Local councils need to be given greater powers to tackle the problem of anti-social behaviour, Labour’s spokesman on housing Ciarán Lynch has said.
Mr Lynch said high levels of vandalism, loutish behaviour and drunkenness meant many communities were now living in a "state of siege".
"These are the kind of crimes that don't make the national headlines, but that have a serious impact on communities at local level," he said.
While councils had the power to evict tenants in instances of anti-social behaviour, the Cork South-Central TD said, the process can be "drawn-out and cumbersome", and there was no guarantee it would end up in an eviction.
Labour wants to see local councils given the authority to offer provisional one-year tenancies to prospective tenants, allowing them terminate the tenancies of problem individuals.
"I know from my own discussions with officials in local authorities, who have responsibility for dealing with anti-social behaviour, that such incidents generally speaking, come to light shortly after a housing allocation is made, and the best way to address it is to nip it in the bud.
However, in cases where the families involved are not housed by their local authority, the scope for taking any action is very limited, even where the cost of accommodation is met from the public purse," Mr Lynch said.
Acknowledging the problem of anti-social behaviour was a complex one, Mr Lynch claimed people who are receiving rent supplement from the Health Service Executive, for example, could act with "virtual impunity".
"There is no legislation or regulation that facilitates an intervention by the funding agency, which given the hundreds of millions of taxpayers money that is spent in this regard, is ridiculous. We need legislative change to address this anomaly," he said.
He called on the Government to adopt a multi-faceted approach to the problem, taking in the gardaí, the schooling system and the local community