Eoin Ó Broin: Introduces Social Housing Passport Bill

Thank you Ciann Comhairle, I shall move the bill. Ciann Comhairle and the Minister, the idea behind the social housing passport is a very simple one. It allows people on local authority housing waiting lists or in receipt of social housing supports like HAP and RAS to be able to move from one local authority to another and to take their years on list or on transfer list with them. It was a long-standing commitment of Fine Gael, of Labour and indeed until recently of your own party Alan Kelly when he was the Minister for Housing back in 2014 included it in his housing plan at that time. Simon Coveney when he was the Minister for Housing in 2016 included a commitment to introduce a social housing passport in 2016. Your own party colleague Daryl Bryan also made a commitment to introduce a social housing passport in his plan and I have to say I was genuinely surprised when that commitment wasn't repeated in the programme for government and wasn't contained in the current housing plan. The reason why it's a very very simple solution to a very very real problem affecting large numbers of people and there simply is no sensible or credible reason not to do it. So the bill I'm introducing with my colleagues here this evening is very simple. It gives the Minister for Housing the power to put in place a social housing passport by way of regulations. The fine detail of that would be a matter for Minister and government but the legislation sets out a number of core principles of how the passport would work. The first and this is really important it would be for both people on the list and people in receipt of social housing support such as HAP and RAS. So not just the 61,000 households on our council lists but the 55,000 or so households in HAP or private sector RAS. The second thing and this is really really important is that it wouldn't simply allow people to freely move around the country and change housing list. The legislation sets out the minimum criteria against which a tenant would be able to access the passport. So for example if they were able to take up an employment opportunity in another council, if they needed to take up an educational opportunity, a health care arrangement or for example if they were fleeing domestic sexual or gender-based violence or other exceptional and compassionate grounds. So it would be a relatively narrow set of circumstances that would allow somebody to apply for it. Let me give you a few kind of concrete examples of why this makes eminent sense. Somebody is living in Dublin, they're seven, eight, nine years on the local authority housing list here. They're in employment and their employer offers them a job in Cork in your own constituency. It gives them an opportunity to advance economically. They would still be eligible to remain on the local authority housing list in Cork as they would be in Dublin and therefore because they have a live offer of a job instead of what we ask them to do now, which is to choose between giving up your many years on the list or giving up your opportunity for employment advancement, they would be able to apply to Cork City or County Council. They would provide the evidence and they would move on to that list and take their years with them and therefore they wouldn't lose the opportunity for their permanent affordable home nor would they lose the opportunity to advance economically. There's a particular problem with how this challenge operates in Dublin because unique to Dublin we have four local authorities and while you're still only allowed to be on one list you're allowed to have areas of choice in the other neighbouring local authorities. I'm not sure if Cork City and County do that, they might be the only other in the state. So what happens in Dublin is somebody starts on the Dublin city list but they can't find rental accommodation in the city so they end up in my own constituency or in Louise's constituency in South Dublin or Fingal renting and they can be renting for a long time and eight, nine, ten, eleven years pass as they're approaching their eligibility date for a social home. But their children are all in school and in the local clubs, maybe they have local employment. They are rooted in the communities in South Dublin or in Fingal but because the way in which the council list operates they will never get a permanent home in that local authority area. Their only option will be to eventually take up an allocation in another part of the city beyond the catchment area for their employment, educational supports, friends and family. And they then have to face a dilemma because many people don't even understand this when they go on the list they only begin to understand it many years later. But in that case they have to then decide do they give up those years and start again on the list in the local authority in which they're living or completely uproot their family to move to another part of the city. And those things just don't make any sense whatsoever. I understand that one of the reasons why it's no longer part of the Programme for Government and Housing Plan is there was some concern among the City and County Managers Association, the local government sector, about having too liberal a regime and I fully support that. I don't think people should just be able to move around for no reason. I think there should be very clear legitimate and sensible reasons and if the reasons that we've set out here aren't to the Minister's liking, this Bill allows the Minister to set the regulations in whatever manner he or she decides to do. I do think it's kind of disappointing that you've tabled your 12-month amendment. One, because this Bill gives it to the Minister, says to the Minister go away and do the regulations, consult with your officials. So there's no need to delay that for 12 months and I presume the only reason why this is here is so that the government does not seem to be voting against what I don't think anybody could say is anything but an eminently sensible piece of legislation. Obviously the government, notwithstanding the fact that you're not moving forward with the passport, gave a commitment last year, something my colleagues Maura Devine and Louise O'Reilly had been raising regularly, to at least introduce a social housing transfer protocol for women experiencing domestic sexual or gender-based violence and