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

I thank the Ministers for their contributions. One of the issues that I am particularly exercised about is eligibility for social housing and social housing support. We have been repeatedly given commitments on publishing the outcome of a review that has been running for at least five years, which it was reported was concluded in December 2021. It still has not been published or announced despite repeated promises that it would be before the summer recess. There is absolutely no justification for the fact that the review has gone on for that long.

There is certainly no justification for the fact that the Minister has sat on it from December. The ESRI quantified the number of people in need of housing support who were cut off their entitlement to social housing or social housing support in the form of HAP, RAS or whatever. That was pretty stark. We knew it anecdotally from the people coming in week after week saying they were on the housing list for ten years, that they cannot afford market rent and now they are off the list. The ESRI said in its recent report that the number of people eligible for social housing support has dropped from 46% about a decade ago to 33%. This is a massive stealth cut in housing support, affecting tens of thousands of working people who previously would have received some support to deal with extortionate rents or who might have gotten a social house at some point, who now do not get it and go over a cliff once their income goes over €35,000 net or perhaps a bit more depending on the family size. They are now left completely in the wilderness and have to pay rents that are completely unaffordable.

My question for the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, is whether he has discussed this with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, because I suspect that the reason this review has not been published is that the Government is terrified of the costs that could ensue if the income eligibility threshold is increased by whatever amount. If it was restored in real terms to the level it was at ten years ago, which to my mind is the absolute minimum that should be done, given that the number of people in need of the support has grown exponentially with high rents, I imagine the bill for that would be pretty high. I cannot conceive of the idea that the Minister has not discussed this and that it is not at the back of the delay in publishing the outcome of the review. Has the Minister discussed it? Is he aware of the cost? Is that the reason we have not seen the outcome of the review? What is going to happen to it? If that is not the case, when will we hear about what is going to happen with the income threshold, which is a very pressing matter now for huge numbers of people? I would like to hear the answer to that question first.