Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will mix my questions a little. I will ask some practical questions and invite the witnesses to comment on some observations. I should advise the committee that I have an interest in Threshold as the chair of the organisation. I will try to focus my comments on the other organisations.

The common themes that are emerging relate to children being hungry and children being cold. That is just a reality. When we discussed these issues with TASC and Social Justice Ireland earlier, both of them advocated the imposition of what are loosely termed as "fat taxes" - taxes on goods that have high levels of saturated fats, added sugars, added salts, etc. According to Social Justice Ireland, a bad nutrition tax could yield €15 million. TASC estimates that such a tax could yield €188 million. Would the organisations that are represented at this part of the meeting support the imposition of such a tax if the receipts from that tax were to be ring-fenced specifically to provide nutrition to children through the school system? I appreciate that such a measure would not deal with these difficulties outside the school year, but it would be a step in a particular direction.

I have been struck by a number of the proposals that have been made by the various organisations. Many of the suggestions involve simple things that could easily be implemented, such as the making of minor legal changes or the introduction of systems that could assist people. I refer, for example, to the installation of meters in people's homes to help them to monitor their fuel costs, etc.

I wish to ask about some of the big-picture issues that arise in this context. I have been struck by a number of common themes that have been emerging from the housing organisations. As we go forward, how we will secure housing supply from the voluntary housing sector, from the local authorities or generally coming into the housing system? It is quite clear from some of the information that was presented in the Focus Ireland documentation that investment in housing has fallen off a cliff. It has ceased to exist. It was quite interesting to note the commonality among all the organisations about the need to address how we secure housing supply and, more importantly, how we protect the housing supply that is made available to those at the lowest end of the ladder.

If there is a common consensus among the agencies that we have a housing supply problem, what is the most important measure we can take to protect available housing for the poorest people? I know from statistics that have been produced by the Dublin City Council housing strategic policy committee that the number of people emerging into homelessness has doubled in the recent past. Many of the people who are now coming into homelessness are different from the standard profile. They are not all single males. Many of them have families. Many people have become homeless because they have housing problems, rather than because they are coming out of care or prison scenarios.

I notice that the submission we received from Simon Communities Ireland suggests that enhanced rent supplement limits would be of assistance. I would like the representatives of those communities to explain how we can stop rents from escalating out of control if there is no supply. Have any of the organisations considered the potential imposition of rent controls if rents escalate beyond a certain point? Have they called on the Government to put such controls in place? It is clear that displacement is happening in the market at the moment. People are being pushed out by other people who cannot secure housing.