Victor Boyhan calls for mandatory inspections of council homes

Thank you very much. Firstly, I want to welcome Minister John Cummins here. I have not had an opportunity to congratulate you and welcome you on your appointment because I have not been here or for some reason. You have been here, I know, but our paths have not crossed, but we have worked collaboratively very well on housing and particularly in the planning development act as it is now. I know you have vast experience and knowledge in local government, but particularly in this housing, so you are clearly someone that is very suited to the post and I wish you every success. Minister, I suppose today I just want to bring up this issue of the need for the Minister for Housing to commit to a review of the residential tenancies legislation in order to regulate the landlord functions of local authority owned dwellings and to formalise that. I suppose what prompted me to do all of this was that there was a great announcement by your department clapping itself on the back and rightly so for the level of inspections for the private sector. And I think that is right, there should be inspections in the private sector, but no one is talking about who is inspecting the council properties. And I don't know if you saw Samantha Libera on RTE last night featuring a property in Coolock in North County Dublin where there were rodent infestation, plugs hanging off the walls and this was a live tenant who was on the news as well saying their experiences of trying to get support for that. That is on the RTE news player, you can see it any time today or any time, but it is there. So I am calling for this mandatory inspection and a note on certification of all properties. Currently we have it for the private sector, but we do not have it for the public sector. And we have landlords, some of the biggest landlords in this country are our 31 local authorities, with thousands and thousands of houses. And I believe the tenants there should have exactly the same rights and be afforded the same rights and opportunities in terms of redress. And I think we need certification. And of course the embarrassment is that many of these properties would not pass certification. Many of our local authority properties that we expect people to live in, with very limited means in most cases, cannot afford to do it on themselves. They are not, and I don't want to use a generalisation in terms, are not getting the support of the landlord, in this case one of the 31 local authorities. So we know that, of the figures published by your department, it showed that more than half of all private, now these are the private rental properties inspected last year, did not initially meet the legal enforced standards. No mention of the local authorities and the standards that are there. In terms of the figures, and let's put figures on this, 37,800 did not meet the necessary standards, out of a total of 62.085 properties that were inspected. So under the Housing Regulations Act of 219, all private rental properties on the market in Ireland must meet strict criteria in terms of heat, ventilation, natural light, fire, health and safety issues. You know the score, Minister, and therefore, but again, no mention of the local authorities. Council Tenants have no rights to an independent inspection of their homes, they simply do not have it. They must go back to their local authority, in this case their landlord, and I think that is wrong. I think that Council Tenants should have access to an independent adjudication in terms of complaints and procedures. The only one they have is they can go to the Ombudsman or if they have a load of dosh handed to a load of lawyers and go through the courts, and I do not think that is right or appropriate or fair, and I do not think that should happen. Minister, I have raised the issue of the Housing Commission report that was published in May 2024. It is a disgrace that we have not discussed it in this House. There has not been enough discussion in relation to it and many of its recommendations. And for some reason the Government do not wish to take on board many of those recommendations. They have taken on board some, but many they have not. And I reckon that this is an opportunity in the future we should look at it again. So I am calling basically for the Residential Tenancies Board, for tenants in local authorities to have access, full access, equal access to these properties. It is simply unacceptable, the current situation. I will leave it there, Minister, other than to say I think let us give all tenants, let us not distinguish rights between public and private tenants. All tenants should have the same rights. Thank you very much Senator Boyan for submitting this commencement matter. It gives me an opportunity to address what is an important matter here. The Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to 2024 regulates tenancies in the residential rental sector covering private renters, cost renters, social renters with approved housing bodies and regulates tenancies and licenses in student specific accommodation. The Residential Tenancies Act sets out the rights and obligations of landlords and tenants. The Residential Tenancies Board was established as an independent statutory body under the acts to regulate the rental housing sector by maintaining a national register of tenancies, resolving disputes between tenants and landlords, acting to ensure compliance with rental law, providing information to the public, tenants and landlords to ensure that tenancies run smoothly and are providing reliable data and insights to inform policy which we would have reviewed ourselves as members of the joint directives in the previous term. The Residential Tenancies Act applies to every dwelling that is the subject of a tenancy subject to a limited number of exemptions. The Act does not apply to dwellings, as you rightly point out, let by local authorities to social tenants. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2015 brought approved housing tenancies under the remit of the RTB. The Housing Acts 1966 to 2024 govern local authorities social housing tenancies. These acts provide a range of extensive protections for tenants, including security of tenure, management of antisocial behaviour and a differential rent system. Furthermore, local authority tenants can avail of the customer complaints procedure in place in all local authorities regarding any issues they may have in dealing with their local authority related to their housing situation. Following the making and processing of any such complaint, if a local authority tenant still considers that they have been adversely affected by a local authority's action or lack of action which they consider unfair or unreasonable, they may make a complaint to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman can examine complaints about how local authorities carry out their everyday executive and administrative activities. These do include complaints or delays or failures to take action in relation to housing issues. I note that the Housing Commission has recommended the regulation of landlord functions of local authority owned dwellings and the formalising of local authority tenant relationship. The Department of Housing is obviously reviewing and assessing the report of the Housing Commission, which, as you point out, was published in May of last year. Given the breadth of housing policy areas that are covered in the report, the quantum of recommendations and actions involved and the complex interlinkages between them, this is a significant body of work. It is looking at prioritisation, cost implications, sequencing, timing and the practicalities of implementation. And within this context, the recommendation relating to that relationship between local authority tenants and the RTV and any potential changes in that is being considered. Mr. Minister, look, the kernel of this is simple. All tenants in this country, be it private or public, should be treated the same. One, and I am making that case. Two, the report on the Housing Commission, as you rightly say and confirm what I already told you, has made strong recommendations that the residential tenancy legislation would be extended to cover local authority tenants and their relationships. I think that is a reasonable request. It is a fair request. I do not think you can have or tolerate and allow two tandem arrangements of protections for tenants. All tenants are tenants. We want to encourage tenants to be good tenants. We also want landlords to be compliant with law and legislation. I do not think it is tenable to come in here and suggest that you are currently satisfied. I am not satisfied. It is me, actually. I am bringing this commencement. I am not satisfied, having talked to hundreds of councillors, including many in your party, who say they are constantly being asked to lobby for basic needs, health and safety issues around tenancies in local social housing under your remit. So, Minister, what is my ask? I am asking you as Minister to go back to your group within the department and let us see if we can consider including and extending the legislation to give social tenants the same rights as private tenants in this country. Thank you. Thank you, Senator Boyan again for raising this matter. I take the points on board that you have made. Obviously, the Housing Commission have made recommendations in this space. It is being considered by the department. There is obviously a whole sequencing cost implications and so on and so forth that have to go with that. So, you will appreciate there is a significant body of work around that and there is no point in just introducing something if it is not going to be able to be implemented as well. The very last thing we want to see is a system being implemented that is not resourced adequately as well because you would be rightly back in this chamber complaining that the very people that you are advocating here for are not able to access the very protections that you are speaking to. So, in the interim, there is the Housing Act 1996 to 2024 that does provide protections there. I would encourage local authority tenants, if they have issues, to raise them through the complaints procedure and the Ombudsman. But I assure you that recommendations in the Commission are being kept under consideration by the department.