Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank our contributors from the local authorities and the Department. I thank Ms Mary Hurley for helping with a couple of emergency cases during the week that I raised at this committee last week. It was appreciated. I also thank Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, which is at its wits' end, the same as most public representatives, with the housing emergency. The council must deal with the difficulty of the lack of local authority housing and the impossibility of trying in many cases to source HAP accommodation, which is the only housing being offered because rents have gone through the roof.

I would like an answer from someone, although I know that this is a political matter and my question is really to the Government. HAP cannot deliver the quantity of social housing that has been set as its target under Rebuilding Ireland. It is a fantasy that is exploding in our faces and will explode in an even bigger way in the coming years as it becomes more apparent that HAP is not social housing in any meaningful sense. It is not secure in the way a local authority tenancy is. I do not count long-term leasing as social housing, but even if one accepts the figure of 50,000 that includes long-term leasing, the rest of the 133,000 units targeted under Rebuilding Ireland are HAP, RAS or various forms of outsourced private rented accommodation. That cannot happen.

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has always been ahead of the game. Even when rents decreased in the rest of the country, they never really decreased in Dún Laoghaire. In 2011, we were able to flag that the move away from direct council housing construction was going to cause a housing crisis because it was obvious in Dún Laoghaire that one could not deliver through outsourcing. The rest of the country discovered that in 2013 and 2014. We had been warning about it. Will the same not become apparent with HAP? The experience in Dún Laoghaire and south Dublin shows that HAP cannot deliver for large parts of the country. The council can confirm it for me but the figure in Dún Laoghaire for new HAP tenancies this year is only 17.

There has been a significant drop in new housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancies and the figure has certainly fallen since last year. How long can we pursue the fantasy that HAP can have significant impact on the housing waiting list in places like the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area? What does one say to somebody who is facing eviction or is in homeless accommodation? I want to know what is the official response when a person has a list of places they have tried? I ask everyone who contacts me on this issue to write down details of every private rental they have tried to secure under HAP. Some of them have filled out three or four foolscap pages listing 80 or 90 places they have tried to rent. Not everyone is able to do this, however, and we can forget it in the case of a person who is dragging three or four kids around from a family hub to school. How are people who have done everything possible within the limits, yet cannot find accommodation and are facing eviction, supposed to secure a HAP tenancy? I know several people who are in this position. What is the official line to be given to such people when it is obvious that what is offered to them simply cannot be procured with HAP? I believe there is no answer and that needs to be admitted in certain parts of the State.

The rental accommodation scheme, RAS, situation is also precarious. Do the officials in the Department or local authority accept that it is precarious? I am dealing with a case where a woman who had been on the housing waiting list for 19 years is to be evicted from a RAS tenancy in July. She cannot even get back onto the main list because the council argues she did not apply to go onto a fixed transfer. The woman claims she did apply but the files have been lost or whatever. This woman, who was on the list for 19 years, is to be evicted from a RAS tenancy that was supposed to be secure social housing. What is she supposed to do?

On the income eligibility criteria, what are people supposed to do if they are offered a little overtime which would take their income over the threshold? I am aware of people who have been taken off the housing list as a result of this. Are people supposed to refuse overtime to stay on the housing list? One woman has refused a €10,000 pay increase because it would result in her being removed from the list. I will not name her because she has not given me permission do so, although she probably would give me permission. She is appalled by this criterion but she knows that even with the pay increase, she could not secure any accommodation in the Dún Laoghaire area. The woman is living in poverty to stay on the list. What will be done about that issue?