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SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, March 14, 2022

HEADED ITEM NO. 4 (d) (i)

Draft Minutes Housing SPC held at 5.30pm on Thursday 10 February 2022 via Microsoft Teams.

In attendance:

Cllr. C. O’Connor (Chair), Cllr. W. Carey, Cllr. D. O’Donovan, Cllr. B. Lawlor, Cllr. J. Tuffy, B. Tyrell Collard (ICTU), G. Stockil (PPN) and S. Harty (PPN).

Apologies:

Cllr. K Mahon, Cllr. L. Donaghy.

Officials in attendance:

C. Ward (Director of Services), B. Pierce (Senior Executive Officer), N. Hanly (Senior Executive Officer), E. Leech (Senior Executive Officer), M. Murtagh (Administrative Officer), F. Keane (Senior Staff Officer).

The meeting was chaired by Cllr. C. O’Connor and commenced at 5:30pm.

H1. Minutes of the meeting

The minutes of the previous meeting held on the 11^th of November 2021 were Noted and Agreed.

H2. Priority Areas and SPC Working Plan

C Ward delivered report and confirmed the plan was agreed at the February meeting of the Corporate Policy Group. He said it was likely that working groups would need to be established during the 2022 work programme to progress the following policies:

• Scheme of Priorities for Allocation of Affordable Housing
• Anti-Social Behaviour Strategy

He asked Committee members to consider participating in these groups.

H3. Housing Delivery

The Housing Delivery presentation was pre-recorded by B. Pierce and made available to members in advance of the meeting.

The report was Noted.

H4. Estate Management Review

E. Leech updated the Committee on the process to date.  External consultants were engaged to carry out the review, liaised with staff, other stakeholders and members of this committee (S. Harty & Cllr K. Mahon) before delivering a report with key recommendations including:

• Area based delivery of Estate Mgt & Community Development services
• Neighbourhood planning:
• Partnership working with residents’ groups & external agencies
• Enhance local knowledge & relationships
• Reshape our priorities in each service in line with service objectives
• Clear facility & asset planning & management approach (esp. community facilities)
• Define and identify specific resources for grants, facility management, governance, standards, serious ASB
• Proactive consideration of resource requirements, staff development & mobility

Next steps include advising staff of the proposed changes and establishing a model ensuring an evidence-based approach.

There were contributions from S Harty and G Stockil agreeing that the process was innovative and focused. There were further contributions from Cllr. J. Tuffy and Cllr. W. Carey. C. Ward responded on the issue of training in dispute resolution and assured the committee that it would be a priority to have a specialist team dealing with the serious anti-social behaviour incidents.

The report was Noted.

H5. Allocations Update

The report was pre-recorded by N. Hanly and was made available to the committee in advance of the meeting.

There were queries from Cllr. W. Carey and S. Harty in relation to acquisitions of properties and numbers of rough sleepers in the County which were responded to by C. Ward. N. Hanly agreed to follow up with S. Harty on rough sleepers after the meeting.

The report was Noted.

H6. Kilcarbery Affordable Housing

C. Ward provided details of the propsoed pilot affordable purchase scheme for an initial 16 affordable purchase homes that would be available in May 2022 in the Kilcarbery development and asked the committee to consider the details.

There were contributions from Cllr. J. Tuffy, Cllr. B. Lawlor and Cllr. W. Carey. It was suggested that the process for selection of successful candidates should be a lottery once all applications are received and verified. This was agreed.

There was a discussion relating to the size of the household that could apply for the scheme and it was agreed by the Committee that a minimum household size of three or more people would be required in the first instance - Cllr. Lawlor consented to this, noting his objkection.

The report was Noted and Agreed.

H7. Housing Online

N. Hanly updated the Committee on the progress with the integrated housing system and the digital strategy, with the next steps in the process would be online applications with pushback notifications so clients could digitally upload documents.

The report was Noted.

H8. Items for Noting

A number of information items and reports provided for the Committee were noted as follows:

• Introduction of new loan Management System
• Healthy Age Friendly Homes Project
• Tenant (incremental) purchase scheme
• Private rental inspections
• Housing Acquisitions
• Local authority home loan.

H9. Matters Raised by Committee Members

      (i) Fire safety in Multi-Storey Apartment Buildings.

Mr G Stockil (PPN) asked if this item could be reviewed at the next meeting as he had to excuse himself from the current meeting. This was agreed.

H10. AOB

• The Director advised Committee members that they were welcome to provide any input or suggestions for agenda items for upcoming meetings.
• Harty asked if the update of the Traveller Accommodation Plan has been conducted yet. E. Leech advised that the Dept had not given provided guidance on this as yet and the Committee would be updated as soon as the review was progressing.
• The Director noted that this was Cllr O’Connor’s last meeting as a member and Chair of the Housing SPC. He thanked him for his service on the committee and wished him well. Cllr O'Connor thanked the Director for his comments and acknowledge the ongoing work of Committee colleagues and Council staff in relation to the Committee.

There was no other business and the meeting concluded at 7.00pm.