Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle and the Minister of State, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, for facilitating this debate as it is the last Topical Issue debate before the recess and we will not return until September. I wish to raise the important matter of regulation for renters. The Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 mandate a proper state of repair and adequate ventilation for all properties regardless of their use as social housing or private rental accommodation. However, we also know that 46% of Irish people report a problem with mould in their homes, and I would suggest the figure is much higher than 46%. The Minister, Deputy Donnelly, expressed concern in January about a specific block of Dublin social housing where 83% of residents lived with mould and damp, and they are diagnosed with asthma 2.4 times more than the Irish average.

Earlier this month, the Irish Independent reported on the heartbreaking story of a Clare woman whose baby had to be rushed to hospital after turning blue from a respiratory infection that developed due to the conditions in emergency accommodation. That is not just the wishy-washy opinion of myself, the mother or anybody else other than a medical professional. Prior to that incident, the mother had come to my office and explained that in the six months from November, she had to attend her GP, Shannondoc and the emergency department with her baby on more than 30 occasions. The GP in particular is the one who made the link with the deterioration in the respiratory health of this baby because he was more than familiar with the decline.

It is important to note that the protections of the Residential Tenancies Act apply to some social housing applicants but not all. They would include those on housing assistance but not those directly letting from the council itself. That is a massive gap and possibly a convenient gap. I know the Ombudsman and the courts system are available but, in most cases, they are difficult to utilise and navigate and it can be an extremely slow process. I am also cognisant that if social housing tenants pursue such pathways, they are potentially putting themselves at risk of being further punished by their local authority, for example, when trying to apply for a transfer. I have come across this. Even on appeal, people have been disallowed and had to apply again with evidence to show the deterioration of the property and, again, it was still disallowed. That is wrong and, I suggest, is an abuse of power.

The question is whether we are in such a bad place when it comes to housing supply that the attitude, in some cases, is that people must be grateful and appreciate whatever roof they have over their head. Standards are not being prioritised, which is a huge concern. I agree the focus should be on supply but I am concerned it is at the expense of the focus on standards in particular.

I commend the Department on extending the housing stock, which I fully support, although I believe it should go much further. I wish it was more achievable for low-income families and wish that more of it served rural communities like those in County Clare. I commend the efforts made. However, I need to ask whether there is a plan in place to ensure the housing stock is fit for human habitation and thereby ensure the provision of adequate accommodation that does not have an impact on people's health.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I am responding on behalf of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage but I also appear as a constituency TD. I am well aware of the issue of mould, particularly for HAP tenants in the private rental sector. Before coming to the House, such is the importance of the issue to me, I went through my constituency database to pull out those files where I have had to deal with this issue with constituents. I am very well aware of the issue the Deputy has raised, which is in the private rental sector and which we will discuss as distinct from the social housing sector.

From the Department's perspective regarding the standards for rental accommodation, the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019 set out in detail the standards of accommodation required, including with regard to structural repair, sanitary facilities, heating, ventilation, natural light and fire safety. These regulations apply to all properties let or available for letting, including social housing. The standards on ventilation cover the potential issue of mould. Where dampness or mould is caused by water ingress, regulation 4 requires that a rented dwelling is maintained in a proper state of structural repair. Where such problems are caused by insufficient ventilation, regulation 8 requires every habitable room to have adequate ventilation and that adequate ventilation for the removal of water vapour is provided from every kitchen and bathroom. The responsibility for the enforcement of the regulations in the private rental sector rests with the relevant local authority. Local authorities also have significant powers of enforcement in cases where non-compliance is found.

Housing for All set an annual target of 25% for the inspection of all private residential tenancies and that has gone up considerably over time. From 2005 to 2017, an average of 20,000 inspections were conducted per annum. The figure was 19,500 in 2017 and went up to more than 40,000 in 2019, the period when Eoghan Murphy was in the Department of housing. However, the pandemic saw the number of inspections fall back to 25,000 in 2020 and to 20,000 in 2021. Nonetheless, despite the fact many local authorities have reported difficulties with staff recruitment and retention in recent years, they conducted an all-time high number of inspections last year of 63,500. However, there is a point I find very interesting and I followed it up with the Department. Despite that increased level of inspections, the Department of housing has not been made aware of any findings of an increase in the incidence of mould in the private rental sector. To my mind, that does not make sense. Either there is not a higher incidence, in which case it is not being reported, or the working group, which genuinely works to address the different issues with the local authorities, believes the issue is being managed sufficiently well by the local authorities for it not to come to the Department's attention, although Deputy Wynne and I both know it remains an issue. It is also possible the local authorities are so used to it that they have perhaps become inured to it as an issue and are not elevating it to the Department. I do know which is the answer.

