Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 4 November 2004
4 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if he has plans to take measures to combat anti-social behaviour in housing estates; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27704/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraLocal authorities are responsible under the Housing Acts for the management and maintenance of their housing stock, including addressing any problems arising on their housing estates from serious anti-social behaviour. They have been encouraged by my Department to use the statutory powers available to them, where appropriate.
The primary purpose of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 is to provide for a range of measures to assist local authorities in addressing problems arising on their estates from drug dealing and serious anti-social behaviour. The Act gives recognition to the role of local authorities in actively promoting the interests of tenants and other occupiers of the housing and also in working towards the avoidance, prevention and abatement of anti-social behaviour. It forms part of a wider range of measures undertaken by Government to deal with the issue of drugs and related crime.
The serious problems posed by crime and anti-social behaviour in many local authority housing estates and the negative impact on the morale of tenants and the living conditions of tenants and residents formed a background to the introduction of the Act. One of the main provisions of the 1997 Act enables a local authority tenant, or the local authority in certain circumstances, to apply to the District Court for an excluding order against an individual member of the household who is believed to be engaging in anti-social behaviour. The measures contained in the 1997 Act are essential to ensure that local authorities have the capacity to take effective action in this area.
The recently enacted Residential Tenancies Act 2004 contains a number of provisions to address the issue of anti-social behaviour in private rented accommodation and extends the local authority power to obtain excluding orders in respect of the occupants, other than the owner, of tenant purchased houses. It also extends the local authority power to refuse to sell, under the tenant purchase scheme or the affordable housing scheme, a house to a person suspected of engaging in anti-social behaviour.
Additional information not given on the floor of the House
The housing unit, which is funded by my Department and local authorities, has produced a guidance booklet for local authorities entitled, Preventing and Combating Anti-Social Behaviour, and has organised training courses for local authorities in this regard. In this wider context, my Department has put in place a housing management initiatives scheme which includes funding for programmes to improve estate management, tenant liaison and training initiatives.
The measures I have outlined are intended to support local authorities in their efforts to prevent and combat anti-social behaviour in their areas. Wider issues relating to matters of a criminal nature come within the remit of the Garda and my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform.
Is the Minister of State aware of the anxiety caused in many housing estates, particularly to elderly people, by the elements participating in anti-social behaviour? Does he not think it worthwhile to correct the cause of this problem by providing the necessary recreational facilities in estates, particularly local authority estates, before the houses are occupied? That might prevent much of the unnecessary anti-social behaviour, which is carried out mainly by young people gathering in groups who have nowhere else to go and who make life hell for the residents, particularly older people, in those estates. Has the Minister of State plans to provide, in future planning of local authority estates in particular, the necessary recreational facilities before the houses are occupied, thus dealing with the cause of the problem rather than talking about evictions and so on after it has arisen?
I fully understand the anxiety, which I witness in my constituency. I am aware of the serious effect of anti-social behaviour on people's quality of life. Local authorities have the power to seek exclusion orders and we have extended that power. We often heard from local authority officials in my area, particularly since 1997, that certain families were tenant purchasers and they could not touch them. Under the Residential Tenancies Act, however, they have the power to move on tenant purchasers, although not the owner because of the constitutional problems, but the children or the adult siblings in the house. I hope that new power will strengthen the work of local authority officials. In addition, a housing management scheme on which the Department spends a few million euro every year gives grants to local authorities for tenant training and, in some cases, for tenant liaison officers.
The Deputy has a point when he talks about facilities. For the past ten years we have been building good quality estates but in the 1960s and 1970s huge estates were built, which was probably good for the Minister of the day in that he could make those announcements, but the architectural design of many of them was bad and the facilities were not put in. That was a time when there was not the same money in the country as there is now. We are now spending a fortune on remedial work and regeneration schemes. I believe we are spending €160 million a year trying to put right the mistakes made in the 1960s and early 1970s, but I agree with the Deputy. In the other Department in which I am involved, under the young people's facilities and services fund, we are putting money into facilities because we built estates 30 years ago and gave people houses but we did not give them facilities or amenities. I hope we have learned our lesson in that regard because the quality of design of housing built in recent years is far better. I hope we have addressed many of those problems.
I accept what the Minister of State said about the quality of houses but I ask him to consider another aspect. Many houses in local authority estates are bought and resold and the people in those houses are on rent supplements. There is no fall-back on that. I ask the Minister to address the problem of people on rent supplement because no action can be taken against them. The rent supplement cannot be withdrawn, irrespective of the anti-social behaviour of the tenants who are making life hell for their neighbours.
Under the Residential Tenancies Act, in which the Deputy was involved for much of Committee Stage of the Bill, powers are now available. The tenant, or a third party who happens to be living next door, can bring the landlord to a disputes resolution system——
If the landlord is known.
They are known. They will be able to go to the Residential Tenancies Board. That new power will come into operation on 1 December. The Deputy has a point, however, in regard to that category of people but we are addressing that problem and we have addressed the tenant purchase problem. Local authorities can only solve this problem on a multi-agency basis. We need the gardaí and others to work with us, but we have the law now and I believe it will help matters.
One tenth of them are not registered and they will not be.
