Report of the Local Government Efficiency Review Group

several local authorities to carry out housing needs assessments should
also be investigated with a view to achieving further efficiencies.
10.1.13 At present, the potential to streamline and standardise the assessment of a
household’s means for the purposes of a range of publicly-funded supports,
from social welfare to healthcare to social housing, is being examined. The
assessment of means is one of the most time consuming aspects of a
housing needs assessment. Therefore any streamlining of this process is
likely to bring about efficiencies, as well as benefiting the citizen by reducing
the number of times an individual has to supply the same information to
different public bodies. In relation to rents assessment, which is linked to
the area of social housing support, better co-ordination and information
sharing processes between local authorities and the Department of Social
Protection could bring about additional efficiencies. This issue is further
addressed in section 8.7.
10.1.14 A business planning improvement project has been initiated to explore both
national and local ICT requirements on foot of changing housing policy. At
present the majority of local authorities, with the exception of the Dublin
local authorities, use a similar housing ICT system to manage housing
functions. This ICT system is not necessarily suitable to the management of
a housing client base as big as that managed by the larger local authorities,
such as those in Dublin. A national data warehouse has already been
developed for the collection of information centrally. If a single ICT system
is not to be progressed, local authorities that do not have an automated
reporting process to this warehouse should ensure, at a minimum, that their
housing ICT systems are compatible to provide better efficiency in terms of
their future reporting.
10.1.15 The Group is also recommending that a more efficient approach to
collection of social housing rents be put in place. The amount of arrears
due to local authorities in 2008 for housing rents was €40 million, while the
budgeted amount for rent collection and collection of tenant purchase
payments in 2010 was €36.2 million. A large proportion of local authority
tenants are in receipt of social welfare payments. While official statistics are
not compiled on this matter, records from different local authorities suggest
that between two-thirds and three-quarters of local authority tenants are
either on full-time social welfare, are on income supplements based on parttime
working or working for low pay.
10.1.16 The Group considers that the current situation where the State makes
payments to social welfare recipients only for another public body to have to
seek to recover a proportion of these payments in social housing rents,
sometimes through the Courts, is inefficient and contrary to the optimal use
of State resources. Direct deductions of rents at source would also
streamline processes for local authority tenants and reduce the time they
have to spend dealing with rent collectors. If necessary, legislation should
be amended to allow for this more streamlined approach to revenue
collection and the Departments of the Environment, Heritage and Local
Government and Social Protection should address any operational issues
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