Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There appear to be different arrangements depending on the local authority area. Obviously the local authorities are entitled to make their own schemes for letting priorities.

I am dealing with a situation in which a person surrendered a three-bedroom house in favour of a one-bedroom apartment under RAS. The landlord has now pulled out of the RAS scheme and finding substitute accommodation under RAS is proving impossible. That person would never have surrendered a three-bedroom local authority house if he or she thought that by doing so he or she would be put in a vulnerable position, yet the local authority benefited from that. The Minister states that acceptance of the amendment would change the policy. I need to give more thought to what is proposed.

There has been a change in policy. In cases in which people are homeless, the local authorities have been told now that these people must get first priority. In that scenario, the scheme of letting priorities goes out the window. The Department, in that instance, has changed the allocation scheme based on homelessness. It cannot be said that local authorities are not being dictated to on their housing allocation schemes, albeit in a different sense by the Department.