Christopher O'Sullivan backs 12-month review of mobility Bill

CHAIRMAN BERNANKE. Thank you Ciann Comhairle and again thank you to all the members who contributed and again just to reiterate, and this isn't coming from any place of, it's not disingenuous to say that I do genuinely hear what you're saying and it does make sense and the proposal makes sense, but I hope as well that you would understand that yes we were able to do a focus protocol on people fleeing gender based violence and domestic abuse and I'll come back to some of the issues maybe that Debbie O'Reilly raised specifically, but the whole broad national approach to this does require further consideration, I don't not necessarily think it can be done within committee stage, but you asked me to use influence and what I would say is that in this interim 12 months it's certainly within the department and I know Minister Brown where he stands in this as well and does see value in what's been proposed, that we will use that 12 months wisely to research and to assess the different issues that I raised such as the IT, the administration, the variation in approach and also the pros and cons I suppose if we want to have a better term in that, I gave you the example in my own county Cork where when the approach was changed in terms of allocating people in my home town of Clannachilty houses to people who were on a waiting list in Yall on the other side of the county, initially it was received with a bit of resistance, but now that's a standardised approach, so imagine if we do this on a national level, despite the terrible circumstances that people will be fleeing, whether it is domestic abuse and I'm sure the vast, vast majority of people would fully understand those circumstances, but the other circumstances that we mentioned like education, work, health etc, it just all needs to be assessed, but to say again broadly I do think the proposals make sense. So at present as the Bill stands there remain significant unanswered questions concerning fairness between applicants, consistency between local authority systems, implementation, capacity, costs, governance arrangements and the feasibility of cross jurisdictional operation. The all Ireland approach raises further legal and practical difficulties as social housing support in Ireland and Northern Ireland operates under separate legislative, administrative and allocation frameworks. These are not peripheral issues, they are central issues. The government believes that legislating before those matters have been fully examined would be premature. For that reason we are proposing a timed amendment for a period of 12 months to allow further consideration of this Bill. That period would allow for detailed engagement with local authorities, other key stakeholders and relevant departments to further examine the administrative, legal and financial implications and to allow a more comprehensive assessment of how mobility objectives might best be achieved without creating unintended consequences elsewhere in the system. This approach reflects a commitment both to careful policy making and to ensure that any future reforms are evidence based, practical and fair for all social housing applicants and tenants. Important flexibility already exists within the current framework. Local authorities have long provided significant mobility supports under existing legislation and guidance, particularly to victims of domestic violence. For many years local authorities have supported victims and survivors of domestic violence under the department's policy and procedural guidance for housing authorities in relation to assisting victims of domestic violence with emergency and long-term accommodation needs. This was first published in 2017. Through these arrangements local authorities can prioritise cases through allocation schemes, assist access to HAP and RAS supports to work with existing social housing tenants where tenancy issues arise. More recently the department has worked closely with local authorities, particularly through the CCMA Housing Committee, with a range of stakeholders to develop the new protocol allowing victims and survivors of domestic, sexual and gender based violence to transfer social housing waiting lists between local authorities. The protocol will form part of the updated guidance currently being prepared by the department and has been positively received by organisations that work directly with the Advocate for Victims and Survivors. So just to say in the last 30 seconds, the guidelines are from 2017, that this is what has informed and guided local authorities in terms of situations where those who are fleeing domestic violence can be accommodated in other local authorities. Through the protocol, as you've rightly pointed out, if you're on the housing list that transfer is now possible. What we're saying is we are going to update these guidelines and perhaps that is the key opportunity where we can look at the situation, as outlined by Deputy O'Reilly, where someone is a HAP tenant. Because under legislation, someone who is a HAP tenant is considered hosed. Now, you and I both can see the difficulty in that, but there is an opportunity there. When those guidelines are being updated, and we're currently in the process of updating those guidelines, perhaps that's something that can be accompanied by Deputy O'Reilly.