that was published last weekend and I welcome that. But even that there is a problem because the way in which the circular is set out, it only applies to households on council lists. That means households who might be in emergency accommodation, households who might be living with family or friends, or households in the private rental sector receiving rent supplement because that's not a social housing support. That's only about half the people who may actually need this because by excluding those social housing tenants in receipt of a HAP or RAS, about 55,000 households, they won't be able to, or the people who would need this vital and in some cases life-saving transfer protocol, won't be able to access it at all. And I do think it's disappointing when a number of journalists have contacted government and the department wanting to confirm on the record that HAP and RAS tenants aren't included, because we know that they aren't, and to why and will that be reconsidered. Instead of just giving a straight answer, yes they've been excluded, to explain why, or to give a commitment to review it and change it as a matter of urgency, there's been an attempt to kind of confuse things to say well how people can move into a HAP tenancy and under local authority. Of course you can HAP all over the state, but what you can't do if you're a HAP tenant under this transfer protocol is move your HAP transfer list from one local authority to another and take your years on list with you. You are punished if you try and do so. So I suppose my appeal, Minister, is because obviously the government has made the position clear, obviously you'll have a well-crafted script from your officials and that's absolutely fine, but I can't imagine knowing the realities of life as you do, being a constituency politician like the rest of us, that you don't see the value in this. So I'm making a personal appeal to you, whatever you say on the floor here today, use your influence if you think this is a good idea inside government. Use your influence inside the department and reopen the conversation with the Minister about a fully-fledged social housing passport as is proposed. Because I think it's one of those occasions where you might not think it's a huge issue, but it affects thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people. I just want to thank my colleagues including my constituency colleague Mark Ward, who's not here today because he has another engagement, but he did want me to put on the record the actual experience of a constituent of his for whom this issue is very, very pertinent. I'm going to read it into the record if that's okay with you, Minister. The woman in question says, and I quote, when I registered with Dublin City Council I was already staying in Saggart, which as you know is in South Dublin County Council, but the sad part is I didn't know I had to register with South Dublin County Council and the lady that I spoke to at Dublin City Council did not redirect me, she just registered me and the council and SONUS, who are her domestic violence support organisation, asked her to reach out to Deputy Ward and share her entire story and that's the information I'll now outline. She said the reason this matter is so important to me is because I'm a survivor of domestic abuse. The father of my child subjected me to severe abuse and made threats against my life including telling me that if he ever found me he would kill me and dump me in a dumpster. These threats and experiences caused me years of fear and trauma. For the last number of years I have finally been able to rebuild some sense of peace and safety in South Dublin where she lives. I do not have family in Ireland and the only support system I have is the community I have built around me over here over the many years. It has taken me a very long time for me to feel safe enough to live constantly without constantly looking over my shoulder. The thought of being moved to Dublin City, to the north side, the list that she's on, leaves me extremely vulnerable. I know nobody there and I fear that I could come into contact with people connected to my abuser, forcing me to relive trauma that I have spent years trying to overcome. I cannot imagine having to start over again on the South Dublin list while carrying that fear, not only for myself but also for my child. You wouldn't believe how the affects my mental health. I'm 16 years on the Dublin City Council list and only that I am from the DCC area reason why I stayed my application with them. I moved to Glendalkin when I was pregnant. My daughter is now 16 years old and we have set roots here. Both my partner go to local schools. My daughter is a ranger in the local girl guides. My school son plays GAA for Glendalkin along with other after-school activities. I'm a preschool and after-school teacher in the Glendalkin area for 13 years. We have solid roots here and became part of the community. Recently I've been in touch with another local TD to voice my story. I know I'm not the only one. So these are two cases, the case in Saggart and the case in Glendalkin. Neither of these people can access the social housing passport protocol as you've set out. Both have very compelling reasons why they should be able to do so. So Minister, I look forward to your speech. I look forward to why you think it's a sensible thing to defer giving the Minister the power to set up the regulations as he sees fit. But as I said at the start, please see the sense of this. Go and talk to your colleagues. I'm sure that your own backbenchers have many constituents like ours who see this as a sensible move and it would be one of those rare occasions if the Minister brought in his own legislation where this house would be unanimous in saying actually the government is doing something good on housing and we all support it. So I'm not precious about the bill in front of us here today. I would quite happily withdraw it tomorrow and give all of the credit and kudos to Minister Brown if he wanted to do it himself because the crucial thing here is there's a cohort of people who have been treated unfairly, who have been denied a reasonable chance of progressing in their life because of a very bureaucratic rule. Let's get rid of it. Let's put a social housing passport on the statute books and let people get on with their lives in the way that I think we would all like them to do. Thank you.