Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. I must concur with Senator Murnane-O'Connor who raised the HAP cap. The cap has been set at €575 in County Kerry. People can appeal and, if lucky, the threshold will be raised by 20%. However, rents around Killarney have increased to €1,000, €1,200 or €1,500 and €2,000 and the HAP payment in no way meets the needs of many people who are homeless, living with parents or friends or in other scenarios. Can the limit be increased in Kerry? We have a great housing section in Kerry County Council and it does great work. I appeal for an increase to the HAP limit in Kerry.

There is also an issue with applicants being removed from the list because they do not reply to the assessment when they get it.

People move around and it is difficult to stay in the same place because landlords only allow people to remain for a certain length of time. The next thing they are gone, so when a letter comes from a local authority, it is not answered. In one case I dealt with, there was a family dispute and the poor girl moved from one parent to the other. She never got the notice. After she received a phone call, she rang the general number for the county buildings. Since no one on the switch could tell her who had rung, she could not get through to anyone. She is off the list and must now reapply. It will be a battle to have her years restored. That is wrong. In another instance, a man was also thrown off the list after he had moved. I have several cases like this. These people are being asked to fill out the application forms again. Once they do, their previous years on the list should be restored automatically.

It has been suggested that public representatives were making representations on behalf of applicants without being requested to do so, but that is not my experience. I have enough to do making representations for those who are asking it of me. I do not know how a representative could find out that someone was looking for a house. Elected members do not get the housing list like we used to years ago. The only way I know of to find out whether someone has made an application is if he or she contacts us. There is no other way. As such, I reject the assertion that people have been making representations without being asked. It is not happening.

I am dealing with people who have been on the list for 14 years and are in private rented accommodation. When I ask why they have not been granted local authority housing, the answer I receive is that they are too young. They are 33 or 35 years of age. It is unfair. Fourteen years is a long time to be on the list. The assertion that they have been left behind because they are too young needs to be examined.

I have always said that there should be no such thing as one-bedroom houses. We should be building two-bedroom houses instead. Invariably, people will need someone to stay with them if they are sick at night. Friends and relatives visiting is the one thing that might brighten up their lives for a small while. The spare room need only be a small one. This would not cost much extra. It would be just as cheap to build a two-bedroom house as a one-bedroom house.

From my knowledge of Kerry, there is no rent allowance. If a current tenancy expires, there is no rent allowance or RAS option. The only show in town is HAP or long-term leasing. The latter is a serious option for some people because they are taken off the listing as a result. This is a Government-led idea to show that it is doing something about reducing the list by taking people off it. Even though people enter into long-term leasing, if the landlord is not happy, he or she will invariably say that he or she will be selling the house or putting a relative into it. The tenant then goes to the bottom of the pile and must start all over again. These are the types of battle we are fighting in Kerry. It is wrong. There is a claim that people are being housed and have security of tenure through this long-term option, but they do not.

For a long time, we have been asking for the return of the tenant purchase scheme. It was abandoned for four or five years. Now it is back, but in a changed format. Pensioners who have saved enough are not allowed to buy out-----