Mr. Vinny Colgan:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024. I acknowledge and thank the Deputies and Senators for their engagement with officials on this Bill on Committee and Report Stages in the Dáil. I am also conscious of the contribution earlier today by representatives of the AHB sector to the committee and would like to note the important role of AHBs in delivering social and affordable housing under Housing for All.

There are currently two Parts to the Bill, the first relating to amendments to the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019, and the second relating to amendments to the Affordable Housing Act 2021. As announced by the Minister on the Second Stage reading of the Bill in the Dáil on 8 October 2024, a further amendment will be brought forward in the Seanad in respect of the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2014.

In order to support the discussion today, I am accompanied by colleagues who cover all three aspects of the Bill, namely, Mr. Liam Murray, AHB policy and agency governance unit; Ms Sarah Cooney and Mr. David Healy, from the cost rental policy unit; and Mr. Danny O’Sullivan and Mr. David Crowe, from the planning governance and oversight unit, regarding the LDA amendment.

I will now bring the committee through the proposed amendments to the first Part, which will amend the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019. On 26 January 2024, the Government agreed to proposals to provide for amendments to the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019 as part of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024. These amendments had the objective of resolving issues in the original Act that were preventing AHBs from registering with AHBRA, the regulator. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage met on 23 April 2024 with stakeholders and Department officials to commence pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill. Due to delays in the progression of other Parts of the original Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill and the urgent requirement to amend the underpinning legislation before the end of 2024 in order to prevent the cancellation of 20 of the largest AHBs, elements relating to the Housing (Regulation of Approved Housing Bodies) Act 2019 were removed from the original Bill and are now brought forward in this Bill. On further consideration of the matter, the Department believed that in order to prevent AHBs falling out of regulation due to a failure to meet the timelines set out in the 2019 Act, a more appropriate approach is to amend the Act to permanently register deemed AHBs, thus removing the need to meet the eligibility criteria, rather than to require an active apply-for-registration before the end of the timelines.

The main provisions related to this section of the Bill are to provide for permanently registering AHBs that were deemed registered on 1 January 2022 by removing the requirement to apply for registration for the aforementioned deemed AHBs; removing references linking specific AHB constitutional objects to AHBRA’s powers and instead link AHBRA’s powers to a definition of the alleviation of housing need regardless of the content of an AHB’s constitution; and amending the definition of the alleviation of housing need to include cost-rental properties.

The second element of this Bill brings forward amendments required to the Affordable Housing Act, which I will now bring members through. The new cost-rental sector in Ireland was given a statutory footing in Part 3 of the Affordable Housing Act 2021. This legislation introduced a new form of rental tenure targeted at middle-income households above the eligibility thresholds for social housing supports, which are struggling with often acute affordability pressures in the private rental market. The introduction of the cost-based model represents a significant contribution to the rental system and was an action set out in Housing for All. Having been launched in late 2021, cost rental in Ireland is at an early stage of implementation, with almost 1,800 homes delivered nationwide to the end of quarter 1 of 2024. While good progress has been made so far, with tenants already enjoying the benefits of tenancies in these homes, the key policy goals and impacts for cost rental are understood as primarily framed over the medium term. As such, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has been engaging with stakeholders, including cost-rental delivery partners, to assess the lessons learned to date since the launch of cost rental.

A number of measures have been identified in order to refine cost-rental policy and strengthen the legislative framework for the sector. First, the Bill provides for the Minister to set different eligibility criteria for different compositions of households, which will assist in making a reality of multi-occupancy cost-rental homes, whereby two or more unrelated adults come together to access the benefits of cost rental and share the cost of overall rent. Following this amendment, the detailed arrangements for multi-occupancy tenancies will be implemented through regulations, and the Department will work closely with cost-rental providers to draw upon their valuable practical experience when drafting this secondary legislation.

Second, the Bill provides for cost-rental landlords to prepare and submit to the Minister allocation plans for cost-rental homes. This will give scope for greater flexibility and efficiency in the sector where this is judged to be appropriate. When cost rental was first launched in late 2021, the legislation set a one-size-fits-all approach to tenanting these homes because simplicity was the primary concern. Now that the sector is up and running, there may be cause to allow a broader range of tenanting practices for individual projects. For example, cost-rental providers may seek to prioritise those with a link to an area though previous residence, place of employment or children’s education. This was not possible under the existing legislation. At the same time, there may be merit in varying the standard tenanting approach in order to handle very high numbers of applications and avoid long delays in filling tenancies. These allocation plans will always be subject to the approval of the Minister, and the general practices set out in existing legislation will continue to be the default for the sector.

Third, the Bill provides for the unique case of a tenant in situto be allocated a cost-rental home. These provisions allow a tenant in situto remain in place through the cost-rental designation of a property, dispensing with the advertising of a vacancy in that case, but at the same time ensuring that over the long term all the general provisions governing the cost-rental sector will apply as normal. In combination, these amendments to the Affordable Housing Act regarding cost rental, just over three years after that legislation was enacted, represent a widening of scope for Ireland’s newest housing sector.

Last, as announced on Second Stage, the Minister intends to include an amendment to this Bill on Committee Stage in the Seanad. This amendment will permit the Minister for Finance, at the request of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with the consent of Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, to direct the NTMA to pay a further €1.25 billion to the Land Development Agency from the proceeds of the disposal of directed investments. This amendment will make statutory provision for the LDA to access up to €6.25 billion of capital, split between €3.75 billion equity investment from the NTMA, €1.25 billion in debt and €1.25 billion from sources associated with the performance of certain statutory functions related to the provision of cost-rental and affordable accommodation, the development of public land, provision of socially integrated housing and engagement with local authorities. This amendment is required to protect the delivery of the 12,900 homes projected by the LDA’s 2024-28 business plan. The increase in ambition envisaged in Housing for All requires the investment of additional resources over what was originally provided for in the LDA Act to support the delivery of these homes. The board of the LDA cannot approve the agency entering into commitments for the delivery of these homes until they are confident they can meet their financial obligations as they fall due. The additional equity funding provided for in this amendment will ensure the LDA has access to a total of €6.25 billion in capital and will be well-positioned to provide affordable and cost-rental housing in communities throughout Ireland and to support the delivery of the national planning framework well into the lifetime of the 2024-28 business plan.

On behalf of the Minister, I again thank members for their time and engagement with this Bill to date as it enters the Seanad for further debate. I and colleagues from the Department welcome any questions they may have on the Bill.