Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the previous speakers. My concern is that the local authority should be given some incentive to work with families. Like the rest of us, I regularly deal with families who come into my clinic. There are families who have room at home for their children to stay. A person living in a local authority house who has family members who are homeless cannot take them in because if he or she tries do so, the rent goes up, he or she qualifies for nothing and there is no incentive. Why not give families, if they have room, an incentive on a short-term basis. When they are on the local authority housing list, the local authority is aware of it. They should be given some kind of help so that they can stay in the family home. At present there is no incentive for anyone to keep family members in the family home. People go looking for somewhere, they get their full rent allowance and entitlements, and that is fine, but we have a shortage of houses. I have been dealing with an elderly lady who had a daughter late in life. She cannot even take her family in because they are telling her she will be over and could end up getting in trouble with the local authority. The witnesses need to look at such cases, even in general and on a short-term basis. I understand this cannot be done on a long-term basis but, while we have a crisis, surely common sense will prevail. If a family member has a spare room, there should be some incentive for him or her to be able to keep a family member there for a few months or a year until the local authority can help them. There is no help.

It is a serious issue. We have a massive shortage of houses. I get frightened when I hear of various working groups, surveys and so on. People need to get themselves together. Common sense is needed. We need to give the local authorities the help they need, whether through introducing incentives or telling them they have, say, six or 12 months to try to do something. There is nothing there. That is why we are falling down. Until we start to do things like that, the housing crisis is only going to get worse. We talk about student accommodation. My home town of Carlow is very much a student town. We have two third level education entities. I have looked for short-term accommodation for families but people will not accept rent allowance or the housing assistance payment. Something needs to be done by local authorities. If there was some incentive, even in the short term, it could provide a solution. The witnesses might come back to me on that.