What I do know, as a constituency TD, is that constituents have raised with me a number of cases in the private rental sector where there has been an inspection and where some cursory works have been done by a landlord but the problem re-emerges, or where the works were not done. The point is that the reinspection is just as important as the inspection. However, I am also aware of the cost of redoing a bathroom from a tax credit perspective or from the landlord's perspective. In the private rental sector, where there is a problem with a bathroom, my experience is that it often involves a single mother with a young child, or those are the cases that come to my attention as a constituency TD. I would simply like to see the bathroom redone, and quickly.

There is a significant capital outlay involved in that. That can only be recouped, I understand, from a tax credit perspective if the property is sold. I would like to incentivise that work being done and I suggest a different tax credit model be put in place so the landlord can do the works and recoup the cost in a reasonable way over time and not in a speculative way if and when the property is sold, which would reduce the amount of stock from the private rental sector as well.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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The work the Minister of State has done on this question is highly interesting and I appreciate it. She has even formulated a bit of a solution to the issue of private rental accommodation. A huge amount of inspections have been done by Clare County Council. I rent and my property has been inspected. I was impressed by how quickly the council conducted the work. There is an issue with failure rates and getting landlords to comply, which the Minister of State touched on.

Going back to social housing, our climate is predisposed to dampness but so is the climate of the Netherlands and the Dutch Government in 2015 published guidelines giving clarity to levels of enforcement options for repeat or severe offences. The public prosecutions office may prosecute as an economic offence and give punishments like community service, asset seizure or even imprisonment - I was shocked to read that. Their housing stock is 31% social housing while I understand ours is only 9%.

There are good examples we could rely upon and use in introducing further regulations and protections for renters. The UK has significantly deeper protections. For example, the fitness for human habitation Act 2018 explicitly lists freedom from damp and extends that duty to all landlords without reservation. We could rely on such legislation and work on something here to make properties more habitable. This has a direct effect on our health service, which is an important piece to keep in mind.

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Not only that but there is an important effect for the sheer humanity of having appropriate living standards. The Deputy is quite right to raise it.

Under section 34 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, any person who contravenes the regulations I discussed in my previous contribution, fails to comply with an improvement notice or re-lets a house on the private side will be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months. If it is repeated or continued, the person would be guilty of a further offence on every day on which the contravention, failure to comply or re-letting continues and for each such offence would be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €400 per day.

A fantastic piece of work was done by the Library and Research Service on mould and minimum standards throughout the EU, the different legal obligations that apply in different countries and identifying the proportions of social housing stock. We fit well within that but the issue is making these things happen.

The Deputy outlined a range of legislative measures that may be there for the private rental section but I suggest there is a practical solution to many of these problems. I do not want to lose housing stock in the private rental sector to social housing tenants and I want standards to be improved. There is something around not vilifying landlords, which I am not suggesting the Deputy does, but rather making sure every measure is taken to ensure, in an effective way, we incentivise investment and get the problems fixed. Good landlords will want to do that quickly.

The Deputy correctly highlighted the social housing side. I can provide her with funding figures because we are tight on time. A huge amount of money has gone into bringing back voids and refurbishments. In 2020, the largest ever voids programme was funded by the Department at a cost of €56 million. It allowed 3,607 properties to be refurbished and made available for allocation. There is continuous improvement in the social housing stock, as well as the private rental sector.

It is important that the Deputy has raised this because it is not acceptable for children to be growing up in those circumstances. I too have seen medical reports linking asthma and respiratory illnesses to mould in social housing. It is not acceptable but we have to look at a breadth of solutions to get practical remedies as quickly as possible.