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

While we have to welcome the fact that the numbers of homeless are down it is unacceptable for anybody, a child or parent, to be homeless. We all need to work to make sure no one is homeless. It is frightening to think people are still homeless.

Rents are rocketing up. When I asked the Minister about the rent pressure zones he said he thought it would be illegal to put the rest of the local authorities that were not in the rent pressure zone into it because some are affected and some are not. Will he consider that again because I believe he spoke about it last week or there was documentary on the radio saying that rents are high in every area? The housing assistance payment, HAP, for Carlow County Council is €548 but it costs €1,000 a month to rent a house in County Carlow. There is a balance to be found there. I know there is only a 20% leeway but that is unacceptable. We need rent caps in each county, whether Dublin county or city. There should be a different strategy. In Dublin, the HAP is almost €1,200, which is fine, but the Minister is forgetting rural areas. Although I welcome his opening speech today everything was based in Dublin and Cork. He needs to consider the rural areas. Will he consider a different strategy because I do not think the rent pressure zones are working?

I was speaking about the HAP and the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, payments. This is an important time because within two weeks we will have the budget. What are the Minister's full proposals in the budget to help rural Ireland? What exactly will the Minister do for local authorities? Will he give them extra funding this year under the scheme? He says there is money there and I welcome that but will he give extra funding to local authorities that have been crying out for it to put towards housing and other projects? I welcome the fast track planning and rapid build but there is so much red tape now between the Department and local authorities that the timescale of two or three years is too long. I understand everything has to be transparent and above board but because there is such an urgent housing crisis is there any way the Minister could rush local authority houses that need to be built?

I am very concerned about mortgages. They are the way forward for people who do not qualify for a mortgage from a bank or building society. A person has to bring a refusal from each to the local authority but the Minister is not supporting it enough. His timescale is wrong. I brought this up with him six months ago when he told me there is only a six-week delay in applying for a mortgage. That is not true. There is a 12 month delay. I have dealt with 12 mortgages since then - I can name the people - and it is between six months and a year before I hear back. It goes to the Department, then it has to go to the credit committee in the local authority then back to the Department. That is unacceptable because a person who applies to a bank for a loan will know within two to three weeks exactly why they do or do not qualify for the loan. That is the way forward.

I am so disappointed with the Minister because he has said on several occasions that he is aware that the housing crisis is not much better but there is a small improvement and that has to be welcomed. Carlow County Council has one of the lowest caps to qualify for the housing list, at €27,500. Compared with Laois and Kilkenny we are failing the people of Carlow who do not qualify. I know a woman who was €50 out to qualify for the local authority housing list. I was devastated and so was she. There is no appeal. That is unacceptable. The Minister and his staff have given me a commitment that would be addressed in September, that the cap for Carlow County Council would be increased. This is part of the housing crisis and homelessness. It is not being addressed. We are falling down on areas like that. We all have to worry about people who are homeless. I could name at least 20 people in my area who are couch-surfing. They have nowhere to go because we cannot get them on the housing list. There is no room at home for them. These are the people who are falling through the net. The Minister needs to give me a commitment today that the cap for Carlow County Council will be sorted in the next few weeks. I will not leave here today until I get a commitment from him.

I have loads more questions but the ones I asked were on the cap, the mortgages, central Government funding to the local authorities for their budgets, and whether Carlow County Council will get any extra help in the next budget because the budget plays a massive part in our local authority.