INDIVIDUAL family members could be evicted from council housing if there is a belief they are dealing drugs from the premises, a Government Minister said yesterday.
Ms Liz McManus, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal, said enabling legislation could come before the Dail in the new session. The legislation would allow for exclusion orders to force out such individuals.
Up to now, Ms McManus said, local authorities did not have the power to pinpoint individual pushers and force them out of their family environment. As the law stood, local authorities had no option but to evict entire families, even when it was known that not every family member was involved in illegal activity.
"The clear message to drug pushers is that they are instruments of death and that they are no longer acceptable?" Ms McManus said. "We are telling them that if they wish to continue with these activities they will no longer have a roof over their heads.
"We want them to know that the Government is serious about this. The new legislation will enable local authorities to act swiftly and effectively."
The legislation would also empower local authorities to have more discretion in allocating council housing, and give further discretion - regarding rent allowances in cases of "serious anti social" behaviour.
Speaking in Cork where she launched housing estate management initiatives, the Minister said legislation on its own was not the way forward. It had been recognised by local authorities that an integrated package was necessary if the problems in housing estates were to be tackled effectively. This meant involving local communities taking on board their contributions as to how estates could be better managed, and establishing lines of communication with people who lived their lives in local authority housing.
As well as the provisions dealing with exclusion orders for offenders, the Government was, she said, actively involved in housing management projects in local authority estates, and in ensuring that a high level of investment was available for remedial works in estates.
"The new legislation measures are only one aspect of a broadly based approach that I am pursuing and should not be viewed in isolation," Ms McManus continued. "They represent a necessary statutory approach to local authorities for their estate management functions, but are targeted at some of the more difficult problems arising from drug pushing".
As well as assisting a new approach to housing estate management, the Government would pay special attention to the problems in Dublin, where the drug epidemic was of particular concern.
The Minister said that, as an immediate gesture, £20,000 would be made available to Dublin Corporation to finance new management initiatives. The report of the special task force dealing with the drug problem in housing estates was also being awaited.