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

I wish to be clear, as I did not hear everything. Are there disagreements over the universal basic income and, if so, what are they?

Could we hear more from Age Action? The point its representatives made about renters was important. I am dealing with a case that sums up the situation. It involves a couple, at least one of whom was working before he got early onset Alzheimer's disease. The couple were paying a high rent in a housing assistance payment, HAP, tenancy and were making a large top-up payment. That people have to pay large top-ups is wrong in itself. He can no longer work after getting early onset Alzheimer's, his wife cannot work and they have a large rent bill that they cannot service. What do they do now? They cannot meet their heating bills either. Whereas their income might have allowed them to pay for all of this previously, they are goosed now. To me, this is a red flag and we will see many more such cases. Will the witnesses comment on this matter?

While I agree that we must lift everyone out of poverty and a basic income should be enough to do that, we also have to reward people for going to work. In effect, though, people are often punished for going to work. If someone exceeds the social housing income threshold, he or she is banjaxed. I am dealing with a family that are just over the threshold. They are not entitled to HAP or social housing.

We have had to fight to establish if they are even entitled to emergency accommodation. We had some families who were in that position who were being threatened with eviction from emergency accommodation. On the one hand, we must make sure that people's incomes are above the poverty level, and at a dignified level, but also then ensure that people do not get punished for working. To my mind, such payments as the housing assistance payment, HAP, should be available. I do not agree with the HAP system, as I want social housing but, insofar as we are not giving social housing, people would get payments like that to make sure they can live and survive. That is as much as I can say in the time available.