Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, please. As we continue our work as a committee, it might be useful for us to have a separate briefing on the emergency accommodation legislation in order to complete this picture. We all share a general concern regarding the need to ensure that whatever we do with this legislation will not have the unintended consequence of a negative impact on the people who are trying to seek and secure emergency accommodation. Maybe we could schedule that for one of our future meetings.

The 31 local authorities are independent and have significant latitude to apply their schemes, etc. In Dublin city, a person’s ability to secure housing assistance payment and support to secure long-term accommodation is dependent on that person having a valid application for social housing from Dublin City Council.

Dublin City Council also operates the DRHE and the emergency accommodation there. In addition to emergency accommodation for people who are homeless and new arrivals who seek to make their home here, progress their life here, to work and contribute and to do so access social housing, there is another group that is being excluded from supports from housing. I refer to young indigenous adults who earn less than €40,000 net in Dublin city while living at home with their parents. Dublin City Council, in the criteria it uses to accept somebody on to its social housing list, will often reject an application for housing from that young adult because its officials will say that the family live in a three-bedroom house, that is, there are the parents and the young adult. However, the young adult himself or herself has an independent right to pursue his or her life. That young adult could be 25 or 26 years of age and earn €30,000 or whatever but he or she does not get to access either the social housing list, potentially, or housing assistance supports. Has the Department any intention to correct that anomaly in the social housing access process?