Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Department of Social Protection spends €20 billion per annum and 42% of the tax I pay is subsequently allocated to the Department. I am pleased that is the case because some people are not as fortunate as others and may need help at certain times in their lives.

There seems to be a gulf between the views expressed by the Department and those expressed by the Peter McVerry Trust and Focus Ireland. We have reached an impasse. The housing charities argue that the rent supplement payment is not sufficient to meet the cost of rent. Mr. Allen argued that, even if rent supplement were set at market rates, the problem would not be fully resolved. The Department argues that increasing rent supplement limits could add to rental inflation. This is only one aspect of the gulf in opinion. Will Mr. Allen explain the reasons he vehemently disagrees with some of the solutions proposed by the Department?

The next issue I raise may be a maverick one as I do not have the same experience as other Deputies and Senators who hold clinics and encounter the problem of homelessness every day. In that respect, I must bow to their better judgment. I travel the country in another role and every satellite town I visit within 30 or 50 miles of Dublin has half-built or quarter-built estates or finished estates in which no one lives. No one knows who owns these properties. Deputy Brendan Ryan is correct that we do not have enough social housing because we took our eyes off the ball when we stopped building proper homes and social housing. We were all reared around Dublin Corporation and local authority housing where children grew up with a big field in front of their homes. That approach to social housing disappeared. Perhaps this is a maverick question but why is there such an impasse about idle estates outside Dublin? I see them right and left as I enter and leave every town and village I visit. I ask the witnesses to address this issue.

I also ask Mr. Allen to respond to some of the solutions proposed by Ms Faughnan because there is a major gulf between the views expressed by the officials and those expressed by the housing charities.