority recognising anything by way of an emergency.

I take those points on board. There are very important issues raised by the Deputy that we have to address.

The processing time of individual loans can legitimately vary. There may be specific information required to confirm eligibility or creditworthiness, depending on the facts of the case. There may be delays in the transaction that are not under the control of the local authorities, but I accept that there may be some variations in processing times across local authorities. I agree with you, a Cheann Comhairle, that this needs to be addressed. I will ask my Department to look into the concerns Deputy Colm Burke has raised this evening. It is really important we do so. The last thing we want is to inhibit families from taking up the important opportunity to be able to purchase a home.

Cuireadh an Dáil ar athló ar 10.50 p.m. go dtí 9.12 a.m., Dé Céadaoin, an 1 Meitheamh 2022.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.50 p.m. until 9.12 a.m. on Wednesday, 1 June 2022.